MI6 and Phoenix

[phoenix]

.....espionage.

 

Weel , they missed their chunce wi' Phoenix but mebbe some o' you guys can earn a crust in the defence o' the realm.

 

MI6 comes in from the cold and on to the internet

By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent

Published: 13 October 2005

 

A tap on the shoulder at university, a quiet word at a gentlemen's club, or a discreet approach by an ex-public school chum used to be enough to fill the ranks of MI6, the overseas intelligence service.

 

But the need to boost the number of MI6 officers, and employ staff from more diverse backgrounds, has prompted the spy agency to come in from the (technological) cold and openly recruit for the first time.

 

The agency - which prefers to call itself SIS - the Secret Intelligence Service - todaylaunches its first external website.

 

While the glossy site - www.mi6.gov.uk - has details of the agency's history, role and accountability, its principal job is to encourage more people to join up. MI6 employs the same number of staff as its sister agency, MI5, with about 2,000 officers. Both have received a large injection of cash from Gordon Brown to increase their counter- terrorism capabilities.

 

MI5 plans to hire 1,000 officers, but the recruitment drive for MI6 is thought to be in the hundreds. It also wants a greater mix of staff, with a higher number of ethnic minorities to help infiltrate and combat terrorist networks linked to al-Qa'ida. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The idea that you need to wait to be tapped on the shoulder by some mysterious guy at university is outdated."

 

The MI6 website, which is adorned with a picture of its futuristic headquarters at Vauxhall Cross on the Thames in central London, offers would-be SIS staff the opportunity to experience "foreign travel", "excitement" and become a real-life Q and design "hi-tech gadgets" for agents. Facilities at the headquarters include squash and basketball courts, a gym, restaurant, coffee lounge and bar.

 

The website says new staff, who receive a starting salary of about

[uni_don]

Such a good article, they needed to write it twice :laughmad:

[The Boofon]

Such a good article, they needed to write it twice :laughmad:

 

Must be a double agent.

[Big Man]

A boy in my year at uni applied to join SIS after graduation. Got passed a telephone interview and got called down to london for a selection thing, but said he heard nothing from them after that (i think i believe him because he's working for the financial services authority now - unless thats an elaborate cover).

 

Definately nae for me like, from what ive read its piss boring - just reading, writing and compiling reports. And the money's gash - you'd get more as a trainee officer in the navy than you would working for the security services.