| Submit your comments on this article |
| MI5 to expand by 50% |
| 2004-02-25 |
| Via Oxblog. EFL. [Britain’s] home secretary will announce plans to recruit another 1,000 staff in parliament next week, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott confirmed on Sunday. It will take several years to find and vet the staff, principally to carry out surveillance and intelligence work. Previously focused largely on Cold War and IRA suspects, the move highlights MI5’s shift to recruit many more Arabic speakers and focus on the threat from al-Qaeda. The increase will bring MI5 back up to World War II staffing levels. The agency believes there are thousands of young people moving in and out of Britain with links to groups close to the terrorist network. MI5 has been criticised in the past for failing to penetrate radical Islamic groups. "I think an awful lot of our spies might speak Russian but they are not so much for Arabic," Mr Prescott told the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost programme. "What we have got now is a readjusting to a whole different circumstance." Lots of interesting info at the link |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #2 Well they know where to find me. Always have, ever since that bad SandHurst year. Don't worry the tooth transmitter it isn't all that painful. Tell HalfEmpty I'll leave his bong at Smitty's, it was just a joke and I didn't know the effect it would have on him. cao, cciao! ciao! CHOW! We Gone! |
| Posted by: Napoleon VII 2004-2-25 5:12:56 PM |
| #1 With this well-publicized campaign ("I know, M, let's troll for foreign agents in the Fleet Street rags!") the only likely penetration that will occur will be much nearer to home, methinks. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-25 2:07:24 PM |