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It's Bond... Jane Bond
17/07/2006 15:11 - (SA)
London - Britain's domestic secret service agency - MI5 - began a poster campaign on Monday aimed at recruiting more women and ethnic minorities to join the service.
The secretive organisation has been trying to beef up the number of minority surveillance officers in its ranks to tackle homegrown terrorist threats, particularly after the bombings last year on London's transit system that killed 52 commuters.
The campaign posters - which depict an anonymous, T-shirt attired black woman - will be placed in Fitness First gyms around Britain, as well as in leisure magazines.
The MI5 receives up to 1 500 applications per week, but only five percent of the approximate 2 800-person staff are minorities.
On its website, the organisation says it wants more minority mobile surveillance officers - who follow targets of national security investigations.
Massive expansion
The recruitment comes during a massive expansion of MI5. In its annual report in June, the British government's parliamentary intelligence and security committee stated MI5 staff numbers were expected to grow by more than 50% over the next three years, with more than half its resources devoted to counterterrorism since the July 7, 2005, bombings.
It remains unclear, however, whether the advertising campaign will be successful.
"I think if you are trying to implement a multicultural society, then everyone needs to be treated same way," said Robert Ayers, an international security expert in Britain.
Forty-seven percent of the staff are women who commonly reach high offices, but it is unclear how many of them are surveillance officers.
The service is headed by its second-ever woman director, Eliza Manningham-Buller, who joined MI5 in 1974 transcribing telephone calls.
Despite MI5 keeping a near equal count of women and men, Ayers said the British government is still sensitive about projecting an image of white, middle- to older-aged men.
"They want anything that can dispel that image," he said.
Previously, MI5 attempted to recruit women and minorities online and by taking out advertisements in lifestyle magazines.
Prospective applicants, who must be British citizens, have until August 14 to apply.
- AP
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