There’s a BBC News post about ‘spies’, those James Bond types who protect Her Majesty’s realm.
Goodness, if the interviewees are really half-serious they must surely consider themselves as ‘cannon fodder’ as much as any Private or Corporal ground soldier in the regular army.
Consider this quote from ‘Natalie MI6′:
“It is a family environment here and everyone’s close… so we just talk to each other about it and that’s good.”
Can anyone pronounce ‘groupthink’?
And consider this from ‘Greg MI6′:
Like any job, some of the work involved is boring and Greg wishes he got paid more, after taking a considerable wage cut to join MI6. The entry pay scale depends on experience – Greg started on about £27,000.
“Some of the IT tasks are not always the most exciting and it would be nice if we got paid more, but I don’t think that’s why people are doing the job.”
Hmmm… so he’s not up for a honey trap with more money, then…
One of the nice things about our much maligned Australian Mickey Mouse outfit called ASIO is that they don’t indulge in puerile interviews in a half-baked attempt at recruitment.
In our national newspaper recruitment adverts they always ask for graduates which, despite whatever linguistic, grammatical and intellectual faults they may possess, they at least bring with them the rigour of a half-weight intellectual process which forces them to think about the evidence and to carry out research to confirm or deny their prejudices.
Consider this from Shazad, MI5:
“We discuss it amongst ourselves in this building, amongst our colleagues here. But when you leave the office, you really leave your work behind.”
Tie this in with Jayashree, MI5:
Jayashree says she became an MI5 agent to repay a debt to her country. She says Britain has welcomed her family and is the country in which she was born and raised.
And you wonder why the British Secret Service has a reputation of being one of the most leak-prone in the world… (to be fair, under Blair they have got better, but then again there wasn’t much further down to go…)
No, this is NOT a racial rant (I despise Australia’s inherent racialism) but it IS about national security and picking the low-hanging fruit off the tree. Anyone who’s read LeCarre and Deighton (as quasi-factual critics disguised as novelists) for a few years, or any of the so-called ‘serious’ industry writers, cannot help but notice the parallels. I just stupidly prefer someone who can spell, and at the same time pronounce ‘espionage’ as more than a tri-syllabic word.
Does this mean that western security forces should be filled with white Anglo-Saxon handsome sons and gorgeous blonde daughters?
|
ASIN: B000WJVK7G |
Amazon.com: Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House: The Kindle Store: Valerie Plame WilsonAbsolutely NOT. But it does mean that we should be worried when we are presented with (real?) individuals who are so easy prey for turning. I think so.
I would rather not read or listen to interviews about the young graduates who make up my secret service, to be honest. Like stains on a hotel bedsheet, some things are best kept secret.
Currently listening to: Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen – ‘Theme From Mission Impossible’
