Israeli Security Staff Write Blogs to Attract Recruits

Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has allowed some of its staff to blog in an attempt to win over hi-tech recruits.

Four employees, none of whom appear to be front line agents, have started blogs, although their offerings are more mundane than their profession might suggest. Shin Bet agents are routinely involved in surveillance, interrogation and armed operations against Palestinian militants inside Israel and the occupied territories. The bloggers have technical office jobs.

Still, they guard their anonymity, using only silhouetted portraits of themselves.

One, called H, says she is a quality assurance engineer and took the job as it allows her to spend more time with her family. "There are things that I can't even tell my husband in detail," she writes. "At a family event someone asked where I work and had trouble taking a hint."

Another, Y, a 34-year-old martial arts enthusiast, writes: "You don't stay at work unless you really have to. It's rare for me to come home after 6.30pm."

One program engineer, A, says that his job is not as glamorous as he had hoped.

"I didn't get a siren to put on my car and I too have to sit in traffic jams," he writes. "This post will self-destruct in 10 seconds."

The blogs, written in Hebrew, are at shin-tech.org.il