LONDON - The nation's secret services want to recruit more non-white and Muslim agents, a top official said Monday, dismissing the "myth" of British spies resembling 007 agent James Bond.
In unprecedented BBC interviews with the MI5 and MI6 domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, two British Asian staff also denied that Muslims were specific targets. The head of recruitment at the MI6, interviewed in the security service's London headquarters, stressed the need for its foreign staff to come from a wider range of ethnic backgrounds.
"We need people to deploy into a range of situations around the world and people who have a different ethnicity can often go places and do things and meet people that those from a white background can't," he told the BBC. "There are some places that white males can't go," added the official, identified only as Mark.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071126/wl_uk_afp/britainsecurityasiamuslimsspies
Egyptian police find land mines, bombs buried in Sinai desert
November 26, 2007
EL ARISH, Egypt: Police have found more than a 100 land mines and nine bombs hidden in the northern Sinai desert, a security officer said Monday.
Authorities believe Islamic militants had buried the explosives, but no militants were in the vicinity when the police, acting on a tip, uncovered the cache, said the northern Sinai security official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the land mines and bombs had been stashed in sacks buried a few meters (yards) in soil about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the west of the Egyptian-Israeli border.
Islamic militants have carried out three major bomb attacks in the Sinai since October 2004. The blasts in the resorts of Sharm el-Sheik, Taba and Dahab killed 125 people. The government blamed the attacks on a local Islamic militant group, which appears to have been inspired by al-Qaida ideology.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/26/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Explosives.php
Much of the senior leadership of the most active Palestinian terrorist organization in the West Bank recently received orders to prepare to enter U.S.-run security training courses, according to the author of a new book. The courses, meant to train forces to fight terrorism, are to be reportedly stepped up following this week's Annapolis summit.
WND's Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, author of the recently released ""Schmoozing with Terrorists," said yesterday he received information much of the senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group were told they will be entering U.S. anti-terror training courses for security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah forces.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006. The Brigades is responsible for more terrorism from the West Bank than any other Palestinian Arab organization, carrying out thousands of shootings and grenade attacks.
Many members of the Brigades serve openly on Fatah's security forces, including the Force 17 presidential guards and Fatah's Preventative Security Services, which function as Palestinian police forces. Abbas last June appointed senior Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Mahmoud Damra as commander of Force 17. Damra, who was arrested by Israel last November, was on the Jewish state's most-wanted list of terrorists.
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