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Working for the NSA or any of their ilk is probably like any other job: day-to-day routine stuff and some really cool shit. With, of course, the proviso that you can never breathe a word of it to anybody, and they'd rather you not discuss the fact that you even work there.

The MI5 recruiting web site discusses some of this. If you want the approval of others on what a neat job you have, think again. This certainly limits the pool of available candidates. I wonder what it means for the intelligence community in general.

Hang on a sec...there's somebody at the door. GIDYW*(YW*DHNDW

NO CARRIER

The USA has a black budget of $52 billion for 2013.

There are 50 countries in the world with total national budgets of at least $52 billion, so only those could possibly compete (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government_budgets_by_country)

Considering the UK spends just $4 billion on MI5 + MI6 https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/about-us/who-we-are/funding.html ... I'd say the CIA is pretty 'well funded' in comparison.

The largest threat of terrorism to the UK does not come from Islamic extremism: the largest threat remains continuing branches of the IRA. Those damn radicalized Christians!

Not according to MI5 who say

International terrorism from groups such as Al Qaida presents a threat on a scale not previously encountered. Drawing on extremist messages presented by figures such as Usama bin Laden, Al Qaida and its related networks seek to carry out terrorist attacks around the world, aiming to carry out "high impact" attacks causing mass civilian casualties.

It's illegal in the UK

You mean links like this? http://www.mi5.gov.uk/

Good thing I am on OSX running Safari.... Hovering the mouse over the rendered text of the link shows me the actual domain I'm going to be vectored to... Gosh wouldn't want to go there.... might be dangerous!

How could they ever abuse this "hack" anyway? "Hey man check the MI5 website by following my link here, it's a really cool governmental agency really. Please click!"

Hey, did you know that someone on the MI5 site with your name is listed as a terrorist. He lives in the (your city) region as well. I'd watch out if I were you, someone might get the wrong idea. Here's a link so you can check it out yourself.

Actually, it would read more like:

"Grettings from to the you grand MI-5 list! Confirming to the identity of Terrorist activity for yourself, by clicking the link. We know that in your Duchy of the USA things can go badly, be kindly sure to remove at once!"

How could they ever abuse this "hack" anyway? "Hey man check the MI5 website by following my link here, it's a really cool governmental agency really. Please click!"

Hey, did you know that someone on the MI5 site with your name is listed as a terrorist. He lives in the (your city) region as well. I'd watch out if I were you, someone might get the wrong idea. Here's a link so you can check it out yourself.

Fuck Harry Palmer. In real life, Agent Garbo got Adolf Hitler to believe that the Normandy invasion was not going to take place at Normandy. He claimed that it was going to be a huge feint to hide the real attack at Pas de Calais. Along with a bunch of other counterintelligence programs (Operation QUICKSILVER invented the First United States Army Group [FUSAG] that was poised to attack Pas de Calais; Operation GLITTER faked a huge armada about to attack; Operation MINCEMEAT used a corpse to pass bad intelligence to the Germans regarding Allied intentions in Normandy), the Allies used Garbo to have the Germans withhold crucial military reinforcements from Normandy for days after the attack, waiting for an attack at Pas de Calais that never came. One guy was pretty instrumental in getting the Nazis to misplace their military assets while the Allied established a beachhead at Normandy.

Following your link I found they've posted pictures of their headquarters on their website http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/thames-house-image-gallery.html . You'd think any civilian taking pictures of the building would subsequently be subjected to a little chat with the law but there's no problem when they show it on their site in all it's glory from various angles...

There is law on this, and it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

In the British series Spy one episode dealt with what they half-jokingly called Garbology, with the recruits working through simulated bags of household garbage to build up profiles of who lived in the house. It was emphasized that MI5 could do this for real, but as ordinary civilians, they couldn't, so they had to fake it.

...laura

You mean Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service. ;)

While MI5's Myths/FAQ section explicitly states that MI5 does not assassinate people, the question is not present in MI6's FAQs. (Incidentally, I personally don't believe that MI6 assassinates people, but I wonder if they deliberately left the question out).

No, if you want to be a British spy, you should go here.

Killing children is something I personally believe I would choose not to do at any point (barring extreme circumstances, which I beleve makes anyone capable of anything) and no one I know (including my muslim friends) does it either--if one of them did, I'd really want to get inside their brains to know at what point they stopped being rational.

My hope is that all 3 bodies of law are smart enough to transcend their religious confictions and enact laws capable of outlawing things that make a society disfunctional. The Bible has no problem with rape--I however do. I can also see where laws governing monopolies, and driving under the influence have their place as well, but aside from modern cults, you won't see much of this in any religious doctrine.

That's all I'm saying. The moon is a bit past third quarter now. :D

Do you mean sites like this or this?

You're thinking of MI5, I believe. That would make the quote a lot less funny. :-)

Their counterparts in the UK are sometimes known as "The Funny People." Very apt.

Frankly I'd rather see industry moves toward reliable solid state mass storage. Mechanical means just don't cut it any more as far as I'm concerned, just take a look at my journal to see the reason for my stance on that matter.

But where would we be without a few conspiracy theories?...

• Hard drive manufacturers operate an underground "quality cartel" on desktop grade drives, making people buy more and more, averaging out losses from customers switching brands, pumping up profit.
  
• HD makers are secretly on the take from the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A. to make crap drives, meaning all those evil mp3 pirates cannot hoard and share their booty for too long.
  
• The Men In Dark Suits Who Do Not Exist secretly sift through dumpsites in the dead of night looking for hard drives from which to recover details and evidence of MP3/DVD pirates, terrorists and other criminal activity. And pr0n.

Ali

I'm all in favour of this plan as long as America allows foreign intelligence agencies to operate in America at the same time under the same rules they would bind the CIA to. I wonder who the Mossad, MI5, Cuba's DGI, China's MSS, or Jordan's GID would consider to be people consorting with these groups who happen to reside in the United States.

Really? They don't seem to think so - it was formed as a Directorate of Military Intelligence in January 1916, titled "MI5". Officially, it's usually referred to as "the Security Service", but is commonly known as MI5 - even to the extent of having that for their domain name.

There are a few other interesting gems on that site: for example, MI5 does not have the power to detain or arrest people. (See "Myths and Misunderstandings" ... "Executive Powers".)