Britain Wants More Muslim, Hindu Spies

November 26, 2007

Author: RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL

Source: The Times of india

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Britain_wants_more_Muslim_Hindu_spies/articleshow/2573382.cms

They are not quite the prototype of Ian Fleming's Martini-drinking, Aston Martin-tooling, macho English playboy secret agent James Bond, but Britain's desperately-seeking, mainly-white foreign and domestic intelligence services have launched an unusual publicity drive to recruit Muslim and Hindu agents by allowing a few of the existing handful to speak out about their lives.

In a rare bid to open up its work to the world's curious gaze, MI5 allowed one agent calling herself 'Jayshree' and another with the assumed name 'Shahzad' to talk about their work.

The recorded interviews, conducted at MI5's headquarters in the British capital, are the first in the organisation's nearly-100-year history. In the process, 'Jayshree' and 'Shahzad' are seen to have become walking "sandwich boards" for the British secret services as they try and interest younger members of the two-million strong Asian community in a life a la 007.