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Mossad seeks recruits on Web
Site's first day attracts 1,500 applications
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's secretive Mossad spy agency is coming in from the cold — at least on the web.
The agency, known as much for its well-publicized failures as for its daring successes, launched a recruitment Web site this week seeking anyone from computer security specialists to English-speaking waiters to agents for "special tasks."
The site, available in both Hebrew and English, features a shadowy figure standing next to an Israeli flag and a link to a letter from Mossad Director Meir Dagan inviting "the best and most suitable to join us."
In its first day of operation, 1,500 people took up that challenge and applied for a job with Mossad, according to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
Mossad — the name means "Institute" in Hebrew — built its reputation on operations such as the 1960 kidnapping of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who was snatched in Argentina and spirited to Israel to stand trial for the murder of millions of Jews. He was convicted and hanged.
Between October 1972 and August 1973, Mossad agents killed 12 Palestinians connected with the group Black September, which had killed 11 athletes at the Munich Olympics.
But recent years have seen a string of embarrassing and well-publicized failures.
In 1997, Mossad agents injected a leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas with poison in Jordan. But they were caught and Israel was forced to save Khaled Mashaal with an antidote and to free Hamas's founder and 20 other Arab prisoners to bring the agents back home.
In 1998, a retired agent was indicted on charges of fabricating reports that Syria was preparing for war.
The website comes four years after Mossad launched a recruitment drive with the slogan, "Mossad is opening up."
The site replaces a rudimentary single-page predecessor. It includes a short history of the agency, a mission statement and an online employment application form. The Hebrew side of the site has a long list of jobs available with Israel's external intelligence agency, including psychologists, teachers, translators, typists, construction engineers and security guards.
Would-be spies must provide personal details, military service and education, and get 1,000 words to add "anything you feel relevant to your application."
One feature proves Mossad is still as interested in gathering intelligence as it is in hiring new people: The "Contact Us" page invites users to submit "information that could be useful" to the agency and promises to protect the tipster's anonymity.
Israeli security officials said that the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, is considering launching a similar site.
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