Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service AKA MI6, has opened up a public website. Not so secret then.
The website’s launch is the latest attempt at openness by the intelligences services, and is aimed at boosting recruitment to counter the heightened threat of terrorism. But if it offers openness, it is typically secretive about what it thinks you really need to know.
The Times: With a click, MI6 brings its spies out of shadows »
The launch of a website marks another step towards having a public face for an organisation which was not even officially acknowledged to exist until just over a decade ago.
BBC News: Out of the shadows »
As Britain’s secret service, SIS provides the British Government with a global covert capability to promote and defend the national security and economic well-being of the United Kingdom.
Secret Intelligence Service website »
SIS OR MI6. WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The origins of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) are to be found in the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau, established by the Committee of Imperial Defence in October 1909. The Secret Service Bureau was soon abbreviated to ‘Secret Service’, ‘SS Bureau’ or even ‘SS’. The first head of the Foreign Section, Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming RN, signed himself ‘MC’ or ‘C’ in green ink. Thus began the long tradition of the head of the Service adopting the initial ‘C’ as his symbol.
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