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Last update - 19:00 17/03/2008 'This post will self-destruct in 10 seconds' - Shin Bet blog goes live By The Assocaited Press Tags: high tech, Israel, Shin Bet  Israel's covert security agency, the Shin Bet, has deployed a sophisticated new weapon: the blog. On a new Web site launched Sunday, four Shin Bet employees blog about their life and work at the agency, which runs informants and agents, carries out surveillance and interrogations and serves as a key component of Israel's battle against Palestinian militants. Judging from the blogs, it's pretty boring. The workers at the highly secretive organization seem preoccupied with subjects like their salaries and whether they can get home by 6 o'clock to be with their kids. Patriotism and adventure are barely mentioned. Advertisement The new project is part of an attempt by the organization to attract more high-tech workers to its ranks, and the bloggers work on the technological side of the Shin Bet's operations rather than in the field. Identified only by the first letter of their names, they appear in black silhouette on the site's home page. One blogger, identified as Y, a 34-year-old martial arts enthusiast, reassured readers that he's usually home by 6:30 p.m. and that his salary is no worse than at any other high-tech company on the market. "A sense of mission? To avoid clichés and fend off cynics we won't get ourselves into those corners," he writes. "There are things that I can't even tell my husband in detail," writes H, a quality assurance engineer, "but in any case, we don't like to discuss work at home. Only members of her immediate family know she works for the Shin Bet. "The agency's offices aren't gleaming and fashionably designed like I was used to in the world of high-tech, but they aren't bad," H writes. She took the job because she was tired of her previous one and because it would allow her to spend more time with her family. This might not have been quite what blog surfers were expecting. In one reader response, a surfer calling herself Brandy said she was disappointed: "Maybe I've watched too many James Bond movies, but you make it sound gray and charmless," she complained. In 2006, facing competition from Israel's thriving and lucrative high-tech industry, the Shin Bet partially shed its secretive image and launched a campaign to attract new workers, taking out ads in newspapers and unveiling a slick Web site that lists available jobs and solicits resumes. The blog project is the newest part of the campaign, in which Israel's feared security agency comes across as just another high-tech company vying for technology talent in a competitive job market. A, a programming engineer who is a fan of basketball and the TV series Lost, writes that he heard the Shin Bet was looking for high-tech workers and imagined the fictional Counter-Terrorism Unit from the hit show 24. "Who wouldn't want to imagine themselves working in the command-and-control center of the CTU?" he writes. His blog entry indicates real life might be somewhat less exciting: "Though it's really unfair, I didn't get a siren to put on my car, and I too have to sit in traffic jams. This post will self-destruct in 10 seconds," he writes. Related articles: Shin Bet data shows dramatic drop in 2007 terror fatalities Don't let Diskin scare you Shin Bet to perform security checks on potential judges Bookmark to del.icio.us   My three homelands French Vogue chose Lizzie Doron as one of Israel's influential authors. President Barghouti Jailed Tanzim leader says he's considering running in next PA presidential elections.   1.   persec 22:02  |  Paul 17/03/08   2.   At least they show some sense of humor 23:20  |  Analyst 17/03/08   3.   Hi tech, Shmy tech 01:10  |  Untouchable 18/03/08   4.   How glamorous did you expect it to be to 02:26  |  Che Vive 18/03/08   5.   No PERSEC issues.... 04:15  |  Tom 18/03/08   6.   Why not link?? Typical crummy Israeli journalism 08:38  |  sarah sue 18/03/08   7.   Shen Bet ... Get serious 08:50  |  Eliezer 18/03/08   8.   to # 6 Israeli Journalism is Okay 16:39  |  Faris 18/03/08   9.   Intelligence is a bad career 16:55  |  George Edward 18/03/08   10.   terror bet,,,, 18:32  |  ravi 18/03/08   11.   9. intelligence & careers 21:08  |  whizbang 18/03/08

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