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Security service launches Web sites in English, Arabic By Haaretz Correspondent and AP , By Yuval Azoulay The Shin Bet internal security service launched English and Arabic versions of its Web site yesterday, containing information on the organization's history and providing data of terror activities and trends. "Understandably, extensive areas of ISA [Israel Security Agency - the Shin Bet's official English name] activity are confidential," wrote Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin. "Nonetheless, we would like to give you some insight into the ISA, its values, and elements of its heritage and missions. Enjoy the site!" The Web site will be updated regularly and is part of the Shin Bet's initiative to carry out a policy of "controlled transparency," the organization said. Advertisement Since the launch of its Hebrew version five months ago, tens of thousands of people from Israel and around the world have entered the secret service Web site. Some Shin Bet employees have even been permitted to write blogs in a bid to attract young candidates from the computer programming industry to work for the organization's technology department. 'Controlled openness' "We understand we work for the public, and we believe that we should expose anything we can that doesn't harm the organization," said a Shin Bet official. "The organization is not secret, its operations are. We call it 'controlled openness.'" The agency still refrains from discussing its methods and intelligence, as well as the location of its headquarters. Esther Levanon, a former top official who helped computerize the Shin Bet, said the Hebrew site was primarily aimed at drawing top talent to the spy agency. "They want to bring in good people. There are really exciting things going on there, and they want people to know about it," she said. "They are at the forefront of technology." The English and Arabic sites go one step further, trying to counter what the agency perceives as a huge cloud of misinformation swirling on the Web. "There is a lot of material from unauthorized sources out there," the Shin Bet official said. "We understand that in the Internet era, people are looking for information and here they will get it on an official site." The site doesn't shy away from addressing its past blunders, devoting segments to the Bus 300 affair, in which agents were suspected of killing captive terrorists in 1984 and then lying about it, and its botched protection of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. The English Web site address: http://www.shabak.gov.il/english/Pages/default.aspx Bookmark to del.icio.us   Never forget Peres, at Warsaw uprising memorial: Israel will avenge Holocaust through peace. Return to Haifa Provocative new play evokes sympathy for both Jews and Palestinians

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