Real-life 007s speak out, shoot down licence to ki

[Amelia]

Real-life 007s speak out, shoot down licence to kill

HAMIDA GHAFOUR

Special to The Globe and Mail

LONDON -- There is no "M" and they don't have a licence to kill. But there is a "Q" who makes high-tech gadgets and life as a real James Bond is glamorous.

Two real-life agents from the British foreign intelligence service MI-6 have spoken out for the first time about what it's actually like to be a spy for the same organization that employs James Bond.

In an attempt to capitalize on the hype of the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, the two spies said they were allowed to talk because the agency is trying to recruit new agents.

With their voices disguised on BBC radio last night, the male and female "operations officers," as they are called, dispelled some of the myths and gave away a few secrets of life on the edge.

"We don't have an M but we do have a C, that's what the chief of the service has been called since it was established [97 years ago]," said the male agent, known as Officer A.

"We also have a Q who's responsible for innovative technology and gimmicks and gadgets and things like that. They have a great time in taking things apart and putting them back together again."

And the licence to kill?

"It's a complete myth," Officer A said, laughing. "We work under U.K. law and our work is overseen politically and legally."

But there are some perks. "There is certainly action and there is a lot of adventure," said Officer B, a woman. "It is also quite glamorous. You might find yourself on one day in the middle of a tent talking to a whole load of tribal leaders in the middle of nowhere and 24 hours later be in a different country talking to a high-powered financier."

"But I haven't punched someone for years," Officer A added, "and I can't remember the last time I wore a dinner jacket."

Despite their glamorous image, Britain's secret-service agencies are not having an easy time. Their reputation has taken a battering since the so-called dodgy-dossier scandal in 2003 when No. 10 Downing St. compiled intelligence to justify the Iraq war by saying that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The information proved false.

In a rare public speech, the director-general of MI-5, the domestic intelligence service, warned last week that Britain faced 30 "priority-one" terrorist plots. They involved 1,600 suspects with links to al-Qaeda and in some cases involved nuclear weapons. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller opened her speech by saying, "I speak not as a politician . . . but as someone who has been an intelligence professional for 32 years."

It seemed designed to reach out to a skeptical public.

MI-5 is undergoing a massive transformation, increasing its staff, recruiting more minorities and setting up offices outside London.

Yet the image of Bond, a smooth upper-class Englishman -- he attended Eton, the most exclusive boys' school in Britain, and Cambridge University -- is what the agency is trying to shed.

They are attempting to find Arabic and Urdu speakers who can blend in with Muslims and keep an eye on potential Islamic extremists.

MI-5 has launched a poster campaign in London's gyms to attract women in peak physical condition.

It is a marked change from the days when recruitment meant boys at Oxford or Cambridge received a discreet tap on the shoulder.

The poster says a typical female agent "spends around £30 a month on cosmetics. Enjoys curling up on the sofa to watch a good weepy. Loves romantic dinners in her favourite Italian restaurant. Uses the car a lot for work, often involves sitting around for long periods but can still switch on all her senses in an instant. Owns a cat named Hoogli."

Which sounds more like Miss Moneypenny than Honey Ryder

[Naomi]

Quote:

But there are some perks. "There is certainly action and there is a lot of adventure," said Officer B, a woman. "It is also quite glamorous. You might find yourself on one day in the middle of a tent talking to a whole load of tribal leaders in the middle of nowhere and 24 hours later be in a different country talking to a high-powered financier."

Even before 007 that was (maybe still is) my dream (fantasy) career ... I would probaby have ended up behind a desk someplace.

OTOH, the way things work for me the desk would have been wired as a central command center with all sorts of equipment designed to appear as ordinary things ... and I could push a button and be in Washington, Moscow and Bagdad in the same day