Britain is planning a major recruitment drive to beef up its domestic counter-intelligence service MI5 in the fight against international terrorism, a government source told Reuters on Saturday.
Home Secretary David Blunkett will on Wednesday announce plans to recruit 1,000 new staff over the next few years to take the security service’s numbers up to 3,000, the source added.
Blunkett’s statement will come during a debate on the renewal of anti-terror legislation introduced in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The extra staff will include linguists, surveillance staff and desk officers.
MI5 was created in 1909 as a counter-espionage bureau to tackle the threat to British naval interests from German spies.
Its work since then has included dealing with Soviet espionage during the Cold War and tackling Irish militant groups.
Its responsibility now includes dealing with the new threat posed by al-Qaida and other militant organizations.
Once a highly secretive body whose existence was never formally acknowledged, MI5 now has its own Web site www.mi5.gov.uk and advertises openly for new recruits.
