UK's MI5 looking for 'handlers' to turn Islamists into agents

Britain's domestic counter- intelligence agency MI5 is looking for "handlers" who will be deployed to "turn" members of Islamist networks, cyberhacking groups and espionage rings into agents.
Applicants for the jobs, which command a salary of 41,900 pounds plus benefits, face a nine-step qualification process beginning with an online "pre-screening" test and ending with an eight-week "foundation agent-handling course".
With more than 700 British jihadists fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and an estimated 300 already back in the UK, the recruitment of agents, from "subjects of interest" who are already under surveillance, is seen as vital to combat the threat of terrorist attacks.

The operational intelligence officers, known as "handlers", will be deployed to "turn" members of Islamist networks, cyberhacking groups and espionage rings into agents, or informants, providing vital information to the security services, The Sunday Times reported.
According to advertisements to appear on MI5's website and in the media this week, prospective handlers will learn how to "elicit information and deploy persuasion and negotiation to find the truth and gain...Life-saving intelligence."
"The recruitment of agents is driven by leads -- from among those people we have an interest in, of which there are several thousand," a senior MI5 manager said, adding that handlers could also help deal with threats posed by terrorists in Northern Ireland, foreign spies and cybercriminals.

MI5 said the idea that all spies were young Oxbridge graduates was a myth and there was neither an age limit nor preference about the education or career backgrounds of applicants.

The service would not positively discriminate in favour of linguists but was interested in those who speak Arabic, Russian, Chinese or Urdu. A key attribute, MI5 said, was the ability to distinguish between fact and comment when assessing intelligence.
The senior manager said the safety of handlers, not least against the threat of being betrayed by a double agent, was paramount. All potential informants are thoroughly vetted before an initial approach by a handler is given the go-ahead.

"We put a lot of effort in choosing who we initially approach and then validating the information they provide. This is both for the safety of the case officers and to make sure that the intelligence is accurate," the manager was quoted as saying.