January 31, 2007
CIA (NCS) Recruiting On Facebook, You-Tube

Attention college graduates, the CIA's National Clandestine Service (NCS) - created post-9/11 to boost the agency's human intelligence capabilities - is looking for a few good men and women. And as Wired reports, they're hanging out their shingle on the social networking site Facebook.com. Here's their Facebook group page; you'll need to register at Facebook to get in. A company spokesperson stresses to Wired the agency is merely another "advertiser" and has no access to any user profiles. There are 3,593 users signed up to the CIA/NCS Facebook group at this writing.

The SF Chron approves, but notes agency image challenges. NCS also has a recruiting ad on YouTube. Smart. With many staff aging and retiring, agency recruiters must compete in a market increasingly shaped by personal technology.

You go, spooks!

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 31, 2007 01:30 PM | Email This
Comments
1. i dont know that i'd use the term "spooks" if i were you

Posted by: B on January 31, 2007 02:23 PM
2. "Spooks" is a time-honored term for spies in general, and CIA spies in particular. Don't buck tradition.

Posted by: sro on January 31, 2007 02:41 PM
3. The intelligence business is a great career with a lot to offer.

Posted by: Diogenes on January 31, 2007 03:00 PM
4. I think we should shut-down the CIA and publish all its dirty little secrets on website for all to see.

Posted by: Libertarian on January 31, 2007 03:08 PM
5. #4: Thank you, Cordell Hull.

Posted by: sro on January 31, 2007 04:34 PM
6. I hope the 3,000+ people linking their Facebook profiles (which contain a bunch of personally identifiable data) to the CIA don't in the future end up going out on, like, secret missions where it's important for them not to be recognized or anything. :P

I'm all for modernizing with the times, but this is just dumb. Why is it a good idea for the CIA to be putting a big list of potential employees on the Internet where anybody (read: foreign intel services) with a minimum level of technical savvy can go look at it again?

Posted by: brent on January 31, 2007 11:08 PM
7. sro @ 5,

Actually, I think we should resign from the UN, so I can't be very "Cordell Hull," can I?

Our big mistake was getting involved in World War I.

Ya know, we could learn a lot from the Swiss. When was the last time you saw the Swiss going half-way around the world to kick some tin-horn dictator's butt and getting nothing but criticism for doing so?

Posted by: Libertarian on February 1, 2007 07:35 AM
8. Libertarian: When was the last time you saw the Swiss do ANYTHING of note, except say "show me the money"?

Posted by: katomar on February 1, 2007 10:51 PM
9. katomar @ 8,

My point exactly. The Swiss stay out of trouble rather than going out and looking for a fight. We could learn a lot from them.

Sorry to point this out to all my conservative friends, but Iraq will eventually dissolve into civil war. If a few years, there will emerge several "countries" that used to be called Iraq.

Posted by: Libertarian on February 2, 2007 07:40 AM
10. Theyr'e looking for lawyers & accountants, we're toast.

Posted by: Smitty on February 2, 2007 07:12 PM
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