:: Deepquest ::

Israel’s normally secretive Mossad spy agency came in from the cold this week, launching a Web site aimed at recruiting staff ranging from computer security specialists to English-speaking waiters and agents for “special tasks.”

The site, which is available in both Hebrew and English, has a main page featuring a shadowy figure standing next to an Israeli flag and a link to a letter from Mossad Director Meir Dagan inviting “the best and most suitable to join us.”

The new Web site, which replaces a rudimentary single-page site, includes a short history of the agency, a mission statement and an online employment application form. The Hebrew side of the site has a long list of jobs available with Israel’s external intelligence agency, including psychologists, teachers, translators, typists, construction engineers and security guards.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, more than 1,500 people applied for jobs on Monday, the site’s first day in operation.

One feature of the site proves Mossad is still as interested in gathering intelligence as it is in hiring new people: the “Contact Us” page invites users to submit “information that could be useful” to the agency and promises to protect the tipsters’ anonymity.