Israel's Shin Bet security launches Arabic, English websites to soften image

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Some of this is funny, like "controlled openness". But it's also interesting that they are concerned about public opinion enough to have such PR efforts. One can speculate about why that is so, since it is not a normal trait of secret police, which are usually happy to be feared.

JERUSALEM - ISRAEL'S feared Shin Bet security service launched English and Arabic websites on Monday, the agency's latest move to lift its traditional shroud of secrecy and improve its sinister image.

The slick new Web sites include video footage of airstrikes, arrest raids, VIP security squads and live-fire training, complete with action-movie music pulsing in the background.

Tired of being associated with dark cellars, covert operations and allegations of torture of Palestinian suspects, the Shin Bet is seeking to open up and emphasise its technological and research advances, and wrap the agency in a kinder, softer exterior, as evidenced by the new Internet sites.

The agency even provides data it gathered on Palestinian militant activity in Arabic, the native tongue of Israel's enemies - candour unheard of only a few years ago at an organization that runs informants and agents, carrying out surveillance and interrogations.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/World/STIStory_227421.html