BRITAIN’S spymasters have created a secret Minority Report-style research unit to root out traitors working for Russia and China.
The unit, staffed by forensic psychologists, will identify agents planted inside the UK’s intelligence services by hostile states.
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The move follows repeated attempts by Russia and China to infiltrate MI5 and MI6, sources said.
In the Tom Cruise sci-fi blockbuster Minority Report, police use psychics to identify and arrest offenders before crimes are actually committed.
The forensic psychologists in the new unit, to be based at MI5’s HQ next to the Thames, will attempt to do something similar, identifying spies at risk of becoming double agents.
They will look for signs of changing behaviour, such as joining radical chat groups online or carrying out dry runs for an attack.
Details of the unit were revealed in an advert on MI5’s website, which wants experts for the “application of psychology to internal security.”
Colonel Phil Ingram, a former military intelligence officer said: “They will help spies protect our secrets.”
