These figures suggest that America's foremost spy agency is making rapid progress toward its goal of a 50 percent expansion by 2011— a goal mandated by the White House in a 2004 executive order. Although the exact number of CIA staff is classified, sources say about 20,000 people work out of its Langley, Va., headquarters and at offices and CIA "stations" worldwide.

To help reach its ambitious target, the CIA has embarked on a nationwide ad campaign, hoping to attract a new generation of spies. For a look at its new pitch to young people, check out the agency's online rock 'n roll recruiting ads. (And while you're at it, take a CIA "personality quiz" to see if you've got the right stuff.)

That's just the beginning. Since August, trailers at movie theaters and posters at airports have tempted the adventurous with positions in the National Clandestine Service — the latest name for the agency's fabled directorate of operations, which recruits spies, steals secrets, and runs covert operations. And on the Discovery and Science channels, the CIA is running a nifty recruiting ad — targeted at scientists and engineers — featuring an animated dragonfly. The ad is based on an ingenious listening device the agency's science and technology directorate designed in the 1970s. The "bug," it turned out, got knocked off course by even a slight breeze and proved unusable. But the dragonfly ad is having the desired effect — résumés from the scientific community are up 15 percent since the spot began running.

Figures just compiled by the CIA, in fact, show that applications are up across the board. The agency took in a record 135,000 résumés in fiscal 2006, which ended in September. That's over double what it received in 2001 — some 63,000. Most in demand: linguists and others who can blend in and interpret what's really going on in areas of strategic importance to America, in places like the Middle East, Central Asia, China, and Africa.

Last Tuesday, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden got a firsthand look at his new recruits, at a reception for several hundred recent hires and their spouses. Held at the CIA cafeteria, the nation's latest spooks helped themselves to hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar as jazz played over the public address system. The folksy Hayden worked the crowd, shaking hands, signing autographs, and schmoozing with the new staffers.

It was an impressive group, among the most diverse, most experienced ever hired by the CIA. Ages ranged from 20 to over 65. Over half have spent significant time overseas, and 1 in 6 is a military veteran. They bring backgrounds as diverse as forestry, finance, and industrial engineering. And they're a well-educated bunch. They represent schools ranging from Oregon State, UCLA, and the University of Denver to the U.S. Naval Academy, Princeton, and Duquesne. Half the new recruits sport a master's or Ph.D. degree. And if you want to work for the CIA's analytic corps, the directorate of intelligence, you'd better keep your grades up — the average grade-point average is a respectable 3.7. (That's an A- where I went to school.)

Hayden knows that the real challenge for the CIA is not in attracting this talented new generation but in keeping them. Turnover among the new recruits is said to be worrisomely high, with too many leaving after just a few years. Some who join are dismayed at the layers of bureaucracy and the gulf between the agency's exotic image and its often mundane ways. Veterans have long complained that the CIA has grown risk averse and shackled by security practices that seem out of date in the Internet age. Perhaps that was on on Hayden's mind as he addressed the new recruits last week.

"You are the agency. You are its future," he told the crowd. "I ... know there can be days when your enthusiasm gets tested — especially when the bureaucracy seems to get the better of you. But on those days, I want you to focus on the fact that CIA is a place of possibilities." Hayden also stressed what an impressive a group the new recruits were. "We get the best of America," he boasted. In an age of transnational terrorists and rogue nuclear states, we're going to need it. Good luck, class of '06.

Bad Guy of the Week: His foes brand him the Shiites' own version of Abu Zarqawi, the late, murderous head of al Qaeda in Iraq. Not much is known about Abu Deraa, a shadowy figure who hails from the slums of Baghdad's Sadr City. Wanted by the Americans, widely feared by the Iraqis, he has gained a reputation as one of Iraq's pre-eminent death squad leaders, responsible for the slaying of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Sunnis. Deraa is variously said to leave behind a notorious trademark — piercing his victims' heads with an electric drill — or giving them a choice among being suffocated, shot, or smashed with cinder blocks. Abu Deraa — literally, Father of the Shield — was born Ismail al-Zerjawi. He is believed to be in his 40s and was a fishmonger in Iraq's southern marshes until they were drained and destroyed by Saddam. Once thought to be associated with Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, analysts say that he is now more a symptom of Iraq run amok, as militias splinter into criminal gangs and death squads. Until recently, Abu Deraa was so mysterious that even his existence was a matter of debate. But a videotape allegedly of the man, feeding a baby camel, has surfaced on — what else — YouTube. Then, last week, Deraa gave a rare interview to Reuters, in which he denounced the accusations against him as "lies and rumors," claimed that he loves Sunnis like brothers, and said that his only enemies are the American occupiers. For more on Abu Deraa, check out Lydia Khalil's fine piece in the Jamestown Foundation's latest Terrorism Monitor.