http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/15636_CIA.html
CIA suffers from strong lack of Arab specialists
06/13/2005 13:38
The Central Intelligence Agency will most likely have to revise its
employment rules
The US Central Intelligence Agency will have to simplify several internal
security rules regarding requirements presented to employment candidates. The
rules prevent the CIA from employing a lot of qualified specialists in the
Arabic language and experts for traditions and ideology of Islam. The agency
experiences a strong need in such specialists. Furthermore, intelligence
officers believe that first generation US citizens, ethnic Arabs, might face
the dual loyalty problem.
The US CIA has never been a militarized organization. Its officers take
different positions, but there is no multistage hierarchy of military ranks in
the organization. It is noteworthy that scriptwriters of Soviet detective films
were in a habit of using "CIA colonels" in their works, although such a rank
never existed in reality. Nevertheless, the CIA has always practiced the
toughest discipline imaginable. Requirements to new employees are rather high;
they all spring from a list of rules of the organization's internal security.
The CIA hires only US citizens under 35 years of age. A person will be granted
access to secret documents only if he or she successfully passes a serious of
various test.
The American intelligence currently suffers from a lack of specialists of
the Arab language. The problem became especially serious after the 9/11
terrorist attacks. The CIA also needs experts of cultural, social and
historical realities of Muslim states, as well as Islamic ideology, rights and
traditions. The US intelligence network cannot operate without such specialists
in Muslim states. It is also impossible to collect information about
terrorists; the shortage of the above-mentioned specialists does not allow to
introduce US intelligence officers in extremist organizations either.
CIA Director, Porter Goss, and US Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael
Chertoff, have to fulfill the will of the US president, who ordered to double
the personnel of analysts and secret agents within the period of five years.
The CIA faced certain complications employing new personnel. The majority of
candidates, who possessed all the knowledge, experience and skills required,
were mostly ethnic Arabs, first-generation American citizens. It means that
they might face the problem of dual loyalty, first and foremost. Secondly, a
lot of ethnic Arabs maintain permanent relations with relatives, who still
reside in their native states. They could therefore become victims of blackmail
and threats.
Jennifer Millerwize, the chairwoman of the CIA press service, said that
the Agency would most likely have to revise the employment rules, because
specialists fluent in Arab, Afghan and Chinese languages are highly wanted by
the CIA. Dem. Representative from California, Jane Harman, entirely supported
the CIA's initiative. She believes that US authorities need to give ethnic
Arabs an opportunity to help the USA if they are law-abiding and patriotic
citizens.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people in the CIA administration,
who are ready to stand up for traditional personnel-selective standards of the
agency. It is up to CIA Director Porter Goss and the director of the National
Intelligence, John Negroponte, to make the final decision on the matter.
Read the original in Russian: (Translated by: Dmitry Sudakov)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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