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Does this mean that they're thinking about hiring translators who do have families in vulnerable areas? "C.I.A. Is Reviewing Its Security Policy for Recruitment," from the New Duranty Times, with thanks to Alyssa A. Lappen:
WASHINGTON, June 7 - The Central Intelligence Agency is reviewing security procedures that have led the agency to turn away large numbers of Arabic-language linguists and other potential recruits with skills avidly sought by the agency since the attacks of 2001, Congressional and intelligence officials say.Many of those rejected, the officials say, have been first-generation Americans who bring the linguistic facility and cultural knowledge that the C.I.A. has been trying to develop in seeking to improve its performance in penetrating terrorist organizations and otherwise gathering intelligence in the Middle East and South Asia.
Many of these applicants still have relatives abroad, often in countries that raise alarm among security officers. Former intelligence officials say that besides the problems of conducting thorough background checks in those countries, the agency also worries that recruits could be blackmailed if their families were vulnerable.
Is this no longer true? Is it no longer a problem? Why not?
Posted by Robert at June 8, 2005 12:07 PM
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WELL. . . The CIA should be considering the hiring of Sephardic Jews who have lived in Arab countries and know the language, not to mention the culture and history of the region.
The FBI didn't.
From Dhimmiwatch November 26, 2003
Dhimmitude at the FBI: Jews Need Not Apply to Fight Terror
The best line in this terrific Front Page piece by Paul Sperry is the last: Shelomo Alfassa, vice president of the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture in New York, says: "Imagine if during the war against Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt felt that having Jews fight the Nazis might upset the everyday German?"Posted by: miiraBut that's what's happening in the war on terror: Jews (and people from other dhimmi communities whom I know personally) have been having trouble getting jobs for which they are eminently qualified.
Says Sperry: "A few weeks after Islamic terrorists toppled the World Trade Center, two FBI agents from the New York field office paid a visit to a Sephardic Jewish community center in Brooklyn. Their mission: recruit Arabic linguists to help interpret interviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden's network.
"Sephardic Jews have lived in Arab countries and know the language, not to mention the culture and history of the region. And being close to Israel, the main target of Islamic terrorism, they were gung-ho to help the feds fight the war on terrorism here.
"It was a good move, or so most involved thought at the time -- and long overdue.
"Federal investigators had missed clues to both the 2001 and 1993 World Trade Center attacks not because they didn't have them, but because they didn't know what they had until it was too late. They were buried in a backlog of untranslated wiretaps and documents in Arabic.
"A chronic shortage of Arabic-speaking translators had resulted in an accumulation of thousands of hours of untranslated audiotapes and written material stored in FBI lockers.
"The FBI's New York field office, at least, knew such delays were no longer acceptable after the 9-11 attack. The bureau's translators were the key to preventing another homeland strike, but they had to convert Arabic chatter to English faster. That meant hiring a lot more translators as quickly as possible.
"So in October 2001, while rescue workers were still pulling remains from Ground Zero, two agents from the FBI's offices located nearby reached out to local Arabic-speaking Jews to do just that. Agents Carol Motyka and Marsha Parrish met with an official at the Sephardic Bikur Holim, a Jewish social-services agency in Brooklyn.
"At the meeting, Yola Haber, who heads the agency's employment division, says she agreed to help recruit Arabic-speaking Jews for the bureau. Most of them applied on-line for the translator jobs. All told, she says she referred some 90 applicants, possibly more, to the FBI. They included retired linguists who had experience working for Israeli radio in Arabic and for the Israeli army.
"Remarkably, not one of them was hired.
"'We sent them a lot of people, and nobody made it to the finish line,' complained Sephardic Bikur Holim director Doug Balin. 'Not one person was found eligible for these jobs, which is outrageous.'
"Instead, the FBI hired dozens of Arab-American Muslims as translators."
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at June 8, 2005 12:44 PM
I read that article this morning thinking it might mean a shift toward hiring non-Muslim translators, but it was impossible to tell by the way it was written.
not the first time I've been clueless, either...
Rebecca
Posted by: rb at June 8, 2005 12:58 PM
The military should have kept the Arabic translators they discharged who were admittedly gay. Those guys were excellent translators. That vitrolic step cost time and lives without correct translations we could have had from the git-go.
Posted by: bj at June 8, 2005 1:23 PM
Miira:
"Instead, the FBI hired dozens of Arab-American Muslims as translators."
Should read: 'instead, the FBI hired dozens of Arab-American
MUSLIM TRAITORS translators!
http://www.terrorists-suck.org/fight/the_shoe_bomber.mp3
at June 8, 2005 6:55 PM
The p.c. excuse: "worried about blackmail"- really means: "worried about turncoats".
There are thousands of college students who would study anything- even Arabic, Farsee, Urdu, etc. if given full scholarships, a guaranteed five year contract of employment, medical and dental, and housing assistance after graduating language school.
But, for some reason, the hardest, most obtuse, and circuitous paths are being chosen over 'fix the problem now' goddamned enlightened-self-interested common sense.
Who is behind this dithering clog?
Posted by: BigSleep at June 8, 2005 7:39 PM
Depressing conclusions from a year of service as an Arabic Linguist
I am speaking from experience as a former linguist employed through a DOD contract to assist a CIA-run outfit and the US. Special Forces: The screening and hiring process is a sham. I have seen loyal Americans from Middle Eastern Christian backgrounds turned away while fanatical Muslims get hired. Actually, the screeners do not seem to use religion, loyalty, or even common sense as determining factors. However, the process seems to be both subjective and somehow rigged against loyal Americans from a M.E. Christian backgrounds for various reasons: some are just mystifying.
1) The rates of divorce and starting new businesses are higher for Christian applicants, which causes some to file bankruptcy or have large debts, which are automatic disqualifiers. An underemployed Muslim or one living on welfare assistance actually stands a better chance than a Christian running a small business for twenty years who fell upon hard times after 911...
2) Staying in touch with one’s Christian family members back in the Middle East, supporting them finically, and being honest about it does not vote well for one’s chances for passing.
3) Being a bald-faced liar, a trait that Moslems out-excel their Christian counter-parts, helps one’s chances.
4) Many M.E. Christians by their nature may appear timid and low-key. Conversely, Muslims come to the interview wearing flag lapels, peddling a well rehearsed play of God-bless-America and a weeping story about their patriotism even in face of discrimination. Muslims can be quite charming and keen story tellers.
5) For investigating the years that one lived abroad, the FBI depends on one’s country of origin to complete their investigation or so I was told. With such impeccable sources, who do think will come out ahead?
6) There is no loyalty or education litmus test
7) Many hiring mangers, language skill examiners, and recruiters are Muslims who favor other Muslims for high-value assignments. A Christian may only find work with the Marines on the streets of Faluaja while an anti-American fanatic with less qualification ends up working in the Metro DC area or one of the cushiest, safest, and most sensitive assignments around.
8) Once hired, a Christian linguist finds him/herself again a Dhemmi at tax-payers’ expense. Harassment, intimidation, and a siege mentality surround the Christian linguist for doing a good Job, or for disclosing the deliberate sabotage, or for just being Christian (a former Dhemmi who forgot his/her place).
9) Muslims aggressiveness’ (Type A’s), their ability to kiss ass, or their ability to frighten the P.C. mangers and officers with calls of discrimination earns them a favorable and unassailable positions to further their sabotage and to intimidate other loyal American Christians into silence.
10) The FBI and other agencies needing Arabic speakers target Mosques for recruiting events, Muslims clerics and organizations for nominating recruits. No churches, temples, Sephardic synagogues may apply. Priests, Ministers, Rabies: “Do not call us… We will call you.” I challenge any members of this site to come up with a recruitment event being held at a Church of any M.E. Christian denomination, a Sephardic synagogue, a Yazedi, Bahaai, or Zoraastirist temple.
11) Last but obviously not least, the government seems to somehow think that only Muslims can be effective linguists. May be our wise leaders seem to think that only a Muslim can get into the mind of our enemies.
Honestly, at the end of the day, our intelligence services get what they bargained for and whatever happens, we are all culpable for the outcomes because we permitted such travesty to take place. I may never want to work again in such a depressing environment surrounded by Allah’s trolls for the sake of a pay check. I say a pay check because I no longer feel that I could continuo to have any pretence about the value of my work when it is being undone by subversive coworkers and clueless supervisors.
at June 8, 2005 8:17 PM
Have_mercy - Thanks for the insight . . .and your loyal service. . . but I don't think you are alone.
This blatant bias is becoming ever more obvious.
It would be interesting to learn the names of the individuals responsible for Muslim favoritism in the hiring process, and to discover what affiliations these individuals hold outside of their beltway offices.
I would love to see Hannity and Colmes or O'Reilly approach this topic and delve into these issues - especially point #10 recruiting exclusively at mosques .
at June 8, 2005 8:47 PM
Let's see now...
A thoroughly incompetent and worse "intelligence" agency is reviewing a procedure four years after 9/11...while the AQ mosque down the block has overflow crowds and at least a dozen jihadi businesses operate openly.
The (W)ahabbist's "war" on "terror" is the greatest fraud perpetrated since muhammad was first called a prophet.
Posted by: Itai at June 8, 2005 9:34 PM
"Many of these applicants still have relatives abroad, often in countries that raise alarm "
Why would this be so? The government tells us that ISlam is peacful, so if they are from Islamic countries we have nothing to worry about, ...right?
Posted by: 3rdtimelucky at June 8, 2005 11:21 PM
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