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Tuesday, June 10, 2008      Geostrategy-Direct.com

U.S. intel recruits immigrants from Mideast to bridge culture gap in war on terror

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community is recruiting immigrants in the war against Al Qaida.

Officials said the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence and law enforcement units have been quietly reaching out to Arab, Iranian and Pakistani immigrants in the United States. They said the CIA has convened representatives of immigrant community to promote recruitment to the U.S. intelligence community.

"We need these people, their expertise, their understanding of culture, of language," Homeland Security Department intelligence chief Charles Allen said. "We don't have it today and it is a great deficiency."

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Officials said the immigrants were sought as translators and analysts in Arabic, Farsi and Pashtu. They said some of the most promising recruits would be offered to become operational officers and directed to infiltrate Al Qaida cells.

On May 16, the U.S. intelligence community, with 100,000 employees, invited more than a dozen immigrant representatives to win their support for the recruitment drive. But officials and immigrant representatives said many new arrivals in the United States feared deportation as well as retaliation by their native countries.

"We are going to ask you to open up your communities to us," U.S. Assistant National Intelligence Director Ronald Sanders told the community leaders.

Bassem Youssef.
Officials said the U.S. intelligence community has been hampered by a shortage of translators and analysts in languages used by Al Qaida. They said many American-born personnel were often stumped by slang, references to the Koran and dialects.

"FBI managers rely exclusively on translation services," Bassem Youssef, unit chief of the FBI's Communications Analysis Unit, told a House Judiciary subcommittee on May 21.

In contrast, the children of immigrants were said to be suitable for fast-track language instruction. Officials said children of immigrants could learn their parents' language within 16 weeks. Those without close immigrant relatives would need at least 63 weeks.

In 2008, the U.S. intelligence community shelved a ban on first-generation Americans with direct family ties abroad. But officials said the screening of immigrant recruits could take several years.

National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell has proposed that the security clearance process be limited to 60 days. McConnell stressed to immigrant representatives that the intelligence community was becoming more sensitive to Islam.

"We try not to refer to 'jihad' as something that's bad," McConnell said.


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