US spies face uphill battle in ethnic recruitment

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. government, in dire need of intelligence agents skilled in the languages and cultures of the Muslim world, is struggling to recruit from American ethnic communities grown wary of its policies.

Relations with many minority communities, first soured by a post-Sept. 11 crackdown on Muslim immigrants, have been further strained by uproars over the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. interrogation practices and President George W. Bush's now-suspended domestic spying program, experts said.

"Right now, there is a great degree of mistrust," said Christopher Whitney, executive director for studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, which conducts research on U.S. ethnic communities.

"America has a need for their skill sets. But a lot of them are mistrustful of the government's intentions (and) how their skills would be used," he said.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group report in December said intelligence officers in Iraq are often unable to understand information from local informants because they lack language and cultural skills.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07380163.htm

[Hekate]

1. And then the military tossed out a bunch of Arab-language speakers for being gay...

Could the US possibly get any stupider?

Wait, don't answer that.

:argh:

Hekate

[maddezmom]

2. okay I won't

***in my head thinking, of course they can****