Al Qaida attempting to infiltrate the CIA?
Is it even a question?
In today's LA Times, Michael Sulick writes that "as many as 40 possible terrorists may have attempted to infiltrate U.S. intelligence agencies in recent months, CIA expert Barry Royden reported at a national counterintelligence conference in March." Had I been free to release my instinct-based reaction, I would have said (not wrote) duh!..(well I wrote it now)
My comment is brief: Not only is al Qaida trying to infiltrating the CIA, but it has been attempting to do so since the mid 1990s. And not only the CIA, but also the FBI and other security and military agencies. And let me add, not only through "Jamesbondian" sensational ways but by the book, and under US laws. Let me just throw this question at the memory of university professors across the nation: How many times were you approached over the past ten years to write a letter of recommendation for a student "very interested" in one of the agencies? Remember his/her reasons, research interest and ponder a little (...)
The whole issue of how the agency is recruiting for its War on Terror is of extreme importance. Two aspects to think about: How many "wrong persons" have been already recruited, and even as worrisome, how many "right persons" were not recruited! I'll come back with more on this later, including in my forthcoming book, Future Jihad, expected at the end of October.
FATAL NAIVETE AND TRANSLATORS NEEDED
July 23, 2005. Under the title "Arab-American Whistleblower Fights Terrorism Despite Harassment" Barbara Ferguson writes in the Arab News that an Arab American translator for the FBI, Hikmat "Joe" Mansour is complaining that there are few Arabic translators at the bureau to monitor what the prisoners -- some alleged terrorists -- are saying. In April 2003, Mansour wrote a letter to his supervisors and the Bureau of Prisons Washington, D.C. office, voicing his concerns that "prison staff was not screening Arabic letters from inmates." Obviously he got in trouble with his superiors, a law suit is brewing, allegations of racism, anti-everything, and the responses by the bureaucracy...etc..
But the point is on a higher level. We all know that the FBI, let alone other agencies have a problem with the "quantity" of Arabic translators. But the concern I would have --and the Counter Terrorism community -- is the "quality" of the translators. For if the Jihadists are desperately trying to get inside the belly of the dragon, they would love to become the translators for the infidel, wouldn't they? It would be the greatest coup to have "Jihadi-translators" sitting with the inmates and exchanging views...
Let's cross that line of naivete and tell the recruiters for national security agencies: wait a minute, the urgency is not the number of translators, it is their security and clearance. We don't want to see a "body" inside the FBI, CIA and other institution growing just to grow. We want to make sure that at the core of it, you have solid and secure citizens who are committed to the fight against Jihadism. We don't want to see a "Jihadi translator core" recruiting by itself.
And above all we don't want the Jihadists to recruit for us. The latter statement is not theoretical. When pro-Jihadi groups such as CAIR are now being co-opted by the FBI for "diversity activities" this nation would be put at a risk as high as the times that preceded 9/11.
Beware of fatal naivete.
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