Welcome to Layalina Productions

The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 8, March 27-April 09, 2009

CIA Recruits on TV

The CIA is attempting to recruit more spies by advertising on the internet, radio and television, reports Times of India. It is also holding meetings with American Muslims in order to respond to a severe shortage of Arabic speakers.

Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, will meet Muslim groups to spearhead the drive to recruit Arabic speakers. He recently bemoaned the fact that only 13% of CIA officers speak a foreign language, and just 22% come from a minority background.

"In order to accomplish our vital intelligence mission we want to market our employment opportunities to speakers of Arabic, Russian, Korean, Pashtu and Urdu," George Little, a CIA spokesman, told The Times.

"We want to emphasize to those communities that we welcome first-generation Americans to apply. They bring critical language skills and knowledge of culture to support our intelligence mission." Mr Little said that the CIA holds about 2,000 recruiting events a year, often at universities across the country. It also advertises for recruits on billboards at airports. Last year, the agency received about 120,000 applications. This year it is on course to receive at least 180,000.

The CIA is still recovering from morale problems and an exodus of senior officials during a series of bruising battles with the Bush White House surrounding the intelligence used to justify the Iraq war.

The agency is also looking to reduce its dependence on outside contractors, which increased dramatically after 9/11. "I think we have to bring those capabilities in-house," the Panetta said.

CIA officials say that these efforts are bearing fruit. "We are on track to meet the hiring goals set forth by former President Bush in 2004, which mandated that we increase by 50% the number of CIA officers in certain job occupations, such as intelligence analysts and clandestine officers," says Little to Time.

Back to articles