Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Spy diversity

This article on the swearing in of Mike McConnell, the new national director of intellience is nothing special, I just thought the title of it, ""Bush urges diversity in spy recruitment was odd. It turns out what diversity has to do with is "a dearth of operatives who speak critical languages, such as Arabic or Farsi."

Discussions - 6 Comments

"[A] dearth of operatives who speak critical languages, such as Arabic or Farsi."

The bureaucratic wheels turn slowly. Why aren’t congresscritters getting hopping mad about this linguistic deficit and appalling lack of readiness in the diplomatic and intelligence communities? You know, the same congress that gets all torqued over scurrilous charges that Bush and Cheney "manipulated" the intelligence and ginned up a war.

The mad mullahs of Iran have only been our avowed enemy since 1979 or so, a mere 28 years ago. Arab terrorists have only been killing Americans with regularity since the mid-70s. What’s the rush??

You don’t suppose he could be willing to embrace gays (not literally, of course!!!) to help make up the deficit, do you? Perhaps he was using liberal code there. Gays in the military or jihadists on the streets of Ashland. Is that a tough call?

I think it’s a good idea to hire homos as spies. They could dress up as women and infiltrate the enemy camp. And if they get killed, who cares?

"[A] dearth of operatives who speak critical languages, such as Arabic or Farsi."


Perhaps the problem has been finding people qualified to teach the languages, who can also gain the appropriate security clearance?

More aftermath of the Church committee, which disparaged human intelligence as too compromising and messy. Yes, sometimes you have to traffic with unsavory people to collect and analyze intelligence. With A-Q, Iran and the North Korean nutters, we’re up against the limits of a "clean" above-the-clouds approach. 30 years of non-seriousness in intelligence matters are coming home to roost.

Oh, you’re such a classy fella, Hal!

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