CAIRO — Vowing to re-examine security measures that excluded Muslim and Arab candidates from his agency, CIA chief Leon Panetta has called for Muslim help in the fight against terrorism, reported The Detroit News on Thursday, September 17.
"I need you; the nation needs you," Panetta told about 150 Muslim leaders at an iftar banquet Wednesday in Dearborn, which has a large Arab and Muslim population.
The CIA chief said his agency needs American Muslims to join his organization to give a boost to the fight against terrorism.
“As CIA director I can tell you there’s probably no other organization that stands to benefit more from our nation’s diversity than the CIA,” he said.
“That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m committed to making this agency look like the world that we have to operate in.”
The CIA suffers a shortage in staffers fluent in languages deemed critical in its work.
Only 13 percent of CIA employees are fluent in a second language.
The figure is also about 30 percent at the CIA's National Clandestine Service, to which most foreign-deployed officers are assigned.
The CIA has recently launched a five-year program to teach employees languages deemed critical in the fight against terrorism.
“We have to reflect the face of this nation, and we have to reflect the face of the world," said Panetta.
* “We’re ready”
The CIA chief vowed to re-examine security clearances that excluded Muslim and Arab candidates from joining his agency.
"We can't collect the information that we need or the intelligence that we need unless we have language capability," said Panetta.
“And that job, frankly, is the work of all Americans. That’s why I look to welcoming more Arab Americans, Chaldeans Americans, and Muslim Americans to the CIA’s mission.”
The CIA has been struggling to win back the trust of the Muslim minority, who took the brunt of excessive powers granted to the Bush administration in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
The spy agency was also embroiled in the rendition of terror suspects, without court permits, to third-world countries where they faced torture.
Welcoming the CIA chief’s plea, US Muslim leaders vowed help to protect their country against threats.
“We are ready to serve this country that we love,” Osama Siblani, spokesman for the Congress of Arab American Organizations of Michigan, said.
American Muslims, estimated at between six to seven million, have been in the eye of storm since the 9/11 attacks.
They have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was targeting their faith.
“We Arab-Americans and Muslims have suffered since 9/11,” said Siblani, who is also publisher of the Arab American News.
“And it’s time that we were treated like Americans.”
Source: IslamOnline
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