FBI Needs Arabic Speakers

The Washington Post reports:

Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them work in the sections of the bureau that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new FBI statistics.

Counting agents who know only a handful of Arabic words -- including those who scored zero on a standard proficiency test -- just 1 percent of the FBI's 12,000 agents have any familiarity with the language, the statistics show.

Gee, maybe they should hire some of the more than 50 Arab linguists who have been thrown out of the US military for being gay in order to satisfy the anti-gay right.

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Gee, maybe they should hire some of the more than 50 Arab linguists who have been thrown out of the US military for being gay in order to satisfy the anti-gay right.

But you're assuming that security is more important than pandering to the RR base...check your premises.

I wonder how many qualified applicants failed the polygraph screening (the "Are you lucky enough that the machine doesn't arbitrarily kick you out?" test).

By Troublesome Frog (not verified) on 13 Oct 2006 #permalink

I really have to wonder what purpose is being served by purging the military of important talent for some utterly trivial and inconsequential reason like this? Certainly there is some behind-the-scenes benefit to someone somewhere, but what could it possibly be that trumps national security? It boggles my humble little mind. And yet I can hope that these drummed out soldiers still have enuf patriotic spirit to offer their talents to other security aparatus (like the FBI) even though, at times, the country doesn't seem to want them.

Geez, who is being served by this backward priority system?