Provincialism

The FBI is having foreign language troubles.

The Washington Post reports that five years after 9/11 only thirty-three FBI agents have even minimal Arabic proficiency. Guess how many of those work in international terrorism sections? Zero. Yes, that's right. The numbers are not much better for Farsi.

What seems to be the hold-up? Apparently, the FBI cannot bring itself to hire "foreigners" - basically anyone who has relatives overseas. It's American provincialism at its worst. Among those who are routinely rejected by the FBI - I have this on anecdotal evidence - are Jews from Iraq, Yemen, North Africa, and Iran who came to the US as children or teenagers.

Great quotation from Georgetown professor Daniel Byman, head of that university's Security Studies Program:

"It is easier to get a security clearance if you don't have any interaction with foreigners, which is not what you want if you want better interaction with foreigners."

All of this came to light during a lawsuit filed by Special Agent Bassem Youssef. Youssef, who happens to be one of the Bureau's highest-ranked Arabic speakers, is suing the FBI and the Justice Department for "retaliation." Instead of protecting Americans by having people on staff who actually understand what al Qaeda members are saying, the FBI decided to cut Youssef out of terrorism cases post-9/11. After he complained about his treatment to a congressman, the FBI blocked Youssef's promotion.

We are getting mail from our enemies. This is good. No one in the loop knows how to read it. This is bad.

BTW some good charts at the link above.

The FBI has always been a provincial organization filled with "suits". In fact before 9/11 they had about twice as many agents fighting drugs as working on terrorism. Why? In those days a table full of dope got more news coverage than rounding up terrorists. Raed Hijazi was ready to spill the beans on Al Queda in America. The FBI wasn't listening. What were they listening to from Raed? Dope tails.

So we have a price support system for criminals and terrorists (drug prohibition) and naturally the FBI went with the flow. Now the flows are changes some. What is the FBI doing? Well one part is supporting terrorists (through prohibition enforcement) and another part is going after terrorists. Why? It is what we pay them to do. Anti-terrorism and prohibition support are both popular programs. The real stupidity is not in the FBI. Or: we get the government we deserve.