In WWII, beating the Japanese meant recruiting Americans of Japanese ancestry, to understand the culture, and the language. In the Cold
War, we propagated Soviet Studies programs at universities across the nation, to get an edge on what the Russians were thinking. Today, the FBI and CIA are advertising for translators "in a[n online] publication that can only be described as objectively pro-terrorism," according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism. __UPDATE: Several commenters say the Project is flat-out wrong in its characterization of the site. "Unabashedly pro-Palestinian and left wing. But pro-terrorism? I think it’s a lot murkier than that," one friend writes in. __
That would be the Sami Al-Arian the FBI tried and failed to prosecute for terrorism-related charges last year. The same FBI that employed sham-marriage-for-citizenship perpetrating, Hizballah-linked Nadia
Prouty as a special agent . . . until she was recruited by the CIA
to work as a case officer.
Given the reputation these agencies have for firing uppity linguists with rare language skills, sacking analysts with the temerity to speak the truth about Islamic threats or just not hiring people with the right skills and backgrounds because of counterintelligence concerns (real or imagined), what madness drove them to develop a method of recruiting in pro-terrorists periodicals?
My guess: desperation. And sheer, beeping cluelessness.
This is how wars are lost.
-- Michael Tanji, cross-posted at Haft of the Spear
