Obama team looks to colleges for future spies

[Zwinmar]

WASHINGTON - To the list of collegiate types — nerds, jocks, Greeks — add one more: spies in training. The government is hoping they'll be hard to spot.

The Obama administration has proposed the creation of an intelligence officer training program in colleges and universities that would function much like the Reserve Officers' Training Corps run by the military services. The idea is to create a stream "of first- and second-generation Americans, who already have critical language and cultural knowledge, and prepare them for careers in the intelligence agencies," according to a description sent to Congress by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.

In recent years, the CIA and other intelligence agencies have struggled to find qualified recruits who can work the streets of the Middle East and South Asia to penetrate terrorist groups and criminal enterprises. The proposed program is an effort to cultivate and educate a new generation of career intelligence officers from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Under the proposal, part of the administration's 2010 intelligence authorization bill, colleges and universities would apply for grants that would be used to expand or introduce courses of study to "meet the emerging needs of the intelligence community." Those courses would include certain foreign languages, analysis and specific scientific and technical fields.

The students' participation in the program would probably be kept secret to prevent them from being identified by foreign intelligence services, according to an official familiar with the proposal.

'Monthly stipend'
Students attending participating colleges and universities who agree to take the specialized courses would apply to the national intelligence director for admittance to the program, whose administrators would select individuals "competitively" for financial assistance. Much like the support provided to those in the military programs, the financial assistance could include "a monthly stipend, tuition assistance, book allowances and travel expenses," according to the proposal. It also would involve paid summer internships at one or more intelligence agencies.

Applicants to the intelligence training program would have to pass a security background investigation, although it is unclear when they would have to do so. Students who receive a certain amount of financial assistance would be obligated to serve in an intelligence agency for the same length of time as they received their subsidy.

Students in the military programs typically participate for all four years of college, but the intelligence program would seek to recruit sophomores and juniors. Through grants to colleges and universities, intelligence agencies have been building partnerships with academia and specific professors, some of whom in past decades served as channels for recommending applicants to the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The intelligence community already has a Centers of Academic Excellence Program that funds programs in national security studies at more than 14 colleges and universities, with a goal of having 20 participating schools by 2015. The programs receive between $500,000 and $750,000 a year.

The intelligence officer training program would build on two earlier efforts. One was a pilot program, first authorized in 2004, for as many as 400 students who took cryptologic training and agreed to work for the National Security Agency or another intelligence agency for each year they received financial assistance. That program will be replaced by the new one because cryptology is not as needed as it once was.

A second program provided financial assistance to selected intelligence community employees who agreed to study in specialized academic areas in which officials believed there were analytic deficiencies.

Named the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program, after the Kansas Republican who chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, over the past four years it has provided funds to some 800 students and current employees.

The director of national intelligence would make the Roberts program permanent under the new proposal and expand it beyond analysts to include personnel in acquisition, science and technology. It also could be used to help recruit employees by reimbursing them for prior education in critical areas.

Heh.

[LapsedPacifist]

I was listening to the author of Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force--The NYPD on NPR a few weeks ago. According to them the NYPD has experienced a lot of success with a very similar program, although I believe that the recruits are pulled out of the NYPD's recruitment pool.

LP

[Coyote]

The CIA has been recruiting on campuses since at least the 1970's that I know of. This isn't an "Obama thing".

[The Spartan]

The CIA has been recruiting on campuses since at least the 1970's that I know of. This isn't an "Obama thing".

But was that an ROTC type program?

[Memnon]

Anything that helps the US get more Human Terrain - style units fielded is a good thing, even if they aren't literally boots on the ground.
To be honest, it's surprising that something like this didn't come up earlier to me.

[Lonestar]

The CIA has been recruiting on campuses since at least the 1970's that I know of. This isn't an "Obama thing".

Since the 1950s, the guy in charge of the "arming the Muhj" in the '80s program was recruited during college in the '50s.

[phongn]

The NSA has run their own scholarship-for-service program for years and years.

[Lonestar]

The NSA has run their own scholarship-for-service program for years and years.

To comment further on it, every summer around here in the DC is Bird-watching Intern season at all the agencies. The Intel Community recruits all the time from colleges, this is nothing new.

[Coyote]

The Intel Community recruits all the time from colleges, this is nothing new.

Well, except that now it is being done... at the behest of a secret mooozlim socialist. Wait for the right-wing screech blogs to get the ball rolling.

Because the same people who thought the Patriot act was all fine and dandy will now be very concerned about government spying.

[LapsedPacifist]

I think that a lot of the success of the NYPD program was selecting 1st and nd generation immigrants who wouldn't traditionally get a security clearance. It seems like the fundamental change here is accepting that same group of people rather than what has been the traditional intelligence intern.

LP

[Broomstick]

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the Fed spy agencies started recruiting on college campuses during WWII

[Pelranius]

I would suspect that they probably started after World War I. Though not spies for foreign missions per se, I think J Edgar Hoover got a lot of his initial FBI staff out of Ivy League schools.

[Eleas]

Because the same people who thought the Patriot act was all fine and dandy will now be very concerned about government spying.

It's because they imagine the other side doing all the things they wanted their own side to do, and it terrifies them.

[MKSheppard]

This won't do anything. The CIA thought that the Shah would remain into power well into the 1980s, and continue modernizing Iran. They've been wrong on just about everything, from how fast the Soviet Union would get the bomb, to various other things; for so long, that at this point, we should just disband them, and bring back the Office of Strategic Services answering to the JCS for our HUMINT needs.

[Lonestar]

DIA does HUMINT stuff.

[Memnon]

DIA does HUMINT stuff.

Well, I'm sure that the 'other intelligence agencies' includes the DoD intelligence agencies, probably including the DIA. The CIA was probably singled out for name brand recognition. (this is if you're vaguely replying to my post, though if not then I apologize >_>)

Besides, don't the intelligence services compete with each other for all sorts of responsibilities? As far as I've heard the CIA and DoD's agencies have problems because of that. I'm sure that the CIA uses HUMINT (like the Domestic Contact Service), too.

[Darth Wong]

This won't do anything. The CIA thought that the Shah would remain into power well into the 1980s, and continue modernizing Iran. They've been wrong on just about everything, from how fast the Soviet Union would get the bomb, to various other things; for so long, that at this point, we should just disband them, and bring back the Office of Strategic Services answering to the JCS for our HUMINT needs.

Is there some reason to believe that a resurrected OSS would be infallible?

Is the CIA's primary weakness its name? Is this another right-wing "rebranding" strategy? If you're just changing the name, I don't see what difference it would make. If you're dumping the entire old staff and creating a new bureau from the ground up, that would lead to massive transition chaos. And if you have no particular reason to believe that the new office would be immune to the problems of the old one, the whole idea seems utterly pointless and wasteful.

[Kamakazie Sith]

This won't do anything. The CIA thought that the Shah would remain into power well into the 1980s, and continue modernizing Iran. They've been wrong on just about everything, from how fast the Soviet Union would get the bomb, to various other things; for so long, that at this point, we should just disband them, and bring back the Office of Strategic Services answering to the JCS for our HUMINT needs.

So, because they're not perfect on a subject that isn't fucking math they should be disbanded? Wow...seems pretty harsh. Is there an organization that deals with unknown variables that has a good track record of being right?

[MKSheppard]

So, because they're not perfect on a subject that isn't fucking math they should be disbanded? Wow...seems pretty harsh

Well.....

Excerpt from "Iran in the 1980's" by

Central Intelligence Agency
Directorate of Intelligence
5 October 1977

The Outlook

The Shah seems to have no health or political problems at present that will prevent him from being the dominant figure in Iran into and possibly throughout the 1980s. His style of rule and his general policies will probably remain about the same unless dramatic developments in the international environment force him to make a change. The Crown Prince, who will be 20 years old and eligible to assume the throne in 1980, may emerge as a more significant figure. The amount of responsibility the Shah gives him will be an indication of whether or not he might step down some in his son's favor. So far the Crown Prince has been given only ceremonial duties.

Yeah, that turned out SO well; along with their prediction of when the commies would have the bomb. Here's a hint -- the CIA said the russians wouldn't have it for a long time -- while the US Air Force's Intelligence guys said a lot shorter. Guess which one was right.

[MKSheppard]

Is there some reason to believe that a resurrected OSS would be infallible?

A resurrected OSS would be under the JCS' aegis; and here's a big factor -- it's agents and operatives would not be required to have bachelors' degrees.

Yes, you heard me right -- the CIA's Special Activities Division (SAD); the successor to the paramilitary activities of the OSS requires it's candidates to have bachelor's degrees.

I'm sure a bachelor's degree can be useful when you're trying to translate the incoherent scribbles of field agents into something that can be executive summarized in a presidental meeting; but for low level intelligence gathering, you want people who are a bit more down to earth -- in short, you want the kind of guys who, because they were "bored" in WWI; went on trench raids by themselves with a knife to kill Germans heading SAD, not Ivy Leaguers.

BTW, one of my late friends actually did refer to the Ivy League branch within the CIA as the Hitler Youth.

[Vendetta]

Holy shit! You mean that an intelligence agency might look for some indicator of intelligence in applicants, such as may be demonstrated by the ability to learn for and obtain a degree?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Holy shit! You mean that an intelligence agency might look for some indicator of intelligence in applicants, such as may be demonstrated by the ability to learn for and obtain a degree?

You do realise that field operatives need to be more than bookish sense but actually able to have some degree of common sense in accomplishing the mission? The analysis can be thrown to degree holders, but gathering the intelligence? Here's a tip: Many snipers and special ops personnel aren't degree holders.

[Narkis]

WASHINGTON - To the list of collegiate types — nerds, jocks, Greeks

Greeks? I'd heard there are quite a few of us studying in the US, but really, so many that they warrant to be mentioned as a distinct group along with nerds and jocks? And what the heck do Greek students do that make them stand out so much? Eat gyros and souvlaki with lots of tzatziki in it until the smell grosses everyone that tries to talk to them? Hug and kiss everyone they meet? Drink so much ouzo that they lose their senses? Listen to, and sing, terrible Greek songs and dance terrible Greek dances at the most inappropriate times?


I'm sorry for the above off-topic post. But I just have to know.

[Memnon]

WASHINGTON - To the list of collegiate types — nerds, jocks, Greeks

Greeks? I'd heard there are quite a few of us studying in the US, but really, so many that they warrant to be mentioned as a distinct group along with nerds and jocks? And what the heck do Greek students do that make them stand out so much? Eat gyros and souvlaki with lots of tzatziki in it until the smell grosses everyone that tries to talk to them? Hug and kiss everyone they meet? Drink so much ouzo that they lose their senses? Listen to, and sing, terrible Greek songs and dance terrible Greek dances at the most inappropriate times?


I'm sorry for the above off-topic post. But I just have to know. :D

That's referring to fraternities and sororities which colleges have :P
Those are collectively referred to as "Greek life" over here.

[Kamakazie Sith]

So, because they're not perfect on a subject that isn't fucking math they should be disbanded? Wow...seems pretty harsh

Well.....

<Snip>

I wasn't asking you to produce evidence of your claims. I was asking you to show me which agencies has a better track record of being right and also if that agency is right more often than it is wrong. Basically, I'm asking you to substaniate your assertion that the CIA should be disbanded.

All you've done here is shown me that at one time the Air Force Intel got something right that the CIA got wrong. Woopdeeedooo...