ROK Drop

By on June 21st, 2009 at 9:21 pm

US Intelligence Agencies Looking to Recruit College Students

I would like to see how they plan to keep this college students participation in this program secret?:

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.

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.  [Washington Post]

Judging from this recent story, if they throw in citizenship a bunch of Korean-Americans will probably sign up for this.

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3
  • JL
    3:12 pm on June 21st, 2009 1

    By definition, Korean-Americans would already have the citizenship. You must be referring to green card holders. However, I don't see how'd they would obtain the necessary security clearances to be accepted.

  • guitard
    6:22 am on June 22nd, 2009 2

    Judging from this recent story, if they throw in citizenship, a bunch of Korean-Americans will probably sign up for this.

    There’s a huge difference between your typical FOB looking to join the Army for a few years in exchange for getting citizenship and someone attending a university looking to enter into an elite training program run by the CIA.

  • bdev
    6:24 pm on June 22nd, 2009 3

    This sounds pretty interesting as I had applied for an internship to the NSA last year but was turned down.
    I wonder how this would work with current ROTC students. I’m in the program now but wouldn’t want to give up an officer commission.

 

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