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Reuters – February 6, 2007
Fear of bias keeps U.S. Muslims out of military
Bernd Debusmann
WASHINGTON - Desperately short of soldiers who speak Arabic and understand Islam, the U.S. military is quietly courting American Muslims. But they show little enthusiasm for an institution many say is prejudiced against them.
"The military have the same problem as civilian government agencies, such as the FBI," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group. "There is a general reluctance to join because Muslims think there is bias against them and career prospects are limited."
Pentagon statistics show there are more Jews and Buddhists than Muslims serving in the 1.4 million strong, overwhelmingly Christian armed forces.
In the Marine Corps, there are only slightly more Muslims than Wiccans, who practice witchcraft. And in the Air Force, Wiccans outnumber Muslims by more than two to one.
The Pentagon lists 3,386 Muslims in active service, compared with 1.22 million Christians of a wide array of denominations, including little-known groups such as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel or the Pentecostal Holiness Church International.
The statistics are drawn from personnel records that include a "religious faith code," a rubric soldiers are asked, but not obliged, to complete. Some Muslims in the military say their real number is higher, and estimates go up to 10,000.
Whatever the figures on religion, it is a lack of Arabic-speaking officers and soldiers steeped in Islamic culture that is so striking, a subject that comes up in most conversations with people returning from duty in Iraq.
While there is no specific recruitment drive aimed at Arab and Muslim communities in the United States, the Pentagon has made well publicized moves to show that the military does not equate Islam with terrorism and is making efforts to accommodate Muslim Americans who want to serve both God and their country.
For example: Last July, the Marine Corps dedicated a new Muslim prayer center at its base in Quantico, Virginia. A month later, the Air Force Academy commissioned its first Muslim chaplain. And in September, the U.S. military academy at West Point inaugurated its first Muslim prayer room.
West Point is the oldest military academy in the country and reaction to its move highlighted a general climate of suspicion and distrust of Muslims in America since the attacks on New York and Washington of September 11, 2001.
A chief concern of the U.S. military is Islamist infiltration," the conservative Investor's Business Daily said in an editorial. "Yet the Army, in a show of blind tolerance, just made that easier with the dedication of a new mosque at West point.
"Erecting mosques at our military bases and academies ... gives berth to erect a Fifth Column inside our military."
Warnings of fifth columnists, a staple of right-wing bloggers since September 11, 2001, gathered momentum after an Army sergeant who converted to Islam, Hasan Akbar, rolled grenades into the tents of sleeping soldiers at a base in Kuwait and opened fire on those who ran out…..
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=inDepthNews&storyID=2007-02-07T005726Z_01_N06463720_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-MUSLIMS-MILITARY.xml
Washington Post – February 7, 2007
Incoming intelligence chief plans to
ease hiring of Arab Americans
Walter Pincus
The incoming director of national intelligence, retired Navy Vice Adm. John M. McConnell, plans to change security rules to make it easier for intelligence agencies to hire first-generation Arab Americans for highly sensitive jobs.
These rules, dating from World War II, limit intelligence agencies' ability to employ first-generation Americans "who might have native language capabilities from serving in some of these very sensitive positions in the intelligence community" and hinder efforts to deal with radical Islam, McConnell said during his confirmation hearing Friday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The rules McConnell described are in a directive from the director of central intelligence, or DCI. They require citizenship verification for access to the most highly classified data, known as sensitive compartmented information. For the foreign-born, there must be verification of U.S. citizenship and legal status in this country of immediate family members, including "spouse, cohabitant, father, mother, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters," the directive states.
Another element that must be considered when hiring is "foreign influence," according to adjudication guidelines that the White House adopted in December 2005. One section of the guidelines refers to "contact with a foreign family member, business or professional associate, friend, or other person who is a citizen of or resident in a foreign country if that contact creates a heightened risk of foreign exploitation, inducement, manipulation, pressure, or coercion."
An intelligence agency chief can waive these criteria, but McConnell said he wants to change them because they constitute "one of the areas that needs probably the greatest deal of attention and improvement . . . using people who speak the native language, understand the culture and the tribal conditions."
McConnell is not the first to raise the issue, though his proposal to alter the relevant security rules goes further than did his predecessor's. In his farewell address as national intelligence director on Jan. 19, John D. Negroponte talked about the need to "tap into the great diversity of ethnicities and talents our nation possesses" and "increase training and education in foreign language."
In April 2005, former CIA case officer Lindsay Moran raised concerns about language expertise and security on PBS's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." No one in her initial training class, she said, "spoke any of the languages that the CIA needs to go after terrorist groups, such as Arabic, Pashtu or Urdu."….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601603.html
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