Spy on mission to rebuild trust on home front

The document outlines other efforts as well: creating committees with ethnic advocates, attending conferences, visiting mosques, initiating a "national campaign" to promote diversity with marketing and messages tested by focus groups, and recruiting at colleges like Wayne State University in Michigan or California State University-San Bernardino, known to have high populations of Arab-Americans and Chinese-Americans, respectively. Sanders also plans to help applicants manage the security clearance process and improve retention by getting mentors to coach new hires.

Some ethnic civil rights advocates say this effort is long overdue, since the Department of Homeland Security and FBI have already initiated similar, well-received programs. Even so, some remain skeptical.

"There will continue to be people who are extremely apprehensive, since we know for a fact that the reputation of our country abroad has unfortunately been tarnished in recent years," said Kareem Shora, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who applauded Sanders' efforts. "But if people like him have their eye on the ball and can do a better job engaging with our community, I think there is a lot we can achieve together."

Sanders' personal heritage hasn't hurt either, Shora said.

A low-key presence who speaks with unusual frankness for a senior intelligence official about the need for reform, Sanders is the son of a Baltimore father and an Egyptian-born mother.

Sanders' father worked for the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River, making airplanes for the French before the United States entered World War II. Waylaid in Egypt while waiting to deliver some aircraft, he caught malaria and was nursed to health by the mother of his future bride.

Sanders said his own mother had developed a love of the United States from watching movies and taught her children lessons that are common for immigrant parents: that America is a land of opportunity and they should do what they could to give back to the country.

Those admonitions are part of what drives Sanders, he said, since he knows there are many skilled children and grandchildren of immigrants eager to work in top secret jobs. He also brings to the job personnel experience from the Internal Revenue Service, Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defense.

His work is winning advocates inside the intelligence bureaucracy, including from analysts who come from the communities where he's seeking recruits.