"His background helps him be more receptive to people like me. When I tell him something, it resonates," said Sherine Elmasry, an Egyptian-American and senior counterterrorism analyst at the National Counterterrorism Center, who has set up an "affinity" group for Arab-Americans in the intelligence field where they can meet for solidarity and discuss problems.
Among the most serious barriers to reform are continuing delays in overhauling the way security clearances are granted.
Those responsible for screening future spies have been taught to be wary of applicants with relatives or frequent contacts overseas, both to prevent foreign agents from working in U.S. intelligence and to avert the risk that a U.S. agent could be blackmailed if loved ones abroad were threatened or taken hostage.
"The security clearance process is horrible," Elmasry said. "I have seen many great, amazing people just give up on working in the intelligence community because it is such an arduous, bureaucratic mess that often sees suspicion where it shouldn't."
Elmasry said intelligence agencies have failed to retain Arab-Americans, allowing them to get lost in the bureaucracy, and she praised various efforts, such as the group she leads, to help others feel that they don't have to abandon their culture to work in a national security field.
"As a person from another culture, I can translate the information to a Western audience. I can help decision-makers know why a policy might be good or bad, to help them take into account political and economic sensibilities and know what an Arab perspective might be on an issue," she said.
Although specific personnel figures are classified, an estimated 100,000 people work for the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, and nearly half of them have been hired since the Sept. 11 attacks. A key priority of intelligence officials will be replacing those who retire with people who have a native understanding of other cultures and languages.
Sanders said that when a cyclone ravaged Myanmar this year, killing more than 100,000, U.S. Navy personnel, waiting just off the coast with relief supplies, were unable to communicate with local residents. A Navy officer on one of the ships wanted someone who spoke Burmese to translate the phrases: "We have food," and "We are your friends." The officer found a Burmese expatriate who Sanders had recently come to know through his outreach activities and was able to make index cards with the phrases, though the ruling junta in Myanmar never allowed the ships to deliver the supplies.
"We need an intelligence community that literally needs to know everything about everything," he said. "We didn't have any intelligence, we didn't have any linguists. That's the challenge here. You never know from one day to the next where the next crisis is going to be. You need a work force that knows everything about everything."
bradley.olson@baltsun.com
