Saturday, November 28, 2009

CIA wants Muslims, Muslims don't want CIA

Reuters

What efforts will be taken to ensure that the recruits are not jihadi infiltrators? Why, none. "CIA goes hiring in heart of Arab America," by Soyoung Kim for Reuters:

DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) - At Tuhama's Lebanese deli in Dearborn, and at bakeries and barbershops throughout town, it's no secret the CIA is looking for a few good spies. There is a lot of talk, and nobody likes it," said Hamze Chehade, a 48-year-old Lebanese-American, taking a bite of his chicken shawarma.

In dire need of agents fluent in Arabic, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has made an unusual public show of its recruiting effort in Dearborn -- a city of 100,000 with the densest Arab population in the United States.

The agency has bought full-page ads in Arabic-language newspapers and it is rolling out TV ads aimed at luring Arab-Americans and Iranian-Americans to spycraft.

But despite a weak economy and high unemployment, the CIA will find it hard to hire here, residents say. Many see U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East as misguided and anger over the perceived mistreatment of Arab-Americans runs deep.

Reuters doesn't mention it, of course, but there is also the idea that it is wrong for Muslims to fight other Muslims (cf. Koran 4:92), and wrong to work for an Infidel polity.

It won't be easy to win hearts and minds here, they say.

"If anyone goes, they would be just going for the money, not following the heart," said Chehade, a cabinet-maker who immigrated from Lebanon 21 years ago.

CIA recruiters said the agency sorely needs speakers of Arabic and other languages due to the intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan and the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq.

"Obviously, with the wars going on in the Middle East, that's really on America's radar," said Henry Medina, who is in charge of CIA recruiting in the Midwest....

One TV spot showed a dinner party at an Arab-American home, with a narrator intoning, "Your nation, your world. They're worth protecting. Careers in the CIA." The camera zooms out to show the party taking place in a modern high-rise building, then a view of the United States from outer space....

"People have been told, 'Your name is Mohammed; your name is Ahmed; you must be a terrorist," said Osama Siblani, Lebanese-born publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News. "How do you bring people into the government when they have been subjected to a great deal of discrimination?"

He added: "You have to believe that what you are doing is the right thing, otherwise you are just a gun for hire."

The problem here, of course, is that Osama Siblani and his ilk have done nothing to root out jihadis from their ranks. Then they try to claim victim status.

Siblani, whose newspaper runs CIA recruiting ads, met CIA Director Leon Panetta during a September visit to Dearborn. "I said, treat us like Americans," he said. "We love America but does America love us?"

What exactly has Siblani done to show he loves America? Islamic groups have generally opposed every anti-terror effort, and have concentrated on claiming to be victimized rather than done anything to demonstrate their loyalty to Constitutional principles and freedoms.

Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, agreed that many Arab-Americans were torn between feelings of patriotism and resentment of U.S. government policy at home and abroad.

"I think transparency will do a lot more than airing TV commercials. There's a large amount of fear and mistrust with the government," Walid said....

There no doubt is, but there should be even more mistrust for CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case that has never seen an anti-terror initiative that it liked.

On Warren Avenue, where signs in Arabic outnumber those in English, other residents said they doubted the CIA would find many willing recruits in Dearborn.

"It's not lack of patriotism. It's questioning of wrong policy," said Mohammed, a 24-year-old graduate student of Libyan descent who asked not to use his last name.

Inside Tuhama's, Chehade said he would warn his adult sons to consider the consequences of signing on with the CIA.

"People are going to hate you," he said.

Now, why exactly is that?
Thanks to Jihad Watch for posting this

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