rssPanetta Cracks Down on CIA Foreign-Language Deficiency
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 10:23 am
- 12 Comments
Under a new policy announced today by CIA director Leon Panetta, an intelligence officer can’t be promoted to the agency’s highest rank — the Senior Intelligence Service — without a demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language. From a CIA release:
While many senior Agency officers have tested proficient in a foreign language over the course of their careers, some have not kept their skills current. Under the new policy, promotions to SIS for most analysts and operations officers will be contingent on demonstrating foreign language competency. If an officer is promoted to SIS and does not meet the foreign language requirement within one year, he or she will return to their previous, lower grade. This is a powerful incentive to maintain and improve skills critical to the Agency’s global mission. Languages play a key role in the CIA’s work at all career levels.
“The stricter requirement for SIS promotion,” said Panetta, “is meant to ensure that leadership on this vital initiative comes from the executive level. With an unwavering commitment from SIS officers—to both lead by example and to support language proficiency at all levels—we will reach not only our language goals, but our ultimate objective: an Agency that is better positioned to protect our nation in the years ahead.”
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12 Comments
Comment posted January 29, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
This is only happening now! In college we were all required to be proficient in at least one other language than English. Are you telling me that my college had more stringent graduation requirements than the CIA?
Comment posted January 29, 2010 @ 3:03 pm
I studied Farsi at the Defense Language Institute back in 1964-65 for the Army Security Agency (now Military Intelligence); About halfway through the 37 week course we were told that they had decided that they did not need us as linguists so they cross-trainined us into another MOS. We were allowed to finish the Farsi course. They sent me to Germany after the cross-training.
I find it incredible how deficient our military and intelligence language skills are. We hire native born speakers as interpreters and translators. But in my day, had I married a foreign national, I would have immediately lost my top secret codeword security clearance and been transferred to another unit within 24 hours.
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Comment posted January 29, 2010 @ 5:03 pm
I'm astonished this wasn't the policy already. And only one foreign language? Not two or three? This is the %$#@ing CIA.
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Comment posted January 30, 2010 @ 10:33 am
Sounds familiar. You were obviously in ASA as I was. I went through the French course and then on to NSA where they proceeded to teach us Haitian Creole. While in that course, Papa Doc Duvalier eliminated his opposition and I was excess baggage as well, so they sent me to Vint Hill where I whiled away my time taking college courses until I got caught up in Vietnam. Plus ca change c'est la meme chose n'est pas?
Comment posted February 4, 2010 @ 1:58 pm
I think that is great! The State and Federal Government officials for education should require ALL of its Foreign Language teachers to take the OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) every 3 years to ensure that they can still understand and speak the language they teach, because we are inundated with incompetent teachers who have tenuer and/or professional teaching certificates and are untouchable. WE WANT COMPETENT PROFESSIONALS!!!
Comment posted February 4, 2010 @ 6:58 pm
I think that is great! The State and Federal Government officials for education should require ALL of its Foreign Language teachers to take the OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) every 3 years to ensure that they can still understand and speak the language they teach, because we are inundated with incompetent teachers who have tenuer and/or professional teaching certificates and are untouchable. WE WANT COMPETENT PROFESSIONALS!!!
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Comment posted August 2, 2010 @ 10:29 am
that is all because of the gravity of the earth around us
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