Need for linguists stymied by Cold War procedures

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Minoo Krauser, of Gaithersburg, has two cousins living in her native Iran, a faraway family link that could be preventing her from getting a job at America’s secretive intelligence agencies.

Krauser has applied online to three agencies, figuring her Farsi fluency is her ticket to join the war on terrorism, in which language skills are highly prized.

Mike McConnell, the nation’s top intelligence officer, said last month his agencies need more linguists but are stymied by Cold War rules. Agencies, he said, still discriminate against applicants who have family abroad.

This may be the reason Krauser has been rebuffed. She has yet to hear an answer, or even get an interview, after filling out applications for the FBI, CIA and the National Security Agency.

The NSA has an especially critical need for linguists since it intercepts huge volumes of phone calls and e-mails in Arabic, Farsi and other Middle Eastern languages.

“In language analysis, every little word can have global ramifications,” the NSA Web site says. But it is apparently not interested in Krauser.

“I didn’t get any reason. I don’t know of any reason they say no,” she said during an interview in her Gaithersburg town house. “Just a letter saying they got it. I didn’t need to apply again.”

Krauser’s case opens a small window into the world of the super-secret NSA, based at Fort Meade, Md. The agency answered a series of questions from The Examiner about its linguist hiring practices.

Spokeswoman Andrea Martino said the NSA receives 6,000 resumes a year. Those not hired, but who seem qualified, are passed along to other intelligence agencies.

To overcome the difficulty of requiring hired linguists to move, the agency allows some to work at the 4-year-old National Virtual Translation Center in Washington.

The center, Martino said, “allows qualified language analysts to stay close to home and to support their nation virtually.”

The spokeswoman did not address Krauser’s case but said “it can be challenging to hire individuals with ties in foreign countries. Not impossible, but challenging.”

Intelligence experts say the fear is that an employee can be coerced into becoming a spy because of threats to family members abroad.

For Krauser — who was smuggled out of Iran in the 1980s, became a U.S. citizen and married a military officer — the lack of feedback is frustrating. “I’m an American,” she said. “I was born in Iran. I cannot be an enemy of Iran. I am against the Iranian government.”

rscarborough@dcexaminer.com