Press Release: President Obama and Modernizing Intelligence: Statement of Support by Third Way

July 15, 8:15 PMDC Government Business ExaminerDonna Quesinberry

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the DC Government Business Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

The New Intelligencia of 2009

President Obama and Modernizing Intelligence: Statement of Support by Third Way

“Third Way is delighted by reports in the press that President Obama and the Director of National Intelligence have called for the formation of an Intelligence Officer Training Corps (IOTC).

“More than a year ago, Third Way issued a policy brief to the Senate and House, as well as candidates for President and Congress, proposing this idea – a large, dynamic training program for future intelligence officers modeled on the military’s ROTC scholarship program. (See Modernizing Our Intelligence Force – April 2008) Our idea was picked up by the Democratic Policy Committee in the Senate as one of their “big ideas“ for 2008, and then it was adopted by the administration.

“Almost eight years after 9-11, our nation’s greatest intelligence failure, US intelligence services still suffer from a shortage of agents and analysts with the skills they need to take on 21st century threats. To fight these battles, we must have reliable intelligence, and this will require a large cadre of agents and analysts with the right technical, language and cultural skills. (See Fact Sheet attached below.)

“The IOTC that Third Way proposed would provide such a talent pool in a tremendously cost-effective way. Indeed, there are few items in the federal budget that would provide as much security for the US, per dollar spent.

“We look forward to working with Congress and the Obama administration to ensure swift passage of the IOTC.”

Fact Sheet – Why the US needs the IOTC:

We need a 21st century force for 21st century threats.

• The threats of the 21st century present the intelligence community with new and different challenges. Penetrating terrorist cells and insurgencies and translating phone calls and websites requires a more diverse force of agents—a force with vastly different linguistic, cultural, and analytical capabilities than during the Cold War.
• CIA Director Leon Panetta: “To gather intelligence and understand a complex world, CIA must have more officers who read, speak, and understand foreign languages.”
• Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair: “We have been in Afghanistan for more than seven years and continue to fight the Pashto-speaking Taliban…yet we have fewer than 5% of the linguists for this war than we did for WWII.”
• The 9/11 Commission: The CIA “should emphasize transforming the clandestine service by building its human intelligence capabilities.”

The American intelligence community suffers from a crippling shortage of agents with mission-critical cultural and linguistic capacities.

• The CIA is three years behind its goal of a 50% increase in its human spying capacity by 2010.
• Only 5% of the CIA’s undercover spies are ethnic Middle-Eastern, Asian, or South-Asian (meaning Arab, Iranian, Chinese, Pakistani, etc).
• Only 13% of the CIA workforce is fluent in a second language.
• Only 30% of National Clandestine Service officers are fluent in a second language

Creating an intelligence force with greater linguistic and cultural skills is the most cost-effective way to defend the United States.

• It would cost about $65 million to produce 500 candidates annually.
• This amounts to less than 1% of the non-classified intelligence budget. 
• By comparison, one F-22 aircraft, which has not flown a single mission in Iraq or Afghanistan, costs $137 million—more than twice what this entire program would cost annually.

Associated products:

• Modernizing Our Intelligence Force

-------------------------------

The Third Way