Initially, the Central Intelligence Agency has placed newspaper ads in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Tampa and Detroit, which are all recognised as having sizeable Arab-American populations. The ads will be followed by more in other parts of the US.
The intelligence agency says it is targeting second- or third-generation professional Arab-Americans, who might be considering a change in career. It supports existing recruitment efforts where the CIA is targeting students on American campuses.
The agency was slammed after the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York. It was accused of having a serious lack of Arabic expertise, which led to Al-Qaeda terrorists being able to freely enter the US and carry out acts of terror. The agency was also criticised for not having enough agents on the ground attempting to infiltrate Al-Qaeda.
The press ads features a picture of the famous Ellis Island in New York, once the first stop for many new immigrants to the United States, in an effort to appeal to the patriotism of Arab-Americans. The image is accompanied by the copy: "For over 100 years, Arab-Americans have served the nation. Today, we need you more than ever."
According to CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield: "What we're looking for are second- or third-generation Arab-Americans with area and cultural expertise, as well as foreign-language skills."
Last year, the British government considered a similar recruitment advertising campaign for MI6, the UK's own intelligence service, as Britain too faced up to the fact that it lacked the resources to deal with an expanding counter-terrorism role.
The Secret Intelligence Service, as it is officially dubbed, was looking to boost its numbers by as much as 10% and is particularly looking to recruit Arabic speakers.
MI6 had already turned to former members of the UK's special forces units, the SAS and the Royal Marines' SBS, to use as agents to meet the shortfall.
Similar efforts are being made to boost the numbers joining these units of the Armed services, as both the SAS and SBS are said to be under-strength. Both units have been closely involved in the war against terror and were deployed extensively in Afghanistan. The SAS are currently reported to be training in Oman ready to take part in any attack in Iraq.
In the last Gulf War, British special forces were the only allied units to operate deep behind enemy lines, working to seek and destroy Iraqi Scud missile launch sites.
More recently America awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour, the equivalent of the Victoria Cross, to a member of the SBS who led the rescue of a CIA officer from an Afghan prison revolt at Qala-i-Jangi near Mazar-i-Sharif.
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