CIA cautions recruits to be clandestine
Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:12 amCIA cautions recruits to be clandestine<br>By KEVIN HOWE<br>Herald Staff Writer<br>First names only, please.<br><br>Those CIA guys and gals are really secretive. And it rubs off quickly.<br><br>Michael J. Mau, regional recruiter for the Central Intelligence Agency, brought his team in to pitch the agency to students at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, one of a number of business, government and nongovernment agencies that pass through the graduate school in search of talent.<br><br>The CIA, Mau said, is particularly interested in recruiting people with language skills. Monterey Institute, where most students are dual language and other majors such as business, diplomacy and international studies, is a particularly target-rich environment.<br><br>Thursday evening's recruiting session was advertised by bulletin board, said "Joe," who took Mau's advice to students to tell as few people as possible about their interest in the CIA.<br><br>They'll be asked about it in the polygraph phase of the nine to 12-month vetting process, Mau told his audience of about 50 students. Someone who's blathered about it to everybody he knows will find that it makes their employment prospects "complicated," he said.<br><br>Mau served in the Air Force for five years, went to college as a history major, came out and decided to try the intelligence agency "for a few years. That was 15 years ago."<br><br>And just as most people in the Air Force don't fly, most people in the CIA don't spy, he said.<br><br>The actual spies in the field, said "Chris" of the agency's National Clandestine Service, spend most of their careers overseas, recruiting agents. It's an adventurous and stressful job, but offers early retirement benefits.<br><br>"Joe" liked the intelligence analyst positions described by "Jay," who described a nine-to-five "think-tank" sort of environment, where analysts receive floods of information, sift through it, and draw up any nuggets for the morning team meeting, whose members then prepare the president and cabinet's daily briefing. "It's a collegial process."<br><br>Access to the White House is one of the perks, and in all divisions of the CIA is the opportunity for travel, he said.<br><br>The recruiters said prospective analysts should be good, facile writers and readers; field agents need good interpersonal skills and a well-developed sense of mission, and language skills -- especially in critical languages, such as Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Korean and Chinese -- are highly valued and earn bonuses in all parts of the agency, Mau said.<br><br>The presenters emphasized that CIA employees are given opportunities to maintain their language skills and further their educations as part of the job.<br><br>Mau said he sees "several thousand" potential recruits in his area covering the western states, but said the number recruited is classified.<br><br>Recruits are subjected to physical, psychological and polygraph tests, undergo an intensive background check, and must be drug-free for at least 12 months before even applying for a position, have no history of bankruptcy or financial irresponsibility, and no criminal record.<br><br>They must also be U.S. citizens, Mau said, and the agency prefers that their family members also be citizens or longtime U.S. residents.<br><br>Applicants who served in the Peace Corps must wait five years after the completion of their service before applying to the CIA, he said, and no one who served in the CIA can ever join the Peace Corps to avoid undermining trust in the corps.<br><br>A foreign spouse of an applicant would also undergo a polygraph test to determine if he or she ever worked for a foreign intelligence agency. People holding dual citizenship, he said, do work for the CIA.<br><br>It's a good time to apply, Mau said. A lot of agents in the "baby boomer" generation are retiring at a time when the CIA has stepped up recruiting. If a recruit passes the screening process, he said, there's better than a 60 percent chance he or she will be hired.<br><br>Mau warned, in closing, that, whether analyst or clandestine service agent, any CIA employee could find himself in an undercover role, so the fewer people who know about the employee's job, the better.<br><br>"Be security-conscious early," he said.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/15748462.htm">www.montereyherald.com/ml...748462.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> <p></p><i></i>