CIA not just looking for 'secret spies'

Four men in suits - Henry, Jamal, Greg and Joe - giving only their first names because of the sensitive nature of their positions, flipped through slides and weaved in and out of the playful mystery of what their jobs entailed in front of a captivated crowd in the IU Career Development Center. \nThe aura of international intrigue and a profession that commonly turns heads and raises eyebrows gave the presentation for the recruitment event held last week an added boost of excitement. The presenters were from the CIA and were seeing if their next top spies, analysts and translators would be found at IU.\nA "myth-dispelling" pamphlet was passed out in the beginning, toning down the expectations found in Hollywood and the common perceptions of most people. The literature dispelled myths number two and three, which read "everyone drives a sports car with machine guns on the tailpipes" and "you have to be a super human in every way."\nBut the presenters made it clear: Recruiting students for national security positions is serious business and is not something to be taken lightly. This was shown when the presenters required all who were present to turn off their cell phones since they could be considered two-way radios.\nIU student Christopher Mullins, who has five years of Arabic education and has an interest in Northern Africa, arrived at the event and said he was interested in joining the Agency.\n"I'm just going to listen and see what comes of it," he said. \nIU has a particular interest for national security agencies because of its nationally renowned summer languages program, which offers in-demand Pashto, Tajik and Usbek, among twenty other languages available to top students around the world.\n"There are significant financial incentives for language proficiency," said Jamal, who repeatedly referred to parts of central Asia as "take-your-pick-istan."\nCentral Asian and the Middle East have increasingly become centers of focus for national security since Sept. 11, 2001, said Director of IU's Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center William Fierman. \n"We look at the whole person, not just grades," Joe said, and Jamal added that integrity is the most important characteristic.\nLance Erickson, assistant director for student services at IU's Russian and East European Institute, said languages have historically been very important to IU, and was careful to distinguish between the activities of national intelligence recruiters and the mission of IU's summer language programs.\n"We could cut off these recruiters for the next three years and it wouldn't affect our funding," Erickson said. He added that attending the recruitment presentations is entirely optional but said, "if (IU) didn't have recruiters it would make IU a less viable option for students."\nOfficials from the center for career development said the goal of the recruitment event was to provide IU students with the best and most options available to them. \n"I connect people to opportunities; students make choices based on their personal values," said Caroline Dowd-Higgins, associate director of external relations at IU's Career Development Center. "We believe in free speech, absolutely."\nIn past years there have been various levels of protests at recruitment events for the CIA and other federal agencies. However, this year the only bystanders were Red Bull endorsers, providing event-goers with free cans of the energy drink. \n"Most people who protest don't know what the CIA really does," Dowd-Higgins said. "People think they know what they know from TV." \nThe presentation offered was meant to clear up misunderstandings and provide information about what working for the CIA is really like.\nThe presenters encouraged those interested in the CIA to visit the agency's Web site, www.CIA.gov, and to click on "CIA Careers."\nThere will be a government and social services career fair Oct. 25 and the Agency officials maintained the atmosphere of mystery by saying the CIA may or may not attend event, but will maintain an active role in the future on campus.\n"Our job today is to do outreach," Joe said. "We will come back (at some point)." And students, Dowd-Higgins assures, will definitely attend.