Arabic-L:GEN:Incompatibility of security clearance and good Arabic

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 08 Mar 2007
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Incompatibility of security clearance and good Arabic

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1)
Date: 08 Mar 2007
From:"David Wilmsen" <dww22 at georgetown.edu>
Subject:Incompatibility of security clearance and good Arabic

Here we go again.  The Army is advertising for a position that
requires   a) "previous experience in the Middle East," which it names
as "extremely desirable" b) "a deep understanding of the issues and
culture of this region" and c) "a US citizen with the ability to
obtain a secret security clearance".

Apparently any US citizen who has gained experience in the Middle East
by virtue of having travelled there and so also acquired any
understanding of the issues and culture of the region, let alone a
deep understanding, cannot get a security clearance.

For example, one of my students, a member of the Marine reserves,
managed to travel to the Middle East on his own initiative in order to
study Arabic and lost his secret security clearance thereby.  Another,
who can hardly speak a word of Arabic, is hurrying to obtain her
clearance before she goes (and hurrying to bone up on the lingo before
she goes too).

I wonder what the US government will do with all of the youngsters it
is funding with critical language fellowships ( for which I am
currently being inundated with requests for letters of reference),
once these courageous souls return from their language study
programmes abroad, having thereby rendered themselves unemployable by
the government in the positions for which the government needs their
expertise?


--  
David Wilmsen, PhD, Arabic language and linguistics
Visiting Associate Professor of Arabic
Dept of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Georgetown University

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End of Arabic-L:  08 Mar 2007