Now Hiring?

You can imagine my mixed feelings at seeing this story.

The CIA has launched a crash program to clear a backlog of job applicants and hire recruits who can speak Arabic, Korean and other languages critical to national security priorities.

As recently as five months ago, CIA applicants with sought-after skills such as fluency in Arabic or Korean faced long delays in hiring if they had relatives living overseas, CIA Director Porter Goss says.

To fill the shortage of experts in key languages and meet a presidential order for a 50% increase in analysts and overseas operatives, Goss started an end-to-end overhaul of the recruiting system.

Today, security issues that once took 18 months to overcome are being handled in a matter of weeks, according to Betsy Davis, the agency's No. 2 recruiting official.

Last year, the commission created to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks criticized the agency's lack of language experts and the delays in obtaining security clearances.

CIA security officers have long worried that job candidates with foreign ties could leak sensitive information. That meant those candidates would have to endure long waits as the agency investigated their families and friends.

So, let's review. People who can read Arabic or Korean: crucial to national security. People who can trace the development of warfare from the dawn of time to present, understand the principles of war and their application to modern warfare, understand the legal stipulations of the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Charter: not crucial to national security.

Wankers.