KU prof's CIA training proposal passes Congress / LJWorld.com

Archive for Friday, November 28, 2003

November 28, 2003

A Kansas University professor's idea for training federal intelligence agents has been approved by both houses of Congress.

The ROTC-style program received $4 million in funds in the Intelligence Authorization Act, which was approved last week by Congress and is expected to be signed by President Bush.

The program was the brainchild of Felix Moos, KU professor of anthropology. Moos has noted that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were a sign of lax information-gathering by U.S. intelligence units.

Moos proposed the idea to U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who included the measure in the bill. It will be called the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program.

The act authorized the Community Management Staff, a division of the Central Intelligence Agency, to create a pilot project to test the idea next year. Students would receive scholarships to learn about particular areas of the world and then serve with the CIA for a set amount of time.

The project would target "areas in which the current analytic capabilities of the intelligence community are deficient" and areas where they're projected to be deficient.

A CIA spokeswoman said officials hadn't determined where the project would be tested or how long scholarship recipients would be required to serve. The pilot project will involve no more than 150 students during its first year.

Moos couldn't be reached for comment this week.

http://www.cia.gov/

"The idea was that since our analysis in intelligence isn't always complete, we really need a new generation of young analysts who have a much broader and different training," he said in May. "They need language training and knowledge of different cultures. If America's going to be engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea, we need a new generation who thinks along really different lines."