report: CSIS agents to learn Arabic overseas

[CougarKing]

On a sidenote, doesn't the US military have the Defence Language Institute at Monterey, California?

Canadian Press link


OTTAWA - Canadian spies are heading overseas to take Arabic lessons as part of a long-term effort to help secret agents tackle terrorist threats more effectively.


Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Dick Fadden says the spy agency will send officers to "a country which will remain nameless" to learn the language.


Fadden told a group of military and intelligence officials the effort is "excruciatingly expensive" because of the money and time involved in mastering a new tongue.


"The difficulty, of course, is that those countries in which we're most interested — for people with brains like us — they have the most complicated language which take the longest to learn," Fadden said.


"So in some cases, for our purposes, somebody has to study for two or three years. It is excruciatingly expensive, just in plain cash bucks. And it's expensive in that it takes an experienced officer off-line for two or three years."


But he said CSIS is determined to invest more in language training because otherwise its officers will miss out on useful contacts "on the human front."


Fadden revealed the plans in March to the Royal Canadian Military Institute, but the comments are only coming to light now because of controversy over his remarks — initially made during the same speech — about CSIS suspicions of foreign influence over Canadian politicians.


The most recent CSIS annual report says 44 per cent of the service's intelligence officers can speak a language other than English or French. Collectively, CSIS employees know about 103 languages.


But when asked during the military institute event whether CSIS employees spoke foreign languages effectively, Fadden replied: "Nowhere near as we bloody well should."


"We're trying, at one level, to recruit people who speak more than just English or French," he said, describing the effort as an uphill battle.

"But in fact we've just come to an agreement with a country which will remain nameless where we'll be able to send our officers to learn Arabic, which is a big concern today.


"And we're setting aside some money to enable us to do this in a more systematic way. But we're not doing it anywhere near as much as we can."


CSIS has tried to build bridges with the Muslim community and other minorities in Canada following a rocky period marked by mistrust after the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States.


The language initiative is a positive move because it will help CSIS make better connections and reduce the chance of misunderstandings, said Salma Siddiqui, a member of the federal Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security.

"I think this is money well spent because they need to have the language training," she said.


In his speech to the military institute Fadden noted how CSIS has become much more active abroad in its 26-year history.


"Initially created as a service that was literally bound to Canada, we have now more and more of our operations taking place largely in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, and I suspect this will continue."

CSIS has served alongside Canadian troops in Afghanistan since 2002. It has also worked with the RCMP, military and other government agencies on helping free Canadians kidnapped abroad — a development that worries Fadden.

"It is an extremely profitable way for terrorist groups to collect money. And it doesn't matter how often Foreign Affairs tells people not to go to a certain part of the world. Canadians will insist on going," Fadden said.

"Large ransoms are paid, or worse, terrorists are released from prisons to go out and to continue their work around the world."

He noted that a French secret agent had recently been freed by his captors after Mali agreed to release four terrorists.

"They've now lost track of them entirely, and we now have four very dangerous people who will continue to do damage in that part of the world for years and years to come," Fadden said.

Canada and its allies expect the practice to continue, he added.

"Because aside from anything else it sows discord between countries who have different views on these issues.

"And already the counter-terrorism efforts in that part of the world, in the Maghreb and the Sahel, are suffering because governments are so annoyed with the decision to release these terrorists that they've stopped talking and stopped sharing intelligence."

 

[TimBit]

What`s wrong with learning a language in Ottawa? We have the defence language academy, the FS academy, etc... All in a friendly, secure, family-friendly, CHEAP environment...

Pff, typical CSIS gunk...

 

[dapaterson]

It's the difference between 8-4 lessons and living and being immersed in the culture and language 24/7.  It also permits the students to interact with host nation personnel and build that social network of contacts.

 

[TimBit]

I do get that.
However... many other people work in areas where knowledge of culture, habits, customs and so on will else, i.e. at DFAIT or CSE. But people at DFAIT still take their courses here.

As for the network, well I'm ready to bet anything that the courses will take place in a "friendly" country, so you wouldn`t be able to build much of an intelligence network that would pay off when the caca really hits the fan. Perhaps build links with the host nation, which I perceive as a mostly good but not entirely opportunity - 2 or 3 years in a foreign country is a LONG time during which you can pick up some, shall we say, habits. All in all is that worth the incredible expense? Rather than hiring more personnel? Granted it`s O&M vice SWE (finance talk) but it`s still public money.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Why only Arabic? Let's get them each learning at least four or five languages (please, please, please make sure that at least one of them is Chinese) identify which ones each operator is most comfortable with, then send them to that country to do some good ol' spyin' 'n lurnin'.

 

[Nauticus]

I do get that.
However... many other people work in areas where knowledge of culture, habits, customs and so on will else, i.e. at DFAIT or CSE. But people at DFAIT still take their courses here.

As for the network, well I'm ready to bet anything that the courses will take place in a "friendly" country, so you wouldn`t be able to build much of an intelligence network that would pay off when the caca really hits the fan. Perhaps build links with the host nation, which I perceive as a mostly good but not entirely opportunity - 2 or 3 years in a foreign country is a LONG time during which you can pick up some, shall we say, habits. All in all is that worth the incredible expense? Rather than hiring more personnel? Granted it`s O&M vice SWE (finance talk) but it`s still public money.

Is it worth it? Is it worth giving our intelligence service the best training possible, including languages, to protect our country from terrorism and threat? Yes. Yes, I do believe that is worth it.

 

[George Wallace]

Is it worth it? Is it worth giving our intelligence service the best training possible, including languages, to protect our country from terrorism and threat? Yes. Yes, I do believe that is worth it.

At the same time, what is the greatest threat today?  Will it be the greatest threat tomorrow?  Should we be concentrating on teaching Pashtun to people, if we are pulling out in one year?    We could have "men staring at goats" trying to determine who are our future threats.

 

[TimBit]

Is it worth it? Is it worth giving our intelligence service the best training possible, including languages, to protect our country from terrorism and threat? Yes. Yes, I do believe that is worth it.

Well, from where I sit, many manage to do the job extraordinarily well without spending 3 years in-country spending half a mil. Keep in mind, that money could also be spent on more personnel.

 

[dapaterson]

There are always tradeoffs between quality and quantity.

From my seat in the bleachers, the overseas immersive learning experience is superior.  And the network of contacts in an allied or friendly country is extremely useful.  Having a name who to contact instead ofa monolithic bureaucracy is incredibly useful.

And I would be very leery of holding up DFAIT as a model to be emulated in most respects...

 

[Blackadder1916]

. . . . .  the overseas immersive learning experience is superior.  And the network of contacts in an allied or friendly country is extremely useful.  Having a name who to contact instead ofa monolithic bureaucracy is incredibly useful.

I concur (through personal experience, though not in language training) that overseas training/learning can be superior and is a valuable tool for developing international work contacts.  However, it is unlikely that the CSIS employees will be attending "Arabic for Spys" run by a foreign intelligence service.  It is more likely that the training will be conducted at one of the many civilian educational providers (including universities) that now sell language training to thousands of westerners (from the public and private sectors) wanting to be proficient in the local tongue.  Granted the local government (and their spooks/security agencies) will be aware of the students' pedigrees and have approved of such stays in their country.  There may even be some limited (informal, social?) contact between the local spooks and our guys, but my (uneducated) opinion is that knowledge of these Canadians' stays will be more beneficial to the host nation's security service than to ours (easier to keep tabs on them).  However, if these CSIS pers gain proficency in Arabic (a difficult task), being able to "speak the same language" (both literally and figuratively) can open many doors and foster easier communication and cooperation in future multi-national operations.

On a different note, would these CSIS officers incur a contractual obligation for this expensive education once they obtain what could be a very marketable skill?

 

[TimBit]

On a different note, would these CSIS officers incur a contractual obligation for this expensive education once they obtain what could be a very marketable skill?

Well, from a friend over there, it's understood that if you accept such an opportunity, the bulk of your career will be spent on Arab affairs. Don't expect to go there and come back to chinesse CI. As for a "time in" clause, I do not think so no.

 

[Nauticus]

Well, from where I sit, many manage to do the job extraordinarily well without spending 3 years in-country spending half a mil. Keep in mind, that money could also be spent on more personnel.

More personnel doesn't solve the language barrier process.

And George, you're right that this may or may not be the threat tomorrow, but it is today. So like everyone is told to do, plan for what we know, be aware of what we don't, and make the best of it.