PrintCIA has a program to recruit transgendered spooks
I would be behind the CIA's diversity efforts if I could be convinced that they will enhance the agency's ability to keep us safe. But a program dedicated to recruiting transgendered people is not designed to make the agency better – only more "diverse."
The plan, released by the CIA’s Diversity and Inclusion Office last week, lays out several goals for “weaving diversity and inclusion throughout the talent cycle.”
One agency goal is “Becoming an Employer of Choice,” and includes “dedicated programs” to recruit every demographic imaginable.
“Cultivating an inclusive culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness enables all officers to contribute to their full potential,” the CIA plan stated. “When employees feel included, have a voice, and are given opportunities to develop and maximize their potential, we create an organization of choice and become a model employer for the full diversity of America’s talent.”
“We will continue to enrich our workforce by targeting diverse communities across the United States to meet our talent needs, with dedicated programs for citizens of African, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Native American descent; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals; Persons with Disabilities; Veterans; and Women,” the CIA said.
Among the intelligence agency’s key actions to meet this goal is to teach recruitment officers to “strengthen cultural competencies and combat unconscious bias.”
The CIA will measure its progress of recruiting minorities, LGBT individuals, veterans, and women by using an “inclusion index.” The agency will also track “Diversity and gender break-down of applicant flow data and recruiting trends.”
CIA Director John Brennan said diversity and inclusion are “at the heart” of what the intelligence service is “charged to do.”
“This three-year strategy renews and strengthens our focus on diversity and inclusion and sets us on a course to further enrich our workplace and fully leverage our talented workforce,” Brennan said. “Combining what we have in common with what each of us brings as unique individuals is a powerful recipe for success. This is the kind of Agency our employees expect and deserve. Together we can make this happen.”
Maja M. Lehnus, the agency’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, said the plan allows the “opportunity to weave diversity and inclusion deep into the fabric of” the CIA.
Can you find anything in those statements that would lead you to believe that the CIA will improve its human intelligence gathering – HUMINT – if it seeks out employees based not exclusively on their abilities or intelligence, but rather on someone's nebulous notions of what constitutes "diversity"? I can't. And I suspect that the social justice warriors at the agency don't care about such mundane notions as hiring the best and brightest to protect America.
To them, it's more important to protect their politically correct ideas that make diversity an end in and of itself. And if the agency's ability to protect us is eroded? A small price to pay for diversity.
