TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Monday, February 05, 2007

From Associated Press Oct. 1, 1981:

" Traveling in pairs, clad in distinctive white shirts and ties and wearing their hair close-cropped, young LDS missionaries abroad are being mistaken for CIA officers.

"I was accused of bring CIA," said Floyd Rose, a former missionary in Spain who is now a student at church-owned Brigham Young University. ...

"People were always asking us if we were CIA," agreed Mike McQuain, another BYU student who did his missionary work in France. "People would ask us at doors and yell 'CIA' at us as we went by."[...]

The LDS Church, which has more than 30,000 missionaries worldwide, denies any connection with the CIA. But the confusion is understandable -- the CIA does some of its successful recruiting in predominantly LDS Utah.

This summer, the CIA conducted an experimental radio advertising campaign in Utah. Charles Jackson, the CIA's chief recruiting officer, said "well over 100 applicants responded to the radio spots."

Jackson said the agency is looking for potential overseas case officers, intelligence analysts, scientists and computer specialists, the latter two categories difficult to recruit because of competition from industry.

"Utah is one of our good sources," said Denver CIA recruiter Jack Hansen, now in Provo to recruit at BYU, whose student newspaper – The Daily Universe -- is currently running CIA job advertisements.

[...]"We've never had any trouble placing anyone who has applied to the CIA," said Dr. Gary Williams, head of the BYU Asian studies department. "Every year, they take almost anybody who applies."

Former LDS missionaries have the three qualities the CIA wants: foreign language ability, training in a foreign culture and former residence in a foreign country, Williams said.

In addition, Williams said, "our Mormon culture has always been more supportive of the government than American culture as a whole."

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Labels: mormons

| Posted at 11:59 | PERMA-LINK |

Comments:
The story is very credible and understandable. As a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) in the Philippines, many Filipnos jokingly asked me if I was really "CIA". I can understand how LDS missionaries could be asked the same question.

I saw a number of them in the Philippines, but never talked with any that I can recall except perhaps a brief "hello." However, in many countries where there may be either LDS missionaries or PCVs, there are insurgents in the rural countryside who are at odds with their corrupt government. Such was the case in the Philippines where I lived. If I or any of the LDS missionaries had really been CIA or acted suspiciously to justify a strong belief by the local people, the insurgents (in the Philippines, the NPA -- New People's Army/or as Filipinos say "Nice People Around") would have probably killed us, as they did corrupt local government officials, thieves, rapists, and the military and police. The NPA constituted a disciplined vigilante police force/government of its own who meted out justice very severely. We would be easy targets. The fact that you don't read of such incidents is indicative that both organizations have tried to keep themselves clean of such infiltration within their ranks.

Our PC administrators were very conscious of the possible danger of such suspicions by the local people and advised us PCVs not to fraternize with US Embassy or USAID personnel any more than necessary to do our work, because those agencies definitely DO have CIA infiltrators!


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posted by  Anonymous : 8/2/07 00:03

 

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