DCIA Hayden's Comments On The National Threat Assessment (US Fed News via OSINFO)

Following the DNI's presentation of the latest Threat Assessment (see here for the full text, here for my summarized version), DCIA Mike Hayden made some prepared follow-on remarks that talk about what the CIA is doing and how they are doing it. Of most interest to intel studies students is probably this passage:

• "We're able to hire from among the best and brightest - our Recruitment Center received 125,000 resumes in Fiscal Year 2007, and we hired a near-record number of new officers, more than a quarter of whom belonged to racial or ethnic minorities. While many of these new officers are recent college graduates, many others have years of experience in the private sector, the military, or other government agencies. Almost 40 percent have advanced degrees."

• "We're a young work force - half of our officers have entered on duty since 9/11, and many are under 30. Training, developing, and retaining these new officers is a top priority, particularly because 20 percent of our work force will become eligible to retire during the next five years. We're intensifying our leadership training and have revamped our Strategic Language Plan to address our needs in Arabic and other mission-critical languages."