According to a report that examined the FBI’s progress since the Sept. 11 attacks, the organization urgently needs to improve its intelligence capabilities and hire more linguists to counter the rapidly evolving threats against the United States. The report was done by the FBI 9/11 Review Commission, and it says the bureau has made strides in its intelligence collection and sharing, but that its ability to gain information from people and to analyze it lags “behind marked advances in law enforcement capabilities.”
“This imbalance needs urgently to be addressed to meet growing and increasingly complex national security threats, from adaptive and increasingly tech-savvy terrorists, more brazen computer hackers, and more technically capable, global cyber syndicates,” the report said. While the FBI has a number of linguists in its larger offices, they are in short supply throughout the rest of the country. “Hiring additional linguists and integrating them should be a high priority,” the report said.
The report said that to improve its intelligence gathering and analysis, the FBI needs a five year “top-down strategic plan.”
