Intel agencies seek help recruiting new immigrants

The agencies will try to contain the risk of giving people with close foreign associations access to top secret information by increasing the scrutiny that all employees get once they are cleared, a practice known as life cycle monitoring.

McConnell told the meeting of immigrant community leaders that he is increasing sensitivity training for the intelligence agencies' 100,000 employees.

U.S. officials are trying to adjust how they talk about the war on terrorism so as not to alienate Muslims. That adjustment is needed, said Mohammed H. Ali, an imam with a Virginia Muslim community organization.

"I'm concerned about the language used to describe terrorism," he said.

McConnell said he is, too.

"We try not to refer to 'jihad' as something that's bad," McConnell noted, referring to a recent government communications policy.

It's a first and somewhat controversial step toward shaping the language the United States uses to compete with the international messages of al-Qaida. The terror group's messages are increasing: In 2005 it issued about 15 video or audio messages. In 2006, there were 50. In 2007 there were 97. There will probably be even more in 2008, including a fresh message from Osama bin Laden this week.

"We did a good job in the war against Communism. We have not done a halfway decent job of countering the virulence (of al-Qaida) and the message properly," Allen said.

"I never use the term 'global war on terrorism,'" Allen said. "I have never used it publicly, and I don't write it that way either."

"We have so much work to do because countering this ideology is absolutely central to everything that we do. This is our way of countering al-Qaida in the future. If we don't get it right and we don't do the outreach correctly, we will simply lose ground," Allen said.