CIA’s Language Blindspot

The article argues a key reason the CIA missed Al Qaeda signals was that the Bin Laden unit’s leader did not speak Arabic, so cultural and linguistic cues in bin Laden’s classical‑Arabic speeches went unnoticed. It cites pre‑USS Cole hints—Yemeni dialect and a jambiya dagger on video—that were available in open source but unreadable to non‑Arabic speakers. — If core intelligence failures stem from language and cultural illiteracy, reform must prioritize recruiting and promoting linguistically competent analysts over adding new procedures.