Do you know how many intelligence officials this affects anyway? How many Jewish Americans with dual citizenship or naturalized citizens are in the CIA/FBI/Senior military? Are we talking a lot of people?
They intercepted a cable referring to an Israeli spy. I’m not aware of any more detailed info, the CIA wouldn’t release it anyway. However this wasn’t an isolated incident, and it does have some history. The FBI has acknowledged keeping separate lists of their Jewish employees up until about 1995. Ciralsky claimed there were about ten other agents reassigned or denied clearances. No way of knowing if this is true. Probably the most notorious similar case is the one of David Tenenbaum's, an engineer who lost his clearance and job under similar circumstances. From his supervisor, “…Mr. Tenenbaum had been singled out for investigation at least partly because he is Jewish, speaks Hebrew, wears a yarmulke and had an "obvious love" for Israel.” That test effectively eliminates Jews from employment in the defense industry.
You said you didn't think they found the agent they were looking for. Are you sure? And if they did, would they let you know? They may be settling the case only to avoid publicly revealing sensitive information.
I suspect the case was settled, but I don’t know. The CIA got a lot of bad publicity out of this (60 minutes, multiple news outlets) and it reemerged during the presidential campaign.
I don’t know if the found the agent. I don’t remember any information that was developed that would even point to Ciralsky as a suspect. He had ties to the Jewish community (in America), he flunked a fraudulent polygraph test (FBI agents have referred to his case in congressional testimony as an example of the unreliability of polygraphs) after passing two, and his security clearance was pulled. I think the concept that an orthodox Jew is a greater risk than a reform Jew, both much worse than a non-practicing Jew is ridiculous. Most of the people in these (dual citizenship) cases had long employment histories (and usually win their clearances back) which could have been relied on.
There's a fine line between discrimination and legitimate profiling (I don't think 'pre-emptive' profiling is legitimate), but if my suspect walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, dagonnit, I'm not going to be looking for chickens.
Pre-emptive profiling is exactly what you are dealing with here. The CIA assumed that it would be easier to recruit spies from religious Jews, and purged them. Remember, the CIA doesn’t claim Ciralsky is a spy. I think the time they spent on him was wasted.
Do you know how many intelligence officials this affects anyway? How many Jewish Americans with dual citizenship or naturalized citizens are in the CIA/FBI/Senior military? Are we talking a lot of people?
I don’t know how many are affected. Remember you are talking about defense contractors as well so I’m sure it’s significant. I think you overstate the dual-citizenship issue. The issue is really dual loyalty. Many people acquire this passively (birth, parents). Can it be renounced? In most cases. But it’s a time consuming process and does make travel to Israel difficult (impossible). And I don’t think Israel will accept it from someone of draft age. But unless we are applying a litmus test (which we haven’t in the past and it’s unclear if we are now) why would anyone loyal to this country bother? I think pursuing people over dual citizenship, rather the loyalty, is a lot of wasted effort.