DEARBORN — Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is scheduled to meet with local Arab and Muslim community leaders during a Sept. 16 visit to Dearborn.

Leon Panetta, director of the CIA

The CIA has implemented a sweeping outreach and recruitment campaign in Arab American communities over the last several years, seeking out speakers of Arabic and other Middle East languages.
The visit comes weeks after the release of records detailing harsh, Bush-era CIA interrogation and rendition programs, and the disclosure of a secret, unsuccessful program in which private Blackwater USA security contractors were hired to assassinate suspected terrorists.

Panetta was appointed CIA Director by President Barack Obama in February and has battled Attorney General Eric Holder over the release of interrogation records and Justice Department investigations of agency officials. In June, Panetta called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency withheld details of the relationship with Blackwater contractors and that he officially ended the program shortly after learning of its existence.

Over the past several years, the CIA has sponsored and maintained a presence at countless Arab American annual functions, including fundraising events for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Arab American and Chaldean Council, the Arab American Chamber of Commerce and other organizations, spending tens of thousands on booths, banners and advertising.

CIA spokespeople have said the number of job applications coming out of the Detroit area has risen significantly since the effort began.

Other top agency officials met with Arab American leaders in Southfield earlier this year.

CIA spokesman George Little told the Detroit News Tuesday “These individuals have the kinds of skills, knowledge and experiences that can strongly advance our vital intelligence mission and protect the nation’s security.”