"Is this going to be, you know, like a 007 mission?"
Waleed Mohamed asked that question on Tuesday when told that the FBI wanted to engage people like him -- fluent English-speakers also proficient in Arabic -- in what US President George W. Bush is calling the "fight against terrorism on all fronts."
"This war ain't gonna be no quick, in and out in one-month thing. It's going to be a long-term war," said Mohamed. "I need time to think," he said, after sharing fleeting thoughts about becoming a James Bond-style secret agent.
FBI Director Robert Mueller announced the recruitment drive at a news conference in Washington on Monday. He said the FBI was seeking candidates who speak Arabic to help crush what US authorities are calling an international terror network linked to Saudi-born exile Osama bin Laden.
The National Security Agency and the army are also shopping around for Arabic speakers, government sources said.
An FBI spokeswoman in Washington said the initial response to the call from Mueller had been "very encouraging." She said no numbers of applicants or recruits were available on the first day of the enlistment campaign.
Those who join the FBI, even as contract workers, must be US citizens who have been permanent residents for at least three of the last five years and pass a background check and language test.
"I'm all for supporting my country. I was born and raised here," said Mohamed, a 23-year-old auto worker who spoke outside a mosque in this Detroit suburb before midday prayers.
"I'm all for getting these terrorists," he added, referring to those responsible for last week's airborne assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "These guys are barbarians, animals."
Mohamed, whose parents emigrated from Yemen, said he did not rule out joining the FBI. But in light of hate crimes targeting members of the Arab-American community since last week, he admitted he was confused by the government call for help.
"I don't even go anywhere outside this community unless I have to," said Mohamed, explaining that he and his family had only felt safe in the teeming Arab-American enclaves of Dearborn since last week.
Dearborn, whose 100,000 residents include an estimated 30,000 people of Arabic descent, has the largest concentration of Arabs of any city outside the Middle East.
Mohamed Musa, leader of the Islamic Center Mosque where the younger Mohamed worships, said he favors Arab-Americans working for the FBI.
"This is an honor to share in this special effort," Musa said. "They will prove they are doing something with others to defend our country, the United States of America, and to protect it from the evils and from the terrorism."
He was joined by Youssef Beydoun, a Dearborn mayoral assistant of Lebanese descent, who said the local recruitment drive was likely to be highly successful.
"There's a lot of people here who are dedicated to this country and they feel that this is their homeland," said Beydoun.
A Reuters/Zogby poll released on Monday showed that 38 percent of American voters believe Islam is a religion that encourages fanaticism.
However, outbreaks of anti-Arab violence, in reprisal for crimes US Arab leaders have condemned, have left many people like Waleed Mohamed saying they feel alienated.
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