Mormons in intelligence
=======================

Mormons in intelligence is John Kiriakou's observation that Mormons are heavily overrepresented in the CIA and FBI, and to a slightly lesser extent the NSA. The first reason, he says, is the polygraph: they "don't swear, don't drink, don't smoke, don't gamble", having "never done anything," they pass easily. More importantly, their missionary years at Brigham Young leave many fluent in "funky languages that nobody else speaks", Uzbek, Tajik, Pashto and various African languages, so they arrive already able to be sent operationally overseas.

Kiriakou has made the same case elsewhere in more institutional terms: the intelligence community respects Mormons because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sends most members on a one- or two-year mission around age 18 or 19, and is "very, very good about sending them to intensive language training" beforehand, sometimes training as long as, or longer than, the mission itself. Combined with a lifestyle free of smoking, drinking, gambling, and drugs, that record lets them "easily pass a polygraph and a background investigation" and step straight into an operational role. As an example, he recalls working with a Mormon U.S. Information Service officer from the State Department in Bahrain who had, unusually, done his own mission in Monte Carlo.

See also

- Sociopathic Tendencies
- The Farm
