thedrifter
12-17-05, 09:05 AM
Marines use wrong list for recruitment letters
Rick Sallinger
(CBS4) DENVER The U.S. Marines are sending out recruiting letters looking for people who speak Arabic, but CBS4 News learned the wrong list was used.
The letters went to many people who either don't speak Arabic or are too old to join the Marines.
The letter includes this request: 'The United States military is in need of your service...your command of the Arabic language will be invaluable among the elite few."
The recruitment letter was sent to 115,000 people.
CBS4 employee Jim Hayek, an American of Lebanese Christian decent, received a letter but he doesn't speak Arabic.
"I wanted to know how I got on the list," Hayek said. "Am I being racially profiled? What's going on?"
The Marine's advertising agency J. Walter Thompson sent the letter to the wrong list of people due to a data base processing error. The agency said it should have gone to a much smaller list of known Arabic speakers.
Normally the $60,000 cost of sending out the letters would be paid for by the taxpayers but J. Walter Thompson said it made the mistake and it will eat the cost.
The Marines said recruiting people who speak Arabic has not been easy.
"Some of the members of the community are offended by it," said Najwa Jad of the Colorado Muslim Society. "It puts us in a difficult position. We want to be patriotic but it can also be viewed as being a traitor in our own community."
The Marines said the letter has brought responses from people who speak Arabic.
Ellie
Rick Sallinger
(CBS4) DENVER The U.S. Marines are sending out recruiting letters looking for people who speak Arabic, but CBS4 News learned the wrong list was used.
The letters went to many people who either don't speak Arabic or are too old to join the Marines.
The letter includes this request: 'The United States military is in need of your service...your command of the Arabic language will be invaluable among the elite few."
The recruitment letter was sent to 115,000 people.
CBS4 employee Jim Hayek, an American of Lebanese Christian decent, received a letter but he doesn't speak Arabic.
"I wanted to know how I got on the list," Hayek said. "Am I being racially profiled? What's going on?"
The Marine's advertising agency J. Walter Thompson sent the letter to the wrong list of people due to a data base processing error. The agency said it should have gone to a much smaller list of known Arabic speakers.
Normally the $60,000 cost of sending out the letters would be paid for by the taxpayers but J. Walter Thompson said it made the mistake and it will eat the cost.
The Marines said recruiting people who speak Arabic has not been easy.
"Some of the members of the community are offended by it," said Najwa Jad of the Colorado Muslim Society. "It puts us in a difficult position. We want to be patriotic but it can also be viewed as being a traitor in our own community."
The Marines said the letter has brought responses from people who speak Arabic.
Ellie