Spying 101: US Wants Colleges to Train 007s

It's like a cloak-and-dagger version of ROTC. The government wants universities to help train the next generation of spies, the Washington Post reports. The proposed program would recruit first- and second-generation students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, the Mideast and Asia in particular, and run them through a specialized set of courses to prepare them for their covert careers.

Under the plan, potential intelligence officers would be recruited from juniors and sophomores and required to pass a background check. Colleges would get grants to boost foreign language and analytic courses useful to spies-in-training, and the recruits would get financial aid in return for a commitment to serve a set period of time. The names of students taking part in the program would, of course, be kept top secret. (More espionage stories.)