Mormons mistaken abroad for CIA agents
SALT LAKE CITY - Traveling
in pairs, clad in distinctive white
shirts and black ties and
wearing their hair close
cropped. young Mormon mis
sionaries abroad are being mis
taken for CIA officers
“I was accused of being CIA,"
says Floyd Rose, a former mis
sionary in Spain who is now a
student at church-owned
Brigham Young University "We
were different than most Amer
icans and some of the people
really believed it " He says he
was asked about the CIA at least
once every two weeks
"People were always asking
us if we were CIA " agrees Mike
McQuain, another BYU student
who did his missionary work in
France People would ask us at
doors and yell CIA at us as we
went by."
Jeff Turley says the CIA label
was a standing joke among
missionaries in Peru For
laughs, he says, some of them
would tease the Peruvians by
whipping off a shoe and speak
ing into it. or do the same with a
buzzing digital watch
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, which has
more than 30.000 missionaries
worldwide, denies any connec
tion with the CIA But the con
fusion is understandable — the
CIA does some of its most suc
cessful recruiting in predomin
antly Mormon Utah
This summer the CIA con
ducted an experimental radio
advertising campaign in Utah
Charles Jackson, the CIA s
chief recruiting officer, says
well over 100 applicants re
sponded to the radio spots
Jackson says the agency is
looking for potential overseas
case officers, intelligence an
alysts. scientists and computer
specialists, the latter two
categories difficult to recruit
because of competition from
industry
“Utah is one of our good
sources,” says Denver CIA
recruiter Jack Hansen, now in
Provo to recruit at BYU, whose
student newspaper — The Daily
Universe — is currently running
CIA job advertisements
‘ A lot of people here have
language or foreign culture ex
perience, “ he says “That's
what we look for "
Many young Mormon men
spend two years proselyting for
the church Those sent to for
eign missions return with for
eign language ability and know
ledge of specific countries BYU
records indicate that about
6,700 people in its
26,000-member student body
are former missionaries
"We've never had any trouble
placing anyone who has applied
to the CIA," says Dr Gary Wil
liams, head of the BYU Asian
Studies Department "Every
year they take almost anybody
who applies "
Former Mormon missionaries
have the three qualities the CIA
wants foreign language ability,
training in a foreign culture and
former residence in a foreign
country Williams said
In addition, he said, "our
Mormon culture has always
been more supportive of the
government than American cul
ture as a whole
In the late 1960s and the
1
1970s. Williams says, many un
iversities took a negative view of
the CIA and other government
agencies and discouraged
students from accepting their
jobs Throughout those tur
bulent times, however, the Mor
mon Church continued to en
courage government service,
he adds
Williams says a sense of con
formity and respect tor authority
which Mormons learn as mis
sionaries. along with their ab
stinance from drugs or alcohol,
may also appeal to the CIA
But he also says that many
former BYU students who land
jobs with the CIA become disil
lusioned and leave after about a
year They find they're stuck in a
Washington office translating
newspaper articles when they
had hoped to go overseas
The most prominent example
of a former Mormon missionary
who later worked for the CIA —
but didn't much like it — is Elder
Neal Maxwell, a member of the
church s governing Council of
the Twelve Apostles Maxwell
says he worked tor the CIA in
Washington for about a year,
doing economic analyses He
says he didn't care for the work
and hasn't been affiliated with
the CIA tor 30 years
Williams admits that some
governments are concerned
about the pretty good dose of
returned missionaries who ve
gone back to the countries they
were in as Central Intelligence
agents "
He says Brazil was among the
countries which have ques
tioned the church about the
number of former missionaries
who've returned as CIA em
ployees and Taiwan had ex
pressed concern because a
mission president there had
worked with the CIA several
years prior to his church as
signment
Stanley Taylor, director of
BYU's International Relations
Department and a consultant to
the Senate Intelligence Com
mittee says he doubts many
foreign governments worry
about a possible CIA-Mormon
connection
The governments are so
phisticated enough that they
know better he says "I don t
think they take it very seriously,
(but) I don't doubt for a minute
that a lot of the people may "
Young Mormons leaving on
missions for the church have
sometimes been approached to
work concurrently for the CIA
Williams says adding that he
knew of none who had ever ac
cepted the offer
F LaMond Tullis. professor of
Latin American government at
BYU agrees
I don't know of any Mormon
missionary who has ever been
involved with the CIA, he says
"But they are out there, knock
ing on doors and talking to
people in a way that would lead
people to believe they are find
ing things out about the
country "
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