TERRORISM: NSA Opens Up Thousands of New Positions, page 1

The National Security Agency (NSA) is hiring over 7,500 in its largest hiring spree since the 1980's. The NSA is a Maryland based agency that intercepts and deciphers foreign communications. The agency was downsized in the 90's and some feel that this lead to failure of warning about the Sept. 11 attacks. Two Arabic messages that told of the event were intercepted on Sept. 10th, but were not translated until Sept 12th.

CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The highly secretive National Security Agency is looking to hire 7,500 workers over the next five years in the spy agency's largest recruiting campaign since the 1980s.
A release posted on the agency's Web site said NSA plans to hire 1,500 workers by September, and another 1,500 in each of the next four years. Those with specialties in foreign languages, especially Arabic and Chinese, were encouraged to apply.
NSA said it was boosting its staff "to meet the increasing needs of the ever-changing intelligence community."

Last year NSA hired over 100 linguists, which was a huge increase from the 14 hired in 1999. NSA official have been visiting colleges, universities and handing out sign-on bonuses to help find recruits. This is a drastic change for an organization that was once so secret, people joked that its initials stood for "No Such Agency". Linguists are not the only targets of the NSA. Mathematicians, computer scientist, and people with analytical skills are sought out for hiring as well. This current hiring frenzy is only slowed by the background checks, which can take up to a year. Finding American citizens with the desired language skills is a difficult task, and bills have been introduced to help fund more intensive language classes for languages that are key for national security.

Other Sources:
Global Security