MCLEAN, VA. - The U.S. is its own worst enemy when it comes to the desperately important task of recruiting immigrants as spies, analysts and translators in the war on terror, new Americans are telling intelligence officials. The government's policies raise suspicions and fear in the immigrants' home countries and disturb potential recruits in the U.S. who might otherwise want to help.

The U.S. knows it needs the help. At the heart of a Friday summit with immigrant groups was a stark reality: The intelligence agencies lack people who can speak the languages that are needed most, such as Arabic, Farsi and Pashtu. More importantly, the agencies lack people with the cultural awareness that allows them to grasp the nuances embedded in dialect, body language and even street graffiti.

At the suburban Virginia summit, officials gathered more than a dozen representatives of recent immigrant and other ethnic groups to get their recruiting assistance.

"We are going to ask you to open up your communities to us," said Ronald Sanders, an assistant national intelligence director.

The officials got an earful in return -- about immigration and hiring rules and foreign policies that make life harder in immigrants' old countries. The intelligence agencies' own practices also came under criticism: extraordinary rendition, holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, harsh interrogation practices that some say amount to torture.

"Basically they've scared people," said Amina Khan of the Association of Pakistani Professionals and a lawyer formerly with the U.S. Energy Department.

Some U.S. policies after the 9/11 terrorist attacks made things worse, said Kareem Shora of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

"The policy missteps and mistakes tended to alienate the very community they are now trying to approach and work with," Shora said.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are collaborating on an internship program to begin to tap that expertise.

"We need these people, their expertise, their understanding of culture, of language. We don't have it today, and it is a great deficiency," said Charles Allen, a longtime CIA officer who is now the Homeland Security Department's intelligence chief.