The United States' top intelligence agency wants to ban its spies from using "biased language," including the terms "radical Islamists" and "jihadist," saying these words "are hurtful to Muslim-Americans and detrimentally impact our efforts as they bolster extremist rhetoric," according to a language guide published internally.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which is responsible for handling the country's spy apparatus, seeks to ban a range of common terms because it says they offend Muslims and foment racism against employees. In addition to terms describing Islamic terrorists, ODNI instructs employees to avoid phrases such as "blacklisted," "cakewalk," "brown bag," "grandfathered," and "sanity check."