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FBI Arab translators cheered Sept. 11
WND ^ | 1/7/04 | Paul Sperry

Posted on 01/07/2004 4:43:49 AM PST by Diogenesis

Arab translators cheered Sept. 11 [.... while the FBI kept the FBI free of Jews]

By Paul Sperry
WASHINGTON – In a shocking revelation, an FBI whistleblower claims some
Arab-Americans translating Arabic intercepts for the FBI spoke approvingly
of the terrorist attacks on America more than two years ago.


Former FBI translator Sibel D. Edmonds says translators of Middle Eastern
origin working for the FBI's Washington field office maintain an
"us"-versus-"them" attitude that's so strong it may be compromising al-Qaida
investigations.


She cited examples of mistranslations and security breaches within the FBI's
language division, where translators with Top Secret clearance interpret
sensitive terror-related information for agents.


"The issues and problems within the FBI's translation units range from
security failures to questions of loyalty to competence of translation personnel
to systemic problems within their low-to-mid-level management practices,"
Edmonds said.


She made the explosive charges Monday in a letter to the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, an independent
panel investigating the 9-11 attacks and U.S. intelligence leading up to them.
WorldNetDaily has obtained a copy of the 9-page letter.


Edmonds, a translator who worked closely with FBI counterterrorism and
counterintelligence agents at an office within blocks of the Washington field
office, said she overheard some translators express sympathy for the 9-11
terrorist attacks.


"During my work with the bureau, I was seriously taken aback by what I
heard and witnessed within the translation department," she said. "There
were those who openly divided the fronts as 'Us' – the Middle-Easterners who
shared certain views – and 'Them' – the Americans who were the outsiders
[whose] arrogance was now 'leading to their own destruction.'"


Not long after the attacks, Edmonds said one translator said: "It is about time
that they get a taste of what they have been giving to the rest of the Middle
East."


She says the remark was made in front of the unit supervisor, also of Middle
Eastern origin.


"These comments were neither rare nor made in a whisper," Edmonds said.
"They were open and loud."


She says such attitudes call into question "the integrity and accuracy" of
information Arabic translators are feeding agents.


Edmonds says agents who don't speak Arabic have no way of knowing
whether the information they receive from translators is tainted.


"They simply have to trust the information given to them by translators," she
said, "and based on that, decide to act or not act."


Decisions to release terrorist suspects taken into custody are also based on
translations of interviews with those suspects, she argues.


Remarkably, agents don't even have direct security access to the translation
unit, Edmonds says. They have to be escorted into the area by translators.


She says she caught a Turkish translator intentionally blocking intelligence
from being translated by labeling it as "not pertinent." The translator also
intentionally mistranslated documents and other information, she says. And
she alleges the same linguist, Melek Can Dickerson, was granted security
clearance by the FBI despite ties to targets of FBI investigations.


After she brought the alleged breaches to the attention of her supervisors,
Edmonds was fired by the FBI. Her termination letter does not state a reason.


Edmonds filed a lawsuit, but Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI
Director Robert Mueller got a federal judge to block it by asserting the
extremely rare claim of "State Secret Privilege."


And her lawyers say Justice's inspector general is slow-walking an internal
review of her case, even though the office has criticized the FBI for security
lapses in recent reports, some related to the language program. In fact, a Nov.
15, 2002, IG report states: "A language specialist was dismissed for
unauthorized contacts with foreign officials and intelligence officers, receipts
of things of value from them and lack of candor in his convoluted and
contradictory responses to questions about his contacts."


Most of Edmonds' charges have been confirmed by Sen. Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa, and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who have
quizzed the FBI about her case. Edmonds sent a copy of her 9-page letter to
Grassley, one of the FBI's biggest critics on the Hill.


The FBI blamed the security lapses on a chronic shortage of Arabic translators,
which has forced it to hire mostly immigrants from the Middle East, which
makes background checks more difficult.


The Washington field office did not return repeated phone calls seeking
comment.


But the chief of the FBI's language section, Margaret Gullota, has insisted in
congressional testimony that the FBI hasn't loosened its standards in recruiting
Arabic-speaking translators since 9-11.


Edmonds isn't the only one complaining, though.


John Cole, program manager for the FBI foreign intelligence investigations
covering India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, told Congress about what he
believed to be a security lapse regarding the screening and hiring of
translators.


And Donald Lavey, who worked in counterterrorism for 20 years at the FBI,
recalled loyalty issues with a former Arab translator in the FBI's Detroit office.
He said wiretap translations by Mideast-born agents should have a "second
opinion," because their backgrounds may "prejudice" their interpretation and
analysis.


Both he and Edmonds note that translators often exclude large sections of
Arabic dialogue as irrelevant to the investigation, when in fact, they may be
relevant.


"There are thousands of translated documents/information and documents
that were labeled as 'not pertinent to be translated' by certain translators
before and after Sept. 11, that need to, and have to, be retranslated and
re-examined," Edmonds wrote in her letter.


Also, she says some Arab-American translators, including a supervisor,
threatened to sue the FBI for discrimination after complaints were filed
against them.


"In one case, a certain individual ended up getting a supervisory position,
even though initially he was refused due to his questionable past,
incompetence and fraudulent invoices" for expenses, Edmonds said. She
declined to reveal his name.


Edmonds says she is working with some families of 9-11 victims to lobby the
9-11 Commission to investigate the Arabic translation department at the FBI.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 911; 911commission; arabamericans; arabictranslators; enemywithin; fbi; fbitranslators; sibeldedmonds; sibeledmonds; translators; whistleblower
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To: Squantos
Dang...don't wait. Go ahead and get Volume III at either Amazon or at Barnes & Noble. It's a real clincher and contains critical info and gripping accounts that lead to Vol. IV. Youll really like that read and get knock down two one after the other.
241 posted on 01/19/2004 10:43:20 AM PST by Jeff Head
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To: Jeff Head
OK........ but remind me to bring it to dinner so ya can ink it up fer me !

Stay safe !

242 posted on 01/19/2004 10:56:25 AM PST by Squantos (Cache for a rainy day !)
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To: Squantos
I'll be happy to. it'll be the ole John Henry routine next time through.
243 posted on 01/19/2004 12:23:57 PM PST by Jeff Head
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To: Jeff Head
Dang! I gotta get on the ball and make an E-book!
244 posted on 01/19/2004 1:41:58 PM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Jeff Head; Travis McGee; Squantos
"When I read stuff like this and couple it with things like the proposed immigration policy, I am afraid if anything, that reality could be much worse."

The correction is so simple that I get angry about it.

Have two teams reading the same Intel, UNKNOWN to each other. When one team continues to label material 'not pertinent to be translated' that the other team with good reason finds pertinent, you know who your traitors are. Quietly execute them and continue the program.

245 posted on 01/19/2004 6:37:18 PM PST by B4Ranch (Dear Mr. President, Sir, Are you listening to the voters?)
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To: Squantos
Yes...anthropologists worry about "interviewer bias" and there needs to be a system of redundancy to get at ALL the local meanings of a word, concept or phrase....because there are even assumptions and references made by native speakers which another person from elsewhere would not even suspect.

Let us hope that our Gov't does a better job than even the academics...who are limited by budgets, too. This is critical stuff.
246 posted on 01/19/2004 11:27:54 PM PST by PoorMuttly ("Hey Moe.......look at the Grouse !")
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To: PoorMuttly
First thing I learned in Arabic was "Kel Zeggi".........aka......... "consume cowpie" !

After that it was all traffic circle slang and screaming threats and questions as to who is making moonshine (sediki) and such. I was into the nuances of the verbage fer sure..........;o).....What I could'nt get across the launguage barrier I forced with gun barrel diplomacy ! With a little help from a Randall 14.

Stay Safe !

247 posted on 01/19/2004 11:35:13 PM PST by Squantos (Cache for a rainy day !)
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To: Squantos
Randall is a helpful person.
248 posted on 01/19/2004 11:37:13 PM PST by PoorMuttly ("Hey Moe.......look at the Grouse !")
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To: PoorMuttly
I'm wasting some time watchin CSPAN...The RATS are all lying to each other and wandering around looking confused. Really funny stuff to hear their reasoning and watch em scurry about.

Stay Safe !

249 posted on 01/19/2004 11:39:34 PM PST by Squantos (Cache for a rainy day !)
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To: Squantos
You must be
A)a very tolerant person
B)someone who takes amusement in the shameful self-degradation of the less fortunate
C)a guy with a lot of extra t.v.s, and ammunition

250 posted on 01/19/2004 11:49:28 PM PST by PoorMuttly ("..but I don't wanna be President...I wanna be a Blacksmith !")
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To: Diogenesis
This doesn't suprise me. D.C. and every agency in it is broken and corrupt beyond repair. No agency fulfills the reason they were created in the first place to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars, in fact they actively work against the reason they were created to the detriment and danger of the American citizen.

And here Ashcroft and by default Ridge are attempting to sweep it all under the carpet.
251 posted on 01/19/2004 11:57:11 PM PST by MissAmericanPie
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To: PoorMuttly
It's actually funny stuff....watching some POS call an 800 number and repeat out loud his PIN number for the cameras to report the vote. Albeit a delayed recording it's just damn funny !

Did shoot a TV with the 460 Weatherby Magnum once though.....all it took was once of course and it was dead ! BTW check out Knoxx.com for new recoil pad for gunstocks.

Stay Safe !

252 posted on 01/19/2004 11:59:36 PM PST by Squantos (Cache for a rainy day !)
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To: PJ-Comix
I was 19 (once long ago) and went to a language school in Norway for 4 (maybe 6 weeks). Afterwards I went hiking. Was buying some snacks at one of the mountain huts (ordering in Norwegian). The gal asked me what kind of chocolate bar I wanted, but I couldn't understand her (all I knew in Norwegian was "chocolate bar"!), so I asked her if she spoke English. She said, "Are you a Norwegian that speaks English"? I said no - I'm an American that speaks some Norwegian. I imagine growing up in Minnesota helped with the accent! Don't know if I'd want to risk my life as a spy on only 6 months of training though.
253 posted on 01/20/2004 12:12:11 AM PST by geopyg (Democracy, whiskey, sexy)
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To: B4Ranch; Jeff Head; Travis McGee; Squantos
You are correct in how things should be done, but it not being done like this and like I said, translators are the least of your worries.

A lot of the current intelligence data is actually being processed overseas by other governments and so the information that you get is in reality what someone else wants you to get.

Americans should be up in arms over the fact that Osama Bin Laden and his supporters are allowed to travel back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is clearly an intelligence problem.

My suggestion would be for the US government to try to make use of US citizens who live and work overseas. Or at least have a few people stationed overseas in each country that work independently of the embassy and State department.

Because of my work, I have been overseas now for almost 20 years and I find it extremely frustrating many times that our intelligence network is so completely dependent on foreigners and foreign governments.

Do you expect that foreigners truly have your best interest in mind? Do you think that paying them buys their loyalty or their disdain? The truth is that you make yourself out to be a idiot and you gain no one's respect.

There should be a very deep shame when you have one of your own loyal citizens that knows more about Al Qaeda's operations in a particular country that you do and yet you choose to rely on a citizen of that country to provide intelligence information for you. This is not "intelligence", this is sheer "stupidity" like some kind of politically correct intelligence gathering gone mad.

If you need someone to translate that speaks, reads and writes Farsi or Arabic them look for an loyal AMERICAN citizen FIRST instead of a foreigner. Our government automatically gravitates toward a foreigner each and every time. Why?

I know caucasians that speak, read and write better Chinese that Chinese Americans.

The excuse sometimes seems to be that there is a "shortage", that is a complete crock of BS. There is no "shortage" ~ logic would seem to dictate that if you can't find one in America then you might find one overseas.

254 posted on 01/20/2004 12:40:52 AM PST by expatguy
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To: expatguy
Great post. Maybe the cause is the anti-American attitude that exists in the CIA. Maybe the CIA feels a kinship with the foreign attitude vs. the pro-American one. Maybe the CIA is ashamed of its Americanism and bought into the idea of the "ugly American" back in the 60's. Any agency that would have George Bush I as its head has to be a weak operation, IMO.
255 posted on 01/20/2004 12:49:01 AM PST by The Westerner ((I refuse to recycle on principle. ))
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To: expatguy
"My suggestion would be for the US government to try to make use of US citizens who live and work overseas. "

Being a citizen won't guarantee patriotism.

"I know caucasians that speak, read and write better Chinese that Chinese Americans."

But we must have Diversity in our Bureau! /sarcasm

256 posted on 01/20/2004 5:50:33 AM PST by B4Ranch (Dear Mr. President, Sir, Are you listening to the voters?)
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To: expatguy
Excellant points......I think I covered most of that in my post above......When I lived in Italy for 4 years I learned to speak and discuss issues with the locals and learn their way of life and such. It worked well for me. I did the same when I lived in the Gulf Region for 2 years. I still have my kindergarden level arabic lesson books that locals gave me to learn from as they did. Spending a few hours a day with em and making them "teach me" their language and slang added to what I would read and study on my own time.

I'm of the opinion ,as are you, that Americans working and living in the regions should be employed as NOC sources of intel for RAW data.

Stay Safe !

257 posted on 01/20/2004 8:55:00 AM PST by Squantos (Cache for a rainy day !)
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To: Squantos
Hey, that Knoxx stuff looks great! I NEED the slings a LOT for every day use.

So...what was on the t.v. when it needed shootin'?

The best t.v. destruction I almost witnessed...since I decided (fighting temptation) to prevent it...was when a rock musician shooting his video brought in a t.v. and cheap chromed battle-axe....he said..."O.K...plug it in"...when we protested (smirking)..he said..."we can put electrical tape on the handle!"
____________________________________________________________
Please Insert PIN# Here - to continue with Important Muttly Communication -
____________________________________________________________




258 posted on 01/20/2004 9:51:14 AM PST by PoorMuttly ("..but I don't wanna be President...I wanna be a Blacksmith !")
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To: PoorMuttly
Trust me on this one.....after humping everything from M60's to ruger 10-22's thru boonies and brush the best single cheap solution for all who carry for "hunting" is a Uncle Mikes Neoprene and Nylon web sling. I still have the standard issue leather on my M1A and garand and AR's but when I have to walk into a hunting area or wear the rifle while draggin my deer out to the road I love the Uncle Mikes Neoprene and web slings.

Cheap, durable and comfy !

Gotta get outta here for now will check back this PM !........Stay safe !

259 posted on 01/20/2004 9:57:52 AM PST by Squantos (Cache for a rainy day !)
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To: Peach
I do NOT want to believe this story.

NOW do you see why many people here are VERY VERY critical of the domestic component of the War on Terror? Maybe the clowns at the FBI and HSA deserve criticism.

260 posted on 01/25/2004 6:46:18 AM PST by eno_ (Freedom Lite - it's almost worth defending)
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