ARABIC TAPES ALL GREEK TO UNREADY FBI

New York Post ^ | 6/02/02 | AL GUART

[kattracks]

The FBI's shortage of Arabic translators has left thousands of hours of new undercover intelligence tapes collecting dust, The Post has learned.

Since Sept. 11, FBI cooperators have taped hundreds of conversations with suspected Muslim fanatics in a variety of locations across the United States as part of the search for hidden terror cells and their secret plans.

[goldstategop]

What's in them? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Lion's Cub]

Kind of odd that they haven't developed software to translate them if interpretors are such a problem. At least they could get the basic gist of a tape and then have the human translators review them based on an assigned priority.

[mn12]

What makes this especially interesting is that just after 9/11, the FBI advertised a hotline on all the major news channels. They were asking for help in translating documents, etc. from anyone who knew Arabic and/or Farsi.

My boss knows both languages and wanted to help. He called the hotline immediately after seeing it, but was told that they had enough translators already. So, why are they suddenly unable to translate these documents now??

[sakic]

This is a bogus NY Post story. In October the New Yorker magazine went into great detail about this. There's nothing new in this article but the stupid Post wanted a chance to say "Exclusive". They love that word.

[ChadGore]

What's on tha tapes?

Ali Baba only had 39 theives.

[remaininlight]

I can just see some of these translators not being loyal to the United States and leaking info to the terrorists. What a mess.

[patriciaruth]

In his speech on the root cause of terrorism being liberal ineptness, David Horowitz mentioned a couple of facts. Universities banned the CIA from recruiting on campus during jobs fair weeks. Language departments have been co-opted by liberals sympathetic to terrorist groups, and have discouraged or prevented more patriotic people from obtaining degrees, advancement in this field, and doing this kind of work for the government.

[patriciaruth]

Arabic and/or Farsi.

Maybe after 9-11 they were mostly short of linguists for Afghan dialects. That was before they captured a lot of material written in Arabic.
The news just mentioned they were trying to get recruits from the New Jersey Arab community. They may be looking for full-time employees not part-time volunteers, but I think your boss should call back again and check.

[Eugene Tackleberry]

"463 contract translators who work up to 16 hours a day at a cost of $15 million per year"

= $32,000 per year per translator for a 16 hour day - probably with no health or other benefits since they are "contract". Maybe they need to pay better.

[BearCub]

The bureau currently has 463 contract translators who work up to 16 hours a day at a cost of $15 million per year, the GAO report stated.

$32k per year, 16 hours a day? Whooo-hoo! Sign me up for that job!

[AndyJackson]

You clearly know nothing about running a business or about salaries for skilled individuals. If you were a businessman charging the government you would probably charge 100%-200% on top of the individual's salary for normal expenses such as benefits (small part), travel and transportation (big part), office space (a bigger part), secretarial and staff support (also a big part), self-employment taxes, worker's compensation, the cost of having a contract officer and lawyers to manage the contract, etc. etc. $32,000 cost to the government for a part time job would barely pay a high-school student to mow lawns.

What you certainly are not getting is a skilled interpreter/analyst. And it is the analyst part that is the important part of this.

[anniegetyourgun]

I suspect Horowitz is right...again. Where are the arab-speaking patriots? Or is that an oxymoron?

[MarMema]

They would do well to look in the Antiochian Orthodox church for Arab Americans who despise the jihadists. I have a good friend who is Coptic and speaks Egyptian. He also despises the jihadists. I am sure he would be happy to volunteer some time to help out if they needed an Egyptian translator.
Perhaps their limitations on who can listen to the tapes is keeping them stymied. My Egyptian friend came here from Egypt some years ago - his daughter was born here and is in her early 20's. But as an immigrant he may not fit their rules.
Another example of how common sense needs to be used instead of the old rules.

[demkicker]

I agree with all your points.

"People have been talking for years about how inept the United States has been in terms of language," he said.

It will only get worse... The liberals/commies have a strangle hold on public education and will never be satisfied until the masses are dumbed-down little robots.

This country needs to wake up. It's not just the Islamic Terrorists trying to destroy America, it's the deliberate plan to dumb down our society. < /rant>

[BearCub]

Dude, I was making a joke. Of course I know that the individual analysts aren't getting all the money. So lighten up & lay off telling me what I 'clearly don't know'!

[RFP]

"...In all of New York, there's only one Fukinese...interpreter..."

That's strange. I thought that was New York's native language. Ever hear of a New York echo? "Hello..."..."Shut the F*** Up!"

[norton]

Back a few years the NSC was not averse to denying the validity of a translation because the translator was known or thought to be ideologically hostile to the original.
So, if you were against the bad guys your translation would be suspect.
I never met someone actually on the other side who was willing to sit down and translate anything for us.

Of course, OUR translators were generally taken from immigrant or first generation Americans, "trained" at Monterey or brainy euro-americans also "trained" at Monterey: and about as fluent as my cat.

(My favorite was a fairly high level conference held between country A and country C that eventually shifted over to language R because a fair number on each side had a fair command of that language and little or none of each other's.)

[ppaul]

The Arab/Islamic threat has been well known for years - yet the FBI never bothered to hire and train personnel to deal with it?
Heads need to roll somewhere. Hopefully, President Bush is fixin' to do some choppin'.

[norton]

Another point, with reference to comments above regarding computer based translations,

Strategic intelligence has probably not enjoyed the electronic and systems advances that we see in tactical intelligence today. There are a whole lot of languages and branches of languages that would be hugely difficult to cover entirely (note comment about Fukinese translators - one variety of Chinese and unintelligible to several other Chinese dialects).
In addition, on the strategic side the system is probably still geared to dumping stuff into a hopper and waiting for it to come out the other end, to be processed into a report for consideration next year, or the next. A lot of what may appear immediate and tactical today was considered in terms of longer range policy - or would have had to be verified up, down, and cross-ways before anyone would go arm waving into the boss' office lest they be punished for over-reacting.

All that even before the PC wonders of our recent administration and various congresses.