FBI chokes on backlog of untranslated Arabic

WND ^ | August 11, 2003 | Paul Sperry

[Nachum]

I bet there would be large numbers of Arabic speaking Jews and Christian immigrants from these countries that would be willing to translate.

[coloradan]

This shortage is of their own making. A fairly recent article posted here on FR was about how a supervisor would delete the translations a new hire was producing, such that the translation branch appeared to be overworked, and could therefore apply for more funding to hire more people. The new hire blew the whistle and left, and the supervisor was found to have omitted "materially useful" elements of her translation from his summaries.

[Gorzaloon]

The bureau is having a hard time recruiting fluent American-born translators, because the Arabic language is rarely studied in American colleges

Why bother studying a language that, if there is another September 11, will not be spoken except in Hell?

[Semper Paratus]

They probably missed:

"Osama has a long beard, I repeat, Osama has a long beard."

[LarryM]

Why not outsource this work to Israel?

[coloradan]

The article is this one: Lost in Translation (an outrageous story of FBI sloth and featherbedding) And the whistleblower didn't leave voluntarily, but was fired (as we have come to expect from the FBI).

[coloradan]

Why bother studying a language that, if there is another September 11, will not be spoken except in Hell?

So that we can translate their intercepts and thereby prevent the next Sept. 11^th?

[lilylangtree]

Is the FBI hiring? My son needs a job. His high school background is in French and Spanish. His college was Russian. Arabic shouldn't be too hard to learn.

[coloradan]

Please read the link in post #7. The FBI intended the crisis; it's only a pity that they're risking national security by playing the game they are playing.

[RightWhale]

The bureau is having a hard time recruiting fluent American-born translators, because the Arabic language is rarely studied in American colleges

What about any foreign languages? Should French and Spanish, being widely spoken in America, count as foreign languages?

[lilylangtree]

Thank you. Sounds like the management at FBI and CIA and the whole of State Department needs to be fired. Then start the replacement process with qualified people.

[Dilbert56]

Maybe they could hire the half-dozen translators the military bounced for being openly gay. Of course if they've already shown they can't follow rules.....

[Gorzaloon]

So that we can translate their intercepts and thereby prevent the next Sept. 11th?

Agree, I was being sarcastic. But I wonder if they are stupid enough to be communicating in plain text, etc..?

Of course they are..silly me.

Probably the market forces will get people to study it..usually if there is a hiring demand, in a few years there is plenty of a skill. Or, just offer more money..We surely have enough immigrants here who are fluent. (Though for some of them, I wonder if we could trust the translations!)

[mombonn]

"Ultimately we can never be full citizens of this country," he said, "because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country."

Then, GET OUT!

[AdmSmith]

Why not outsource this work to Israel?

Apart for the fact that the national interest of Israel is not equal to the national interest of the US we have this problem:

Israel - Intelligence Wing [Agaf ha-Modi'in (Aman)] - - Israel's Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon has complained that the Israeli educational system is failing to produce enough Arabic speakers to supply the Intelligence Wing. This has resulted in the Israeli Army having to teach Arabic to new recruits. [Source: Ma'ariv, Uri Binder, 23 June 2003]

[Cindy]

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: "ATTACK ON AMERICA!" (Updated)
http://www.truthusa.com/911.html

[Cindy]

Police Department personnel (especially police officers) have to go through an extensive background check.

Why doesn't DOJ/NSA survey the PDs and see who speaks/reads Arabic as a second language. Appropriate federal funds for all law enforcement personnel that qualifies as Arabic speakers/readers. Make this translation duty as part of the officer's assignment either as overtime and/or as part of his work week.

[wideminded]

Is this the kind of thing to advertise? Wouldn't a good Al Quaeda strategy be to overwhelm the FBI with suspicious but ultimately meaningless conversations and messages?

[AdmSmith]

NEAR THE SYRIAN BORDER, Iraq.  Specialist Aaron Molina is getting out of the Army to learn to be a chef. This represents a considerable loss for the Army, since it has invested about a million bucks in the 26-year-old Cleveland native.

    Spec. Molina is a Russian linguist and a signals intelligence expert for the 66th Military Intelligence Company, which is part of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He has a degree in computer science from Ohio State University.

    Few in the military have received more, or more expensive, training than Spec. Molina and other linguists. After basic training, there is a year or more of language instruction at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif.

    The instruction is all by native speakers. The method is total immersion. At no university in the United States is there better instruction.
    Then there is training in their particular black art, conducted chiefly at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas.

    And before the training begins, candidates must pass a thorough background check for the high-security clearances Army linguists must have. This takes months and costs tens of thousands of dollars.

    Spec. Molina likes his job and is very good at it. But he is getting out because, as a junior enlisted man, he spends more time sweeping the motor pool than he does doing his job.

    If Spec. Molina's case were isolated, there would be no point to this column. But his case is more or less typical. The first-term retention rate among linguists is distressingly low. And it is low because these valuable assets are not being treated with the dignity they deserve.

    It's understandable why Spec. Molina and the German and Spanish linguists in his unit are driving trucks and standing guard here, since their skills are not relevant in Iraq. The treatment of Sgt. Paul Olsen's wife, Kelly, is less so.

    Kelly is an Arab linguist, formerly part of the 66th MI Company. Paul and Kelly had a baby, Vivian, 11 months ago. Their families live far from the 3rd ACR's base of Fort Carson, Colo., so there was no relative close enough to care for Vivian if both were deployed. Kelly requested permission to remain at Fort Carson when the 3rd ACR deployed, so she could take care of Vivian. Permission was denied. So Kelly applied for, and received, a humanitarian discharge. So instead of having Kelly at Fort Carson, where she could still perform valuable work, the Army is now another million bucks short.

    The linguist retention problem could easily and inexpensively be ameliorated if a little common sense were applied. The Army, properly, offers large bonuses to young people who have the aptitude to become linguists. But it doesn't pay enough attention to the people it already has attracted, and is now turning off.

    The Army can't offer Spec. Molina a bonus large enough to get him to re-enlist, so long as he thinks he'll still be treated like dirt. But no bonus would be required if he were treated with the respect he thinks he deserves.

    Linguists need to enter the military as privates. They are, after all, soldiers, and there are certain skills to be acquired. The Army is not a suitable profession for lateral entry. But if linguists re-enlist, they should be made warrant officers. This would provide them with greater status, and exempt them from scut details.

    Moreover, when the Army has new language needs to fill, it ought to look more toward teaching linguists it already has additional languages than to recruiting new people off the street. If a language like Russian has become less important, send someone like Spec. Molina back to Monterey to learn Arabic or Dari or Pashtu. He's already been through basic, got his security clearance and learned the intricacies of his secret craft.

    I've never met a former DLI student who didn't love the place. The prospect of going back there would in itself be a powerful incentive to re-enlist. And a linguist who speaks two additional languages can be twice as valuable as the linguist who speaks only one.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20030516-102229-6858r.htm