[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?

[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.

[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?

[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!

[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?

[CyberAnt]

What about the Iraqi community in Detroit. They look like they totally support Bush. And .. some of them have already moved back to Iraq. The source is there!

[joesnuffy]

Where are all those "millions" of loyal American moderate muslims...who hate terrorists?

Conspicously absent.......Diversity ..the death of America imo....

[Lazamataz]

I should learn Arabic. I have a gift for languages.