Gitmo Translator arrested at Boston's Logan Airport

CNN

[Dog]

Just broke on CNN......this is a civilian translator!

[null and void]

And--I don't know how I forgot this--Egypt is the birthplace of Mohammed Atta.

And Yasser Arafat - that Egypt...

[MississippiMan]

Are any of these "translators" and "chaplains" on our side?

It might pay for our leaders to figure out that virtually all Muslims hate our guts. Including Muslims within our own system.

MM

[Starrgaizr]

The obvious thing is to ask the Israelis to help at Gitmo, but that is un-PC.

[grumple]

You won't get no argument from me. I forgot the sarcasm tag.

Semper Fi

[Starrgaizr]

Any chance that this is all strategery, and these traitors have been bugged and watched so we benefit when the prisoners share info with them? That's how it would be in a Tom Clancy novel, anyway. </fantasy>

[HamiltonJay]

Few if any muslims are on "our" side... they believe nation states mean nothing, and their loyalty is to their religion above all else... and their religion mandates that the whole world be ruled by muslim law.... which lets you do things like Rape non muslims and slit your own daughters throat if she dates a cristian...

I know there are peace loving Muslims in the world, but their religion is NOT a religion of peace.

[Criminal Number 18F]

It's still there. Here it is as a link.

Interesting that his flight was coming from Cairo. Home of Islamic Jihad, the ur-Islamist group and inspiration to Osama bin Laden and many others.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Criminal Number 18F]

If security's not tight there now, it should be.

If any Steve McQueen [The Great Escape] wannabees get past the MPs, there is an infantry battalion to get past... before they get to the Marines responsible for perimeter security.

Now, with everything on the base defined as classified, the CD's could be nothing more than pictures of this guy grip-n-grinning with various base luminaries, "this is my hooch," etc. And he could have innocently just been showing these to his relatives in Egypt or wherever.... but he is technically in violation even if he argues his intent was innocent. This isn't a law where one needs to prove intent.

And... if what he had was less innocuous than the minimum, he's toast. The only good thing from his point of view is that he is in Boston, home to an extremely liberal/Democrat federal district.

Bomp, bomp, bomp. Another one bites the dust.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

PS -- to the guy who suggested everything is taped -- if the translators are crook, who listens to the tapes? Do you know how many loyal Americans speak Arabic, Farsi, Dari or Pushto? The military has never trained more than a couple hundred a year (and then sets most of them to work in military motor pools or swabbing decks on ships... but that's another issue). And school-trained linguists are normally far inferior to native speakers or immersion-trained linguists (where you run security risks). Think of all the other needs USG has for terrorist-language expertise (intelligence agencies, State Department, teams in the field, etc) and you'll see there just aren't enough of these priceless resources... the entire military linguistic programme resulted from us being in exactly this position vis-a-vis Japan in WWII. If it hadn't been for hundreds and hundreds of loyal Americans from Japanese families, we'd have been screwed then).

[rrrod]

having spent so many yrs in the ME and north africa id have to say you are 100% correct...nations are actually no more than zones in the islamic thinking...folks this is WWIII...and we better win..

[texasbluebell]

Plenty of Arab Christians in this country. We just have to pay them enough.

Maybe now we'll start using more of them, instead of listening to the Wahhabi-lobby pushing the radical types.

[pepsionice]

Could it be that those whole thing in Gitmo was simply arranged? I have strong doubts that anyone ever got valuable info out of anyone of those dimwit Taiiban folks down there. The vast majority are of no intelligence value whatsoever. However, these translator dimwits don't know that or realize it. So if the state department and military arranged for all the potential traitors to get jobs down there and get worthless intelligence...we could then toss them into court cases within the states...for escaping with worthless intelligence. Sounds hokey...but Ashcroft has proven himself to be the type to pull off something like this.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Gitmo prisoners(they are just foot soldiers)

Dunno where you got this impression but it's not true. Many of the guys who were just snuffies have been released -- back to Afghanistan or Pak via C-17, delivered to their home villages by the local military unit or SF team (and in the best health of their lives, which hasn't gone unnoticed). The exact criteria for baggin' em and taggin' em must remain classified, but the guys that remain are hardcore Al-Q or related elements (for instance, Egyptian IJ or Uzbek IMU fighters bagged in Afghanistan) or third-nation intelligence or action officers who were caught stirring up stuff, or high-level commanders of anti-coalition militia (i.e., guys who led 1,000 or more fighters against us -- generals, by Afghan reckoning), or other bad actors of similar stature.

In a few instances smaller commanders, who are guilty of horrendous crimes against humanity, have been shipped... one individual I'm personally familiar with has, since we shipped him, confessed to over 200 murders (mostly so that, when he was in power, he could take the wives, children, or goods of his victims... that's the face of the Taliban).

We're not talking about the guy who had his village militia of nine guys with one magazine each for their rifles. Those guys are usually interrogated in country and speedily released (with three bottles of water and an MRE or halal meal!). If a guy went to Gitmo, and didn't get shipped back home yet, he's a crumb.

Think about it, Dog... we're not interested in holding the Joe Snuffy foot soldier... we're interested in winning him over.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I keep hearing all these people say "what a security mistake we've made at GITMO allowing these people to have gotten through somehow" and I've heard things like "how did this happen?"

Well, I say it was PURE GENIOUS!!!

We beat these people at their own game. We collected important data. I will even bet right here and NOW that we even planted our own people as prisoners.

Our intelligence gathering abilities were all but decimated under the Clinton administration. GITMO was just the beginning of us restoring it. What we are seeing in all these arrests are PROOF that the adults have returned!! It isn't proof that something is WRONG but how RIGHT things are.

We (our Govt.) knew about the Cleric whose organization we used to get people as translators (The one that was on tape telling "Clinton that they support Hamas". He was shown on national tv nationwide immediately after 9-11 and it was broadcast all the time.. TRUST ME, our Government KNEW it,..and they HIRED translators from them. So we USED them for a REASON. I say that was PURE GENIOUS!!) like the man that was arrested in this article, and the other two who were arrested recently. Their names escape me off hand, but I'm saying this is nothing short of brillant!

There was no "error" here. NONE.

We used them. Plain and simple. All the while they thought they were gathering information on us..and we gathered it on them. I have a feeling we aren't done yet..and I think a lot of people are sweating bullets.

I can't remember where I first heard this.. but it was right after Jee was arrested. It was a quote from someone very close to the situation that said.. "expect many more arrests"..

After Jee's arrest and that comment we thought something was up, we discussed the possiblity of future arrests and then these arrests started happening! We are happy to see we were right! That the commentator was right

We are so proud of our Government, this Commander in Chief, his administration and our troops. All our people from military to our intelligence people. The things they are doing, in the short amount of time they have done it is nothing short of miraculous and amazing. They DESERVE all credit.

I bet there are indeed some people REALLY sweating it in terrorist communities!!

Not only at GITMO, but in quite a few countries too!!

Way to go USA, our troops at GITMO and our counter Intelligence guys and gals!!!

AS ALWAYS...YOU MAKE US PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!

[swarthyguy]

Was it a nation, a terrorist group, or certain individuals?

My guess, the Saudis and the Pakistanis. They have the cash and the hatred; the Communists wished they had the amount of cash the Saudis do.

As long as we stay wilfully blind to the dangers posed by our socalled allies, the Saudis, Bush's refusal to confont them as a nation-state instead of this silliness about a war on a tactic, we will have more of these cases.

The time is long overdue to confront those who wish us harm; every jihadi road leads to Saudi.

PCness, sure, but sheltering the Saudis is a top down policy from the very top.

We can rant about islamis etc, but unless President Bush changes his policy of sheltering the Saudis, albeit for arguably valid reasons, this WoT will not succeed.

[Sacajaweau]

It's the old "cut off your nose...bit

[pabianice]

Is anyone else struck by the strong Boston-terrorism link? Boston was the launching point for the 9-11 homicide airplanes. Now an Islamic spy is caught in Boston.

Hmmm...Boston...Cambridge...Amherst...Northampton...Stockbridge...

[Sacajaweau]

Boston does indeed slap you in the face...as well as the fact that Yee had an apartment in Florida but it was not his "home".

[Criminal Number 18F]

You can turn out analysts in 6 months who can read websites and email, translate articles etc....

...with considerable assistance and supervision.

Don't forget that not everyone has the ability to learn a language, and that it is much more difficult as one ages. I also think six months is really pushing it for Arabic or another language which uses a non-Roman script system. I think a year is more reasonable, especially if they must converse, which is considerably harder than reading or listening (as in voice intercepts).

But for the people who are following this thread, rest assured that Arabic has been a critical language for at least 25 years.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F