Fear of Sabotage by Mistranslation at Guantánamo

The New York Times ^ | October 7, 2003 | ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER

[Cindy]

ARTICLE SNIP: "Privately, however, military officials voice deeper concerns about the scope of any possible spy penetration at the prison camp, and the ultimate goal of any conspiracy. A team of investigators from the United States Southern Command in Miami arrived at the camp last week to review security procedures."

Oh Really????? Hmmmm....Now, what could the problem possible be here???!!!</sarcasm off>

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[undeniable logic]

I have always felt that we run a huge risk when being reliant on translators for information. I do believe that it is important to have a system in place to help minimize this risk. Something like having a pool of translators - picking two or three at random for each interrogation and having them individually translate. For example, when translation to English, each would type a translation into a system so that both responses are recorded; if they are different (in meaning) then something is wrong. Translating from English should involve having one translator translating from English to foreign language. The second translator, unable to hear the original, would translate from foreign language back to english. If this matches, then the question would go forward to the person being interrogated.

A system of checks and balances is required. Randomly picking the two translators (perhaps working in a blind manner, so that the translator does not know who his coworker is). Otherwise, we are truly at the mercy of the translator. Of course, everything should be fully recorded so that if not all, random samples could be rechecked and verified by an independent source.

[sarcasm]

Undeniably logical.

[jocon307]

I think the Military better concentrate on finding some non-Muslim Arab speakers to be translators. They can pass them off as Muslims if needed.

I also think we ordinary Americans should consider inundating adult ed. classes, Berlitz, community colleges, etc. with a new demand for Arab language lessons. These people are using their gobbledy-gook language to pull the wool over our eyes, as Yasir Arafat is famous for doing, and I am tired of the world acting as if Arabic is some secret code. It is a language spoken by millions of people, and millions more can learn it, easily or otherwise.

I think this would show them we are wise to their plans to annihilate us, and do not plan to go willingly. All new students of Arabic need to tell any reporette who asks "No, I'm not doing this to understand the culture, I'm doing it to foil the terrorists plots against me, my children, and our civilization."

If the Military doesn't know who and where our enemies are, we are in deep doo-doo indeed.

[aristeides]

Plenty of Arab Christians in this country who are fluent speakers of Arabic.

[Consort]

Re-interrogate the prisoners and take it from there.

[xzins]

Yes. An Arabic speaker need not be a muslim.

[Vigilantcitizen]

FWIW...

My last trip to the paintball fields, I met two young men that were students at Georgia Military Institute in preperation for West Point, and another recent VMI graduate.

All three were or had taken Arab language classes working towards getting into the intelligence field, and all three said that since 9-11, Arab language has become a must for military school-college students hoping to get into intelligence.

[livius]

You are probably familiar with the Italian saying, "traduttore tradittore," or, "translator, traitor." It is and has always been easy for translators to get away with this kind of thing.

I am a translator, and I agree with you that trying to keep it random and using a system of double-checks and back-translation is the only way to go. Remember, even in the 13th century, when Alfonso X of Spain was having various texts translated from languages like Hebrew and Arabic into Latin, he used teams of 3 translators (with at least one being a native born Spaniard with some command of the other language) to prevent any hanky-panky.

The problem in this case, of course, is speed. It's hard to imagine, btw, that with all the work that has been done on machine assisted translation, it would be impossible to process written transcripts of the interpreters' work. Machine translation is far from perfect and produces some bizarre results, but any reasonably alert editor who knows both languages can pick up patterns and at least notice things that need further checking.

[aristeides]

Guantanamo spy cases: U.S. military is PC on Muslims.

[xzins]

ping to the link at #12

[DonQ]

The situation back around 1960, when the US first got involved in Vietnam, was somewhat similar. According to book, A Nation of Sheep, around the time the US first stepped into that quagmire there were, in the US, only about five people who could translate Vietnamese for us. Around that time some Congressional factfinding mission went to South Vietnam and was supplied by the South Vietnamese govt (I think it was the Diem regime) with an interpreter.

Someone eventually showed a Vietnamese student at UCLA a newsreel of one of the factfinding tours, and the student was laughing like hell. On the screen, the Congressional delegation had gone to some small village and was quizzing some bearded elder about the situation. You hear a Congressman ask "What is your opinion of the situation with North Vietnam?" and then the interpretation puts the question to the old man in his language, the old man gets a couple of sentences out, and the interpreter tell them "He says that everyone hates Ho Chi Minh and that President Diem is very good and everyone loves President Diem." But the student said that what the interpreter really said to the old man was "Look around for a few seconds, then count to twenty slowly out loud."

Explains quite a bit, doesn't it?

[Publius6961]

D'OH!

[Travis McGee]

Keep it simple.

No Muslim translators.

Radical Islam is an insane murder cult, "moderate" Islam is its Trojan Horse in the West.

[Travis McGee]

what the interpreter really said to the old man was "Look around for a few seconds, then count to twenty slowly out loud."

Classic!

[xzins]

Great vietnam story!

I agree. No Muslim translators.

Top Secret background check for any Muslim officer/nco.

[af_vet_1981]

I don't want to believe we have such incompetence in our agencies but then again there are scores of arabists. I heard one on the radio this morning claiming she has CIA friends who detest Israel and think American foreign policy should be pro-Arab. They have infiltrated our agencies, no question about that.

[undeniable logic]

First, I must say I am embarassed that I was not familiar with both the Italian phrase or the translation process chosen by Alfonso X. Also, I would never have even considered machine translation at this point. At least from my experience with trying to translate from Spanish to English using a software translator, it hasn't been reliable at all.

There is no doubt that we have a shortage of Arabic translators, so it would probably be very difficult to implement the system of double-checks and back-translation. However, I see no alternative. The information we are trying to get is too important and we better start a massive training program or offer salaries that provide the incentive for the market to provide us with the resources we need. Otherwise, we are just too vulnerable. The information we seek is too important to get lost due to error or fraud.