FBI Arab translators cheered Sept. 11

WND ^ | 1/7/04 | Paul Sperry

[af_vet_1981]

I'll believe it when I see it independently in an outlet other than WND.

Most of the problem domain is classified, which means you will not see anything by symptoms of the problem that slip out before they can cover them as they did with the judge in this case. I believe it and I have good reason to believe it.

[af_vet_1981]

anything by symptoms
anything but symptoms

[maica]

Therefore I am convinced that languages should be learned while young.
***
It is a great advantage. My son started French at the age of 6 -

When he was 12, we spent 2 months in French Polynesia, and a Frenchman (from France) asked us why our son spoke with a Tahitian accent. In just 2 months of his association with local children, his accent had shifted.

When we went to Chile and stayed in a locale with few English speakers, he was able to converse in colloquial teenage Spanish in about 3 weeks. The very friendly kids there really gave him a concentrated course in Spanish. Adults preferred to explain something to him and have him translate for his father rather than try to converse with the adult who only had 'book-learning' knowledge of Spanish.

[yarddog]

I believed this story before I even heard of it.

[mathluv]

Thanks! I knew I recognized the name Salma. Now I know who you mean.

[angkor]

You can't take an adult, immerse him in a language, and then have him speaking it without an accent in six months.

That's incorrect. You will learn the language with the accent in which it is taught.

I've heard Swiss, German, Russian, Austrian and even Vietnamese people speaking English (as a second language) with no accent whatsoever. Why? They had American teachers (so actually to a Brit or Aussie, they are speaking with "an American accent").

I've been learning Vietnamese off-and-on for the last 6 years. I'm told that within my limited vocabulary I have no accent at all, although it was a compliment to once have been informed that I have a "southern" accent (which is quite different from the North, like South Boston American English versus New Orleans American English).

And immersion learning will produce dramatic results in 6 months. That is, where you speak, read, and write nothing but the foreign language for 8 to 12 hours per day.

[af_vet_1981]

An important point is that it is a LOT easier to learn a foreign language well enough to translate it accurately into one's native language than to become so fluent that one can speak, write, and listen as well as a native speaker.

Translate it from what ?

It is one thing to translate a type, grammatically correct, edited document. It is quite another to document real-time voice, handwriting, etc. Think how hard it can be to read someone else's handwriting in English. The more expertise one has in a language the easier the problems are to solve. As a nation we need to apply national resources to solve translation problems. All issues must be managed. There must be tranparency in all the agencies. There must be accountability. There are no excuses for failure within our agencies now.

[af_vet_1981]

So why is the FBI hiring security risks rather than training cleared personnel?

They have already hired and cleared them. They are in the agencies. They have different sets of biases. They get away with what they are allowed to get away with.

[petitfour]

HOLY COW!

I wanna see rolling heads. This is a disgrace!!!!!!

[Pyro7480]

Jihad ping.

[_Jim]

who was caught sending an email cheering the WTC attack (he was Pakistani).

Funny (well, not really funny), but, MANY nationalities lost 'people' that day, including Pakistanis -

- this was, after all,

   "THE WORLD TRADE CENTER"

   and *not* the US Trade Center ...

[Jim Cane]

I wanna see rolling heads.

You''ll have to go to soccar stadiums in Tehran to see that. We don't do that. And government officials are never, but oh my, never guilty of anything.

This is a disgrace!!!!!!

That nothing was done to rid the bureau of these traitors, or that nothing will be done now nor in the future?

[angkor]

They have already hired and cleared them.

The story mentioned several cases of questionable assocations.

But since its a WND story, we should probably be talking about this in terms of hypotheticals.

[MissAmericanPie]

"She says such attitudes call into question "the integrity and accuracy" of information Arabic translators are feeding agents."

Oh, ya think? ROFLOL is this what 32 billion in Home Land Security is buying us?

[DeathfromBelow]

My daughter was a Persian Linguist (Air Force), her best friend was an Arabic Linguist (both left service because of Clinton's military cutbacks resulting in back to back overseas deployments), when 911 happened and the FBI was advertising for linguists, both their applications were completely ignored (they were never even contacted). Maybe because they didn't fit the "mideast" minority descriptions. BTW, they both served over 6 years at NSA and in Saudi doing intercepts. Go figure.

[MissAmericanPie]

It's their typical arrogance.

[Publius6961]

Apologies. No invective intended. Frustration, more than anything else. The problem is daunting and we have lost a lot of time in this war.

[Sender]

It's not just learning a sufficient vocabulary, a different grammar and reading swirly doodles backwards. And beyond that, it's not just learning to speak without an accent, which as you pointed out is very unlikely.

What really takes time and immersion is learning the hidden and implied meaning of phrases and words placed together. A translator could get every word correct and yet miss an important statement due to lack of knowledge of the culture and colloquialisms.

For example, if you trained a non-English speaker to translate English word for word in 6 months, and he/she translated phrases correctly such as "on the ball" or "under the table" or "light in the loafers", they may miss the whole meaning of the paragraph and toss it as irrelevant nonsense. I'm sure there are many such hidden meanings in Arabic text that go in one shredder and out the other.

[joesnuffy]

Well if this is true then the agency is compromised and kinda like a egg sucking dog & aint much use in tracking egg thieves.....
Diversifying our way into the New World Order

[joesnuffy]

My guess if true they werent just "arab" translators..but Arab Muslims..ok though cause they are "moderates"