[Mars55]

Back to the Tower of Babel. In case anybody missed this back in '03. No wonder this country has slipshod security! Whose idiotic idea was this? Read the article for more on the outrage, because if true, that's what it is. This is just the kind of gross incompetence and carelessness which gets people killed, and has. Does the FBI really prefer Muslim Arabic speakers over Jewish Arabic speakers? If so, why? What is the motivation behind this policy? Who is more likely to betray us? I understand that there is quite a backlog of untranslated documents and recorded dialogue in Arabic. Are they just going to let that material sit there and gather dust while qualified linguists are turned away and opportunities for uncovering plots to murder Americans remain secret? Perhaps the FBI should contact the military on how to utilize linguists, since they dispay more wisdom on the subject.

[redstatemomma]

Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.

Is competence too much to ask for?

[muawiyah]

Part of the problem with Jews who speak Arabic is that many of them have immediate ties at one or two removes with Iraq itself.

Saddam Hussein and the Ba'thist expelled the Jews when they took power.

[RightWhale]

Everybody should learn Arabic so we don't even need translaters, and this is because it looks like we are going to be involved with things Arabic for a long time. It can't be that hard to learn, considering that 3 year olds on the streets of Baghdad and Cairo can speak it.

[End Times Sentinel]

I'd imagine that one of the key conditions for accepting employment for many arabs would be an environment that is Juridden.

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[hlmencken3]

This is even more laughable when you consider that there are native Jewish speakers of the local idioms, accents and dialects from many Arabic-speaking countries: North Africa, Yemen, Syria, etc (and don't forget Persian Jews who are native speakers of Farsi spoken in Iran).

[Cutterjohnmhb]

Pure racism and idiocy. The FBI bureaucracy needs a cleaning out of the Clitonistas

[taxcontrol]

Sigh - dumb dumb dumb

Even if you wanted to keep a Jew from directly translating an Arab for PC reasons, you could most certainly use Jews for translating the backlog of recordings.

[SJackson]

Does the FBI really prefer Muslim Arabic speakers over Jewish Arabic speakers? If so, why? What is the motivation behind this policy? Who is more likely to betray us?

This is a repeat of a number of stories from a few years ago. The reasons given were arternatively that the Jew's might be biased in translating Arabic documents, and that they all failed the exams.

[mware]

We are in need of a Porter Goss at the FBI.

[hershey]

A really stupid decision.

[The Glaswegian]

Not too unusual really, particularly if these "native" Arabic speaking Jews still had relatives in foreign countries. During the cold war, many native speakers of slavic languages had problems getting clearance for many jobs based solely on where they were born. Heck, agencies like the NSA can deny you based on where your parents were born.

I think it's pretty difficult to assess what someones true motives are in wanting to join up. Particularly when you are dealing with the type of animosity that exists between jews and arabs. If you are relying on their translations of materials that has the potential to effect mid-east policies, you want to ensure that you are not receiving colored copy.

[WaterDragon]

It's insane to turn away Arabic-speaking Jews! This is the worst sort of antisemitism because it sure implies that Jews can't be trusted for some reason. So dumb, dumb, dumb!

[Americanexpat]

I don't trust none of them. It has already been prov en that some of the Arabic interpreters were playing both sides. How can you have someone double check an Arabic linguests work if it is another Arab or Muslim?

My question is why don't we have linguistic schools in the military. The army used to have one in Prisedio, Ca. (sp) Train our own linguist. If you don't want to tie up military members with it hire American civilians and pay them a good wage to do the work.

[angcat]

I am reading about this in the book "Infiltration". I have been reading this dam book since June, pathetic I am. No time to read all the books on my list.