PRAYERS for the pilots and their family and friends being offered now.
In fight vs. terrorism, linguists gain clout
The nation's intelligence agencies have beefed up their translation efforts with part-timers, many with academic backgrounds.
BY FRANK DAVIES
Miami Herald
WASHINGTON - In a small, nondescript work space in an unmarked office here, a special team of linguists working for the nation's 15 intelligence agencies plays catch-up in a high-stakes game of words.
The assignments come into the National Virtual Translation Center from the FBI, CIA and other agencies: documents in Urdu, a wiretapped conversation in Arabic, a pamphlet in Pashto, a broadcast in Farsi.
The little-known center, just two years old, is trying to solve a glaring vulnerability in the struggle against terrorism: the language gap. Few Americans in government speak such languages, and the center is aggressively recruiting them by offering unusual flexibility.
So far, the center employs a virtual network of about 100 translators around the country, half working part time, who use secure computers in government offices near their homes. They send the translations to the center, which gets them back to the client agency.
''Our goal is the fastest translation possible, because sometimes there is real urgency, but quality is also important,'' said Everette Jordan, the executive director of the center, which was set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
OLD PROBLEM
The translation gap has been a problem for years.
Last fall, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine warned of a serious backlog of documents and tapes that needed translation within the FBI. His audit found that 123,000 hours of audio in counterterrorism investigations hadn't been reviewed between 2001 and early 2004.
''The FBI cannot translate all the foreign-language counterterrorism and counterintelligence material it collects,'' Fine concluded.
Since 2001, the FBI has beefed up its language services with 250 to 300 new hires a year for a total of 1,300 language analysts, spokesman Paul Bresson said.
The CIA and FBI handle their own translations for many current investigations and urgent needs.
But the volume of materials keeps growing, and the center was set up to hire translators who don't have to come to Washington and can work part time. Many are pursuing academic careers, have specialties such as engineering and law, and have military knowledge.
''We've had to build this from scratch, and it was a new concept,'' said Jordan, a Russian linguist who worked for 22 years at the National Security Agency. ``It's a more flexible approach, using secure computers, and the translators can work at this as piecework.''
The translators must be U.S. citizens and pass FBI background checks. Many even get clearance to handle classified material. Those requirements limit the pool of potential recruits, but competitive pay and the support of translator associations have helped, Jordan said.
About 600 linguists are ''in the pipeline now,'' he added.
The center reports to the new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte. The Washington staff of about two dozen staffers -- veterans of the State Department, CIA, NSA and other agencies -- make assignments throughout the network and provide quality control.
`FORCE MULTIPLIER'
Maureen Baginski, a Russian linguist brought in to the FBI to revamp its counterintelligence efforts, said the translation center ``has become a force multiplier that helps meet our needs. It pushes the work to where the expertise is.''
As linguists in Washington double-check the translated work, they labor over dictionaries of obscure dialects, manuals on technical and paramilitary terms, and such offbeat resources as ''Sleazy, Slimy Slavic Slang,'' complete with curses, insults and crude sexual references.
As a student of language, Jordan said, ''nuance is crucial to good translation,'' knowing whether a speaker is literal or sarcastic, uses flowery terms or slang, or mixes his dialects.
The assignments come into the center labeled by priority. Agencies often use computerized programs to give a quick analysis to tapes and documents, looking for key words and phrases.
Even in work that appears innocuous, ''our translators have found some surprises, information no one knew was there, that has been helpful to investigations,'' Jordan said.
Not all the work is related to intelligence. After the tsunami in South Asia, the center produced emergency language kits in Achanese and Tamil so that Marines helping victims in Indonesia and Sri Lanka could ask basic questions.
The center also translated the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution into Pashto, Afghanistan's principal language, for the inauguration of that country's president, Hamid Karzai.
There's a ''critical mass'' behind more language proficiency, Jordan said. The Army is recruiting native speakers as linguists; the Pentagon has launched a broad effort to promote language skills.
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