According to Gerry Spence, the US government never plays it straight. Bad habit to get into.
No they don't.
As someone else pointed out, besides the two translators used by the White House, there were MANY others who viewed the tape, and were independently interviewed on MSNBC, FOXNEWS, and CNN and they, to a person, verified the White House translation.
The US media paid no attention to this "cooked up" story by TWO supposed "experts" from Germany because it's pure bullshit.
You will allow this same standard of "proof" for others making claims? Two Arabic guys and an oriental specialist (what is that? a guy who studies orientals or an oriental guy who is "special")who may or may not be sympathetic to the terrorists. This sounds like a bad joke. Did you hear the one about the two translators and the oriental specialist?
They didn't prove anything. They said that certain sentences were incorrectly translated, but give no alternate meaning to the sentences. Plus, they admitted to having a difficult time understanding the dialect Bin Laden used. Does that prove the five separate translators in the U.S. were incorrect? Hardly.
It's not logical to think that the government deliberately mistranslated the tape because it would be too easy for anyone who speaks the language to show them to be lying.
Having transcribed from audio tapes on a regular basis for over a decade, I can tell you that a transcript done in haste will have some inaccuracies. Also you have to understand that different people will hear minor things differently, no matter how much time is available to transcribe it.
This is just more nonsense from people who make money from "exposing scandals." To report a story in a sensational light is more profitable than to report that everything is just fine.
They haven't proved that. Why should we believe a socialist German TV show and its Saudi translator? If anything, they are the ones who are being manipulative. Their hairsplitting over a couple of words doesn't change the fact that Bin Laden's terrorists committed the heinous crime of September 11!
That statement shows your bias. If we are to be purely objectively about this, both translations are self-serving. The U.S. claims it says what the U.S. needs it to say, and so does this dude in Der Spiegel. It is quite telling then which of these you choose to believe.
Not that unusual is true as we all know. Do I think Bin Laden is guilty ? Absolutely with out a doubt. However, as far as the translation goes, yes it is possible ( who knows ?) that it was mis tanslated because we needed a " smoking gun". For people here to absolutely deny the possiblity of mis translation IMO are people who use selective reasoning. They believe our govt has lied on many occasions before but refuse to even think there is a possibility Regarding this tape. Selective reasoning.