ARABIC TAPES ALL GREEK TO UNREADY FBI

New York Post ^ | 6/02/02 | AL GUART

[kattracks]

The FBI's shortage of Arabic translators has left thousands of hours of new undercover intelligence tapes collecting dust, The Post has learned.

Since Sept. 11, FBI cooperators have taped hundreds of conversations with suspected Muslim fanatics in a variety of locations across the United States as part of the search for hidden terror cells and their secret plans.

[norton]

Oh, yeah...

Then there is the sad fact that the FBI is made up of lawyers and accountants, not the gnarley crime (or terror) fighters you might see on TV.

[Free the USA]

Bump list

[Krafty123]

How about borrowing some IDF officers? Plus, Israel has lots of Iranian immigrants - there are several people at my Yeshiva who speak both Pharsi (sp?) and Arabic...

Ari

[sheik yerbouty]

They should try and get Coptic Christians and Sephardic Jews to do it.They speak Arabic. The FBI will then have enough translators.

[Ronin]

What a mess. I am sure Shinbet has a great deal of experience and a huge pool of reliable translators that they would have willingly seconded to the U.S. if requested.

I grow more disgusted with the Fearless Band of Idiots every day.

[Redbob]

Maybe you could help me with translating something into Arabic, to put on a 'T'-shirt?

Does anyone know how to write (?)
"Eat More Pork!"
in Arabic?

[Redbob]

In the meantime, and just for fun, you can always go to
Understanding Islam
and let 'em know what you think on their guestbook!

[Twodees]

[I thought that was New York's native language]

I thought they meant they had one translator for all the F'ing "nese" languages: Japanese, Chinese, Burmese, Vietmanese..... ;-)

[RightWhale]

"People have been talking for years about how inept the United States has been in terms of language,"

We don't need to know anything besides English, most of the world speaks English, right? If you want to study a foreign language, it's Spanish or nothing. That's not really a foreign language, though, is it.

[lavaroise]

There are thousands of Christian arabs who are working at Mc Donalds who could do that job, but, knowing the FBI, they probably don't fit the psychological "profile".

[DBtoo]

That was a funny one! Fukinese, New York's native language, Ha!

[Faeroe]

Roughly, "Ta'kul khanziir akthar."

[Faeroe]

"Of course, OUR translators were generally taken from immigrant or first generation Americans, "trained" at Monterey or brainy euro-americans also "trained" at Monterey: and about as fluent as my cat. "

As a graduate of Monterey, I would have to say that your cat needn't be very smart to be more fluent in Arabic than the majority of DLI's grads. Sad, but true.

[A. Pole]

$32,000 cost to the government for a part time job would barely pay a high-school student to mow lawns.

What you certainly are not getting is a skilled interpreter/analyst. And it is the analyst part that is the important part of this.

I suspect they might be outsourcing it to the "friendly" Arabic country like Egypt or Jordan?