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FBI Arab translators cheered Sept. 11
WND ^ | 1/7/04 | Paul Sperry

Posted on 01/07/2004 4:43:49 AM PST by Diogenesis

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To: Diogenesis
You're right there are no excuses. I am talking after all about DOD's capability and the article is talking about FBI.

Before 911, FBI and DOD acted as if they agencies in two different worlds. Hopefully the DHS has resolved these imbalances in capabilities. Historically it stands to reason that FBI would have less capability that DOD in languages. Afterall, FBI was primarily a domestic agency.
41 posted on 01/07/2004 5:36:02 AM PST by Hostage
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To: PJ-Comix
BULL! You can't take an adult, immerse him in a language, and then have him speaking it without an accent in six months.

Actually you can, if you take an intelligent person with linguistic aptitude and give him intensive and rigorous training. The Army does this all the time in a specialized base/school in Monterey CA.

I was offered this program, but like a dumbass I chose to go infantry.

42 posted on 01/07/2004 5:36:13 AM PST by AAABEST
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I hope some agency has approriated funds to develop a decent computer program that can do these translations. NEVER trust a Muslim. All those who cheered the attacks should be removed from their jobs or relocated to whatever stinking hellhole they came from.
43 posted on 01/07/2004 5:41:14 AM PST by BadAndy
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To: spodefly
"...and for "Homeland Security" to ignore."

I think you mis-understand government operations. Do you really think the Homeland Security people would take this story and come out saying they were going to do this, that, the other and here is the time frame..., etc.

Hell, they are more secretive than the Chicago Bears are with their playbook. They eally don't telegraph their plays, and I, for one, am rather glad.
44 posted on 01/07/2004 5:41:17 AM PST by lawdude (Liberalism: A failure every time it is tried!)
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To: Peach
Former FBI translator Sibel D. Edmonds says translators of Middle Eastern origin working for the FBI's Washington field office maintain an "us"-versus-"them" attitude that's so strong it may be compromising al-Qaida investigations.

I expect the usual parade of incompetents and the ignorant and the 2+2 = 7 crowd to start a new refrain: Hate speech! Where's the proof?
The lethal inevitable result of the triumph of PC over common sense.

And a continuing total paralyzing state of collective cultural cognitive dissonance, the determined refusal to see what has been obvious for 1400 years: Islam is not a religion in the sense that westerners grasp it. It is an inseperable and fanatical militant invader, using all means including murder, but emphasizing our concept of religion as the means to achieve their ends.

Islam is an permanent meld of the religious and the secular, and there is no limit as to the means it uses to achieve its objective.
We can continue calling gunpowder "charcoal", if we insist, but it will not prevent it from blowing up in our faces. The question remains, how many times must it blow up before the message comes through?

45 posted on 01/07/2004 5:41:29 AM PST by Publius6961 (40% of Californians are as dumb as a sack of rocks.)
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To: ought-six
After she brought the alleged breaches to the attention of her supervisors,
Edmonds was fired by the FBI. Her termination letter does not state a reason.

Edmonds filed a lawsuit, but Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI
Director Robert Mueller got a federal judge to block it by asserting the
extremely rare claim of "State Secret Privilege."

____________________________
I've always suspected they had infiltrated the FBI. This is most disturbing, especially that Edmonds was fired for reporting it. That tells me they are in HIGH positions as well, not just translators.

46 posted on 01/07/2004 5:41:45 AM PST by Muzzle_em
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To: Hostage
I began learning Spanish when I was 8 years old in Puerto Rico. As a result my accent is better than 95% of the other "gringos." However, when I try to pronounce French it is horrible. As a result, I am convinced that foreign languages should be taught in grade school rather than starting in high school like it currently is. Because we lived in Puerto Rico, Spanish was mandatory for all grades even though I went to an English speaking school (Commonwealth School). Within an amazingly short period of time I had the accent down pretty good. The only pronunciation I had trouble with was the distinctive double r. That took me about 4 or 5 months to be able to correctly pronounce. I actually remember the time I was finally able to duplicate it. It was on a trip on the island and my dad was driving and suddenly I was able to roll my tongue correctly. Once I accomplished it, I spent most of the rest of the trip rolling the double r's on my tongue much to the amusement of the Puerto Rican women in the car.

The biggest problem for gringos is that double r pronunciation (also single r since it is also requires a slight tongue roll). Therefore I am convinced that languages should be learned while young.

47 posted on 01/07/2004 5:41:58 AM PST by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
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To: Diogenesis
Disgusting and frightening.

Also, she says some Arab-American translators, including a supervisor, threatened to sue the FBI for discrimination after complaints were filed against them.

The age of political correctness is going to be the death of us all. /a little melodramatic

48 posted on 01/07/2004 5:43:31 AM PST by MrConfettiMan ("Use an open-faced club. A sand wedge." "Mmmmm ... open faced club sandwich.")
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To: Peach
I do NOT want to believe this story.

Nor do I. But we dismiss it at our peril. If this thread does not persist for several thousand posts, I will abandon all hope of national sanity.

49 posted on 01/07/2004 5:43:39 AM PST by Publius6961 (40% of Californians are as dumb as a sack of rocks.)
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To: Diogenesis
Does not surprise me in today's workplace (infiltration).

Houston had a worker who was on the city payroll who was caught sending an email cheering the WTC attack (he was Pakistani).

50 posted on 01/07/2004 5:44:10 AM PST by weegee
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To: PJ-Comix
Languages are easier when learned young but people with a high aptitude and talent for languages can pick up even the nuances of a language in a short time.
51 posted on 01/07/2004 5:45:20 AM PST by Hostage
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To: Publius6961
Yes, I am not saying I DON'T believe it. Just sadly don't want to.

But we have seen evidence of this in the past...right in this country.
52 posted on 01/07/2004 5:45:22 AM PST by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: AAABEST
I was offered this program, but like a dumbass I chose to go infantry.

I was also offered this program but declined when I found out I couldn't get my choice of languages. Somehow I didn't find learning Bulgarian or Hungarian or Turkish appealing. If I put that effort in, I wanted to learn a MAJOR language.

53 posted on 01/07/2004 5:45:24 AM PST by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
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To: Hostage
If that's the case, backup translations should easily be vlaidated via recordings.

Are you mad? Do you have an inkling of the volume of data involved? What will they do? ignore the current hundreds of thousands bits of data to go back and verify perhaps millions of misinterpreted prior messages?

The first step towards solving a problem is having a firm grasp of its magnitude.

54 posted on 01/07/2004 5:48:04 AM PST by Publius6961 (40% of Californians are as dumb as a sack of rocks.)
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To: Hostage
Languages are easier when learned young but people with a high aptitude and talent for languages can pick up even the nuances of a language in a short time.

I once listened to an inteview in French with an Iranian. Much to my surprise I understood almost everything the Iranian was saying but nothing of what the native French speaking interviewer said. Maybe it was because the Iranian was speaking slower. However, my pronunciation of French is horrible.

55 posted on 01/07/2004 5:48:22 AM PST by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
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To: BadAndy
When you see people on the Ask The Iman and Islam Q&A sites admonishing muslims not to cooperate with Americans, it becomes clear that there is a fifth column operating.
56 posted on 01/07/2004 5:49:23 AM PST by weegee
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To: PJ-Comix
LOL!

When I was in they were looking for people to learn Armenian. Who the heck wants to learn Armenian?

57 posted on 01/07/2004 5:50:39 AM PST by AAABEST
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To: livius
FWIW, I spoke with a parent of a female Army specialist recently who had been wounded in Iraq earlier and was looking at a discharge, but had been translating for the Army. They hired her back as a civilian at $150K plus. Not a bad severence opportunity.
58 posted on 01/07/2004 5:51:35 AM PST by Cvengr
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To: AAABEST
When I was in they were looking for people to learn Armenian. Who the heck wants to learn Armenian?

That was EXACTLY the problem. I had absolutely NO DESIRE to learn minor languages. BTW, Armenian is an EXTREMELY difficult language to learn.

59 posted on 01/07/2004 5:54:27 AM PST by PJ-Comix (Saddam Hussein was only 537 Florida votes away from still being in power)
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To: ought-six
You ignore it to the peril of our republic.

Just like illegal immigration is ignored, border control is ignored, reducing the size of government is ignored, the adverse consequences of our trade deficit w/ China is ignored, and the adverse consequences of the increasing federal debt and spending are ignored.

Republic? Is there a republic anymore? LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE! /sarcasm

60 posted on 01/07/2004 5:54:45 AM PST by BureaucratusMaximus (if we're not going to act like a constitutional republic...lets be the best empire we can be...)
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