[xm177e2]

Much of the negative press, Chalabi argues, is due to translators who have their own anti-American agendas and give American and other reporters their version of what is going on rather than what the Iraqis being interviewed are saying.

I've seen in other places that the translators are often ex-Ba'athists or at least they were well-off before the war.

[livius]

Distortion by translators is certainly a possibility, particularly if it jibes with what the press wants to hear.

I'm a translator (not of Arabic languages) and I have serious questions about the loyalties of some of the Arabic language translators I have met here in this country. I imagine it's even riskier to trust them in Iraq, and we should be very careful about this.