[livius]

Thanks for a very interesting article.

I'm a translator - of several Romance languages into English - and I am amazed that they didn't put a few more checks and balances into this operation.

Translators should never be trusted. (Remember the Italian saying, "Traduttore tradittore," "Translator, traitor.")

One thing they might consider doing is having the material translated from Arabic into a common language other than English. Spain and certain other countries probably have a fair number of commercial translators who could do this.

Then have it retranslated from that language into English by a native speaker of American English.

Also, it's time for the DOD to ramp up machine translation research. (I say this even though it would probably mean the end of my livelihood!)

[John Jorsett]

Translators should never be trusted.

A couple of my favorite comedy sketches involved translating. One was where a translator was deliberately mistranslating between two parties to hilarious effect, ultimately getting them fighting with each other. Another was when an impressionist was imitating Humphrey Bogart as a cowboy-type character carrying out a conversation in Sioux, with the attendant Bogart accent. Very funny.

[vbmoneyspender]

Also, it's time for the DOD to ramp up machine translation research.

Doesn't the NSA have that kind of software? Otherwise, how do they keep up with all of the phone conversation traffic that they eavesdrop on.