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FBI's translation scandal heats up; more whistle-blowers emerge.
By James Ridgeway
The Village Voice
Tuesday 30 November 2004
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Among the unanswered questions of 9-11 is the part played by the FBI in handling the various tips and information
pouring through its translation section at the Washington, D.C., field office. It is in this division that certified
language specialists with top secret security clearances handle the most sensitive information, from wiretaps to
face-to-face interview translations between an investigating agent and a suspect. The translators often have inordinate
power. Because of their expertise (or rather, the limited number of languages spoken by their bosses), translators often
make the decisions on which cases to fully translate and which not to bother with. Errors can creep in: Translators may
misunderstand a dialect and thus lose the meaning or context of information. On occasion, some translators' grasp of
English is so poor that they cannot convey nuances of the speakers.
This division is already under fire from the Justice Department's inspector general and whistle-blowers, most notably
Sibel Edmonds, who was fired from her job as a Farsi translator when she protested the way the work was being handled.
Since Edmonds began speaking out, others have come forward.
A November 8 letter to the Justice Department from Senate Judiciary chair Charles Grassley and ranking minority member
Patrick Leahy told of one such case: "A current member of the staff of Senator Grassley has continued to have
discussions over the past year with a current contract linguist for the FBI. The allegations made by this current
employee are very troubling. Specifically, this employee articulated that translators are often deficient in their
abilities to translate into English. The employee noted that some translators who are presently employed by the FBI or
who are employed by contractors may in fact fail the English test, but still be provided a passing grade surreptitiously
because of personal contacts among the translator staff. This employee also noted that supervisors charged with ensuring
that materials are translated accurately are often deficient in their own translating abilities."
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