Senate Report Says More Interpreters Needed
A 2010 budget report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence states that the number of available interpreters for languages such as Pashto, Dari, and Urdu "remains essentially nonexistent" in U.S. intelligence agencies. Members of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan frequently use these languages to communicate through text messages, email, and phone conversations. Ideally, intercepted communications would be quickly translated into English by National Security Agency linguists and relayed to intelligence officials. But translation departments are chronically understaffed. CIA Director Leon E. Panetta has called for aggressively building the "truly multilingual work force we need." He hopes to double the number of multilingual intelligence officers as well as improve language training methods. "We've made progress on foreign languages—including Pashto, Dari and Urdu—but there's more to be done," says CIA spokesman George Little. "We continue to offer generous financial incentives to individuals with foreign-language skills, including hiring bonuses and additional pay for current officers." It is especially difficult to find linguists fluent in Kurdish. There are only a handful who have been able to pass the security clearance background check. Little known regional dialects in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley have stymied all intelligence efforts. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report is putting pressure on the U.S. agencies to boost their language abilities. The Committee cites that "persistent critical shortages in some languages contribute to the loss of intelligence information and affect the ability of the intelligence community to process and exploit what it does collect."
From "Lack of Translators Hurts U.S. War on Terror"
Washington Times (DC) (08/31/09) Scarborough, Rowan
Source: ATA Newsbriefs - September 2009