Wednesday, January 01, 2003
In Case You Missed It
"Help Still Wanted: Arabic Linguists", Washington Post, December 27, 2002 (free registration required):
Hiring linguists qualified in Middle Eastern languages has taken time, especially for jobs that carry national security clearances and require extensive background investigations.
The NSA [National Security Agency] has hired more than 800 people this year, but needs many more and hopes to bring in nearly twice as many in 2003. The FBI has hired nearly 300 linguists, but just over 100 of them are Arabic speakers. The bureau still has only a handful of agents who speak Arabic, probably fewer than 25, officials said.
"It takes 10 people in the front door to get one person out the other end," said Margaret Gulotta, head of language services for the FBI.
Gulotta said that 65 percent of applicants fail the bureau's language test; 20 percent can't pass a required polygraph and and 10 percent are eliminated for security reasons. All told, she said, the FBI has hired 286 translators and linguists since Sept. 11, 2001, in all languages, for both full-time and contract positions.
The NSA and the FBI can't find enough Arabic translators. Yet the Bush Administration has still not revoked Clinton Executive Order 13166. E.O. 13166 requires any recipient of federal funds, including a welfare office in Grand Forks, South Dakota, to provide translations into Arabic (or any other tongue) on the spot. So Grand Forks is required by the federal government to do what the FBI has admitted it is unable to do.
|posted by Jim on 5:13 AM|
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