September 28, 2004

Beating the Language Drum

Today there was a story in the NYT about the backlog of translations of intelligence tapes, and the fact that the FBI maybe have accidentally but systematically deleted taped material from Al Quaeda sources. That we are still in this mess, even after similar mistakes were clearly identified in the 9/11 attacks, is mind boggling. However, I'll let someone else rant about that.

The issue that strikes me is that there was - and is - the potential here for the government to do a great deal of good for itself and for young people in this country, by applying resources to this problem. What do I mean? Scholarships for students. Funding for state universities' foreign language programs. Support for programs that train students in international cultural affairs. Then track these students into government service. Of course it takes time, and in some cases the native level fluency in language required for some aspects of what the government needs would require recruiting already bilingual students to these programs. That could be an aspect of such a program too, in order to get short term movement while the longer-term investment is maturing. Even in the less than "internationalist" home base of bloodlesscoup, there has been an upsurge in young people interested in studying international affairs and languages relevant to US foreign policy. Some of those young people have an interest sparked by their own or a relative's service in the National Guard or other branch of the service. However there aren't enough programs, or even shorter term courses to meet their needs.

Finally, there is this:

In counterterrorism cases, more than 123,000 hours of audio recordings in languages commonly associated with terrorism have not been translated since the Sept. 11 attacks, amounting to 20 percent of the total material, the report found. For all languages, nearly half a million hours of audio tapes, or 30 percent of the material collected, was not reviewed, it said. The data reflected material gathered under foreign intelligence surveillance warrants in operations within the United States.

The 120,000+ hours are only in languages that are "commonly associated" with terrorism. There are another 500,000 hours of languages not commonly associated with terrorism. I am curious...what are those languages? If they are Spanish, French, or German, I would seriously question that separation of groups of languages, given the evidence and suspicion of terrorist activity in Europe and South America.

Posted by binky at September 28, 2004 12:47 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics


Comments

Yeah, well you wouldn't want to hire more translators - that might deprive some millionaires of a portion of their tax breaks.

Posted by: Armand at September 28, 2004 01:46 PM | PERMALINK

Or, you know, they might be gay. And that just wouldn't do.

Posted by: binky at September 28, 2004 02:17 PM | PERMALINK

Binky,
I think we're already putting a lot of resources in this direction; I know the armed forces language center in Monterey is supposed to provide excellent training, and if I remember correctly from checking out recruiters years ago, they already do give bonuses to people willing to get these specialized skills. I'm sure you're right in that we could do more; I think a lot of it's that most of the recruits don't have this capacity, many coming from poor and rural neighborhoods where these skills aren't offered in schools at the critical young ages that hardwire this ability. Plus, our country has a poor history as far as encouraging development of two languages in children coming from other nations, what with wanting everyone to speak English and all.

Posted by: Morris at September 28, 2004 07:20 PM | PERMALINK

Well, we are putting some, but I don't know about a lot, especially in a more generalized way. While there are resources like the one you mention, I think we have a vast untapped pool of potential talent out there that is highly interested in committing to this kind of study, some of whom are motivated to enter government service. I would like to see if funding to programs - such as occurred during the Cold War - has been stepped back up after being reduced in the 90s (you know, communism dead etc etc). Area studies has been "out of fashion" but its usefulness may be rediscovered.

Posted by: binky at September 28, 2004 08:04 PM | PERMALINK
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