Translation confusion makes Gitmo hearings sound like Marx Bros. comedy

[DeepModem Mom]

LA Times:

Defendant at Guantanamo Bay Says He Is an Al Qaeda Member
By John Hendren, Times Staff Writer

....In a show-stopping moment in the third day of military hearings for suspected terrorists, Ali Hamza Ahamad Sulayman al Bahlul said in Arabic: "People of the entire globe, know that I testify that the American government put me under no pressure. I am from Al Qaeda and the relationship between me and Sept 11th … " (Mr. Bahlul was cut off by a court commissioner, in order not to prejudice his case.)

***

But the hearing also was beset by translation problems, which left it unclear what Bahlul was trying to say....

***

At a separate proceeding across the base to determine whether a Moroccan was lawfully being held as an enemy combatant, the accused man argued with a government translator over whether he said that he went on a pilgrimage to Afghanistan or that he had moved there.

The translation difficulties and confusion over hearing rules angered some observers.

"What we saw this morning was really a clash of issues of translation and a lack of identifiable procedure," Jumana Musa of Amnesty International said. "When a trial proceeds as it did this morning, it really calls into question the entire process."

For the second day, defense lawyers stopped the hearing because of complaints over translation errors. A translator was dismissed for the day Tuesday after a defense lawyer complained that his client "can't understand a thing the translator is saying." In one case, a translator used the phrase "United States or its allies" when the questioner referred to Afghanistan's Northern Alliance.

Arabic includes a broad variety of dialects that in some cases are so distinct that Arab speakers cannot understand one another....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo27aug27,1,5216718.story?coll=la-home-nation

[GiovanniC]

1. Whenever I Hear About

Arabic-speakers having different dialects making it difficult for them to even understand each other, I imagine Arabic-speakers trying to intercept OUR communication and running into the same problems.

"Hey y'all I gun git me that therr gul-derned pea-shooter an we's gun wander up yonder tuh that therr crick an plink some cans. Yunna go?"

or

"Yo, playa... I'ma gaffle dat blunt, yo, or I be all UP in your grill. Dat's how I kicks it, fo' shizzle, my nizzle."

[DeepModem Mom]

2. LOL! True!