FBI has an unheard / untranslated backlog of "terror tapes" (8000 hours)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

FBI slow to translate counterterror tapes
Inspector cites mounting backlog

By Kaitlin Bell and Charlie Savage, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff July 28, 2005

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/07/28/fbi_slow_to_translate_counterterror_tapes?mode=PF

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is falling further behind in translating intercepted communications from terrorist suspects, leading to a backlog of unreviewed tapes that has doubled in the past year to more than 8,000 hours, the Justice Department's inspector general disclosed yesterday.

The backlog has surged despite efforts by the FBI to hire more Arabic-language and other translators, because the bureau is collecting much more counterterrorism data than it used to, Inspector General Glenn Fine said. In some cases, the FBI is failing to translate highest-priority intercepts within 24 hours, despite a bureau policy mandating that deadline.

''The FBI's collection of audio material continues to outpace its ability to review and translate all that material," Fine told the Senate Judiciary Committee, warning that ''the FBI's ability to translate foreign-language materials is critical to national security."

The FBI director, Robert Mueller, defended the bureau's record, saying the backlog numbers do not tell the whole story. The FBI ''has triaged and prioritized" the material it collects, he testified before the Judiciary Committee, adding that the ''highest-priority counterterrorism intelligence intercepts" are usually reviewed quickly.

[deminks]

1. Triaged and prioritized...

How can they prioritize when they can't translate them? How would they know what pile to throw them on? Just asking.


:yoiks:

[HootieMcBoob]

2. They should call Sibel Edmonds

I bet she'd be able to lend them a hand.

[Nikki Stone 1]

5. My thoughts exactly

:kick:

[Obamarama]

3. Wow...that's 1,000 hours for each of the 8 gay Arabic linguists they fired

Oh, the irony.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. It's five years (almost) since 9/11 -- why haven't they

trained more linguists in that time period?

[frictionlessO]

6. Pa-fuckin'-thetic!! Keep us safe? Naw we'll just make another hole...

a memory hole that we can point at and say "see if only you had increased our funding, we would have had enough translators to stop this"... and the public will buy into it, because they are too apathetic to face their own worst fears. Best to let the gov tell you what your fears are....

Sick and stupid, Americas soul is fast becoming swamp gas in a tin shack.

[progressoid]

7. Well, at least I feel safer knowing they haven't wasted any time watching

those dangerous PEACE ACTICISTS! :crazy:

[jillan]

8. Kerry campaigned on this LAST YEAR!

They still haven't heard these tapes???