A shortage of translators may be hurting counter-terrorism efforts, according to a new report released by the US Justice Department.

A damning audit by Inspector General Glenn Fine revealed that 14.2 million email messages - a third of the total gathered during counter-terrorism operations - were never read. A further 1.2 million hours of audio recordings had never been reviewed.

Fine's report found that the FBI were taking 19 months to hire new contract linguists, 3 months longer than in 2005. The number of translators employed by the FBI had dropped between 2005 and 2008.

The investigation concluded that "the FBI failed to achieve its linguist hiring goals for critical languages," and said that the deficiency "increases the risk that the FBI will not detect information in its possession that may be important to its counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts."

Following the release of the audit on Tuesday, it emerged that the shortage of translators may have already affected an investigation into an Islamic terrorist plot for which two Chicago men were arrested in October. Translations of relevant correspondences, some dating to 2008, were still "preliminary," and had yet to be finalized.

The FBI has seen its workload increase twofold since the September 11 attacks, but the agency insists its linguistic capabilities are stronger than ever.

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said he was confident that "our language translation capabilities, including recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining effective linguists, are better than ever before."

Experienced linguists interested in a career with the FBI can find out more at FBIJobs.gov.

01 November 2009

   Go back to November 2009