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Politics : Bush-The Mastermind behind 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (7687)	8/8/2004 3:44:58 AM
From: Don Earl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

<<<The mind boggles.>>> Indeed. There was a time when America was proud of the motto, "Give us your tired, your hungry, your poor.". The big difference is, in those days, once they had a nap and a bite to eat, they went to work and took care of the poor part. They didn't get a life time free ride at tax payer's expense.

To: sea_urchin who wrote (7687)	8/9/2004 5:09:37 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 20039

Re: The United States has agreed to grant citizenship to 7,000 Ahiska Muslims who will be settled in Pennsylvania, reported a Russian newspaper on Friday, July 23. [...] The mind boggles. Clue: US desperate for Arab experts Wednesday, 12-Nov-2003 7:47AM PST Story from AFP / Patrick Anidjar Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (AFP) - US intelligence is desperate to find Arab speaking experts it can trust enough to help in the interrogation of accused terrorists and to crack codes that indicate a looming attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have both started a urgent hunt for translators. A center is also being set up under a joint program reporting to the National Security Agency, according to media reports. The National Virtual Translation Center (www.nvtc.gov) comes onstream from December 1. The unexpected September 11, 2001 attacks were blamed in part on the lack of Arab speaking experts in the US intelligence services. The few they had were overwhelmed by messages in Arabic that were decoded too late. "Two of the essential lessons learned from previous conflicts are that the United States never has enough foreign language capability, and the lack of it has cost lives," said Clifford Porter, a military historian at the Combat Studies Institute. "Truly 'knowing our enemy' requires understanding the culture, politics, and religion of the terrorists, which in turn requires experts in their language," wrote Porter in a recent publication. On the day of the attacks the FBI had in its employment 72 Arab speakers -- 45 full time staff and 27 contracted translators. Today the figure is 204: 65 full time, the rest contractual. "As far as Arabic, we obviously could use more people, but we are in much better shape than we were prior to 9/11," an FBI agent said. "But of course, we are still looking for more people." "We have added responsibilities and added issues that come to our attention with regard on the war on terrorism," the agent added. Intelligence agency services also made their translators available to decode al-Qaeda documents found in Afghanistan by US forces. In mid-October, FBI director Bob Mueller issued an appeal for translators that gave away the services' discomfort they could once again be overwhelmed by an avalanche of messages in Pachtun, Urdu, Somali, Uzbek, Turkish, Kurdish, as well as Arabic. A salary of between 27 and 38 dollars an hour is on offer. Since that appeal, according to the agent, the FBI has received around 1, 500 applicants, all requiring close scrutiny, with trust the primary concern. An Arab speaking military translator recently ran afoul of military justice. A civilian translator is in detention as part of an inquiry into spying activities at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where around 650 people captured during the war on Afghanistan are held. In order to be recruited by US intelligence, a translator must be a naturalized US citizen who has pleaded allegiance to the country and has top secret clearance. The translator undergoes interrogation by several agents and is submitted to a lie detector test to check out the intellectual influences he has been under. General behavior, financial situation, and links abroad are all scrutinized. Also of interest are drug involvement, criminal conduct, ties to foreign governments, as well as relatives, neighbors, current and past employers. quickstart.clari.net