Remember Sibel Edmonds?
FBI Not Translating All Terrorism Material -Audit
Tue Sep 28, 2004 06:36 AM ET
By Deborah Charles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI does not have enough translators to handle a growing backlog of documents and intercepts in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto, a federal audit said on Monday, confirming criticism by U.S. elected officials and experts.
An unclassified summary of a July 2004 report by the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general said while the FBI has increased the number of translators of languages used in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, it still cannot keep up with the backlog of material flowing into the system.
The report was the first audit of the FBI's translating capabilities since the Sept. 11 attacks highlighted a gaping hole in the FBI's ability to translate and interpret foreign intercepts and documents.
"Despite the infusion of more than 620 additional linguists since Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI reported that nearly 24 percent of ongoing FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) counterintelligence and counterterrorism intercepts are not being monitored," the report said, referring to court-authorized eavesdropping by the U.S. government.
According to the report, the FBI's electronic surveillance intercepts in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto -- languages used in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- has increased by 45 percent from 2001 to 2003.
Translation growth rates in those languages are expected to increase by at least 15 percent a year.
Former FBI director Louis Freeh said earlier this year that the bureau's counterterrorism effort before the Sept. 11 attacks was plagued by an inability to afford enough translators in languages like Arabic and Farsi.
In another problem cited in the audit, Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI's digital collection systems have limited storage capacity, causing surveillance to be deleted automatically before being reviewed.
The report said controls have not been properly set up to prevent critical audio material from being automatically deleted before being translated.
"The results of our tests showed that three of eight offices tested had al Qaeda sessions that potentially were deleted by the system before linguists had reviewed them," the report said.
Since Sept. 11, more than 123,000 hours of audio in languages associated with counterterrorism cases have not been reviewed.
The inspector general recommended that the FBI improve system storage capabilities and implement controls to ensure that one office can forward untranslated material to another office in a secure and timely fashion.
"The FBI appears to be taking steps to address these issues," Fine said.
― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 19:05 (nineteen years ago) link
FBI's big backlog on terror tapes revealed
Translators flooded by thousands of hours of recordings Eric Lichtblau, New York Times
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Washington -- Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 120,000 hours of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings have not yet been translated by linguists at the FBI, and computer problems may have led the bureau to systematically erase some al Qaeda recordings, according to a declassified summary of a Justice Department investigation that was released Monday.
The report, released in edited form by Glenn Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, found that the FBI still did not have the capacity to translate all the terrorism-related material from wiretaps and other intelligence sources and that the influx of new material had outpaced the bureau's resources.
Overhauling the government's translation capabilities has been a top priority for the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism. Al Qaeda messages, saying "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match is about to begin," were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10, 2001, but not translated until days later, underscoring the urgency of the problem. The report offered the most comprehensive assessment to date of the FBI's problems in deciphering hundreds of thousands of intercepted phone calls, conversations, e-mail messages, documents and other material that could include information about terrorist plots and foreign intelligence matters.
It revealed problems not only in translating material quickly but also in prioritizing the work and in ensuring that hundreds of newly hired linguists were providing accurate translations. Linguists are supposed to undergo periodic proficiency exams under FBI policy, but that requirement was often ignored last year, the inspector general found in the publicly released summary of its investigation. Most of the report remains classified.
Congressional officials who have been briefed recently by the FBI on the translation issue said the report offered a much bleaker assessment than the bureau itself had acknowledged, and leading senators from both parties denounced what they described as foot-dragging in fixing the problem.
"What good is taping thousands of hours of conversations of intelligence targets in foreign languages if we cannot translate promptly, securely, accurately and efficiently?" asked Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "The Justice Department's translation mess has become a chronic problem that has obvious implications for our national security."
The FBI, in its response to the report, said Monday that it had taken "substantial steps to strengthen our language capabilities," but it acknowledged that a shortage of qualified linguists and problems in the bureau's computer systems had led to a backlog in translating terrorism material.
Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, said he agreed that "more remains to be done in our language services program." He added, "We are giving this effort the highest priority."
With some $48 million in additional funding since the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of linguists at the FBI rose from 883 in 2001 to 1,214 as of April 2004, with sharp increases in the number of translators of Arabic, Farsi and other languages considered critical to counterterrorism investigations. But Fine's report made clear that the expansion had not eliminated the management and efficiency problems that dogged the bureau even before Sept. 11.
The investigation put the blame in part on the FBI's computer systems, long derided by congressional critics as antiquated and unwieldy. The investigation found that limited storage capacities in the system meant that older audio recordings had sometimes been deleted automatically to make room for newer material, even if the recordings had not yet been translated by bureau linguists.
In field tests conducted by the inspector general at eight FBI offices, three offices "had al Qaeda sessions that potentially were deleted by the system before linguists had reviewed them," the report said. Audio recordings that relate to al Qaeda investigations are supposed to be reviewed within 12 hours of interception under FBI policy. But the report found that the deadline was missed in 36 percent of nearly 900 cases that the inspector general reviewed. In 50 al Qaeda cases, it took at least a month for the FBI to translate material. 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, the report said. The data reflected material gathered under foreign intelligence surveillance warrants in operations within the United States.
Several lawmakers who have pressed for improvements in the FBI's translation abilities said the report reinforced their concerns that the bureau was headed in the wrong direction.
"Since terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11, the FBI has been trying to assure the Congress and the public that its translation program is on the right track," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "Unfortunately, this report shows that the FBI is still drowning in information about terrorism activities with hundreds of thousands of hours of audio yet to be translated."
Grassley also urged the inspector general to release a public version of an internal report about the case of a former FBI linguist, Sibel Edmonds, who complained of ineptitude and possible espionage in the translation program. A still-classified version of the report found that her complaints played a part in the FBI's decision to dismiss her in 2002, officials said.
― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
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