In a shocking revelation, an FBI whistleblower claims some Arab-Americans translating Arabic intercepts for the FBI spoke approvingly of the terrorist attacks on America more than two years ago. Former FBI translator Sibel D. Edmonds says translators of Middle Eastern origin working for the FBI’s Washington field office maintain an "us"-versus-"them" attitude that’s so strong it may be compromising al-Qaida investigations. She cited examples of mistranslations and security breaches within the FBI’s language division, where translators with Top Secret clearance interpret sensitive terror-related information for agents. "The issues and problems within the FBI’s translation units range from security failures to questions of loyalty to competence of translation personnel to systemic problems within their low-to-mid-level management practices," Edmonds said.
She made the explosive charges Monday in a letter to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, an independent panel investigating the 9-11 attacks and U.S. intelligence leading up to them. Edmonds, a translator who worked closely with FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence agents at an office within blocks of the Washington field office, said she overheard some translators express sympathy for the 9-11 terrorist attacks. "During my work with the bureau, I was seriously taken aback by what I heard and witnessed within the translation department," she said. "There were those who openly divided the fronts as ’Us’ — the Middle-Easterners who shared certain views — and ’Them’ — the Americans who were the outsiders [whose] arrogance was now ’leading to their own destruction.’"
Not long after the attacks, Edmonds said one translator said: "It is about time that they get a taste of what they have been giving to the rest of the Middle East." She says the remark was made in front of the unit supervisor, also of Middle Eastern origin. "These comments were neither rare nor made in a whisper," Edmonds said. "They were open and loud." She says such attitudes call into question "the integrity and accuracy" of information Arabic translators are feeding agents. Edmonds says agents who don’t speak Arabic have no way of knowing whether the information they receive from translators is tainted. "They simply have to trust the information given to them by translators," she said, "and based on that, decide to act or not act..."
It is not only Arab Americans who are largely traitors. Pretend you are an anti-semite while in a Pakistani American’s taxi, and you will hear a murderous diatribe against Jews. The "us versus them" idea can work both ways. |