Think Progress

10.

By Nico Pitney on Feb 13th, 2006 at 12:13 pm

10.

The number of State Department employees, out of 34,000, who are rated fully fluent in Arabic.



30 Responses to “10.”

  1. EasyRider says:

    Sounds about right for the Photo-Op Presidency.

    Yep, He is the only one capable of protecting us and the U.S. Constitution.


  2. Harman, Rockefeller=DINO says:

    How many times a day do you think Pat Roberts utters the words “towel head” or “sand n*gger” or “dune coon”. C’mon, Think Progress! They know all the Arabic they need to!


  3. Hardy Haberman says:

    Just one comment:

    [رجيم] تغير

    (Regeim Change)


  4. Zookeeper says:

    Didn’t they weed out a bunch of translators because they were gay?


  5. Harman, Rockefeller=DINO says:

    Jeesh, Hardy, I’ll bet you’re in a data mine somewhere…


  6. Badmoodman says:

    Zookeeper – - yep, the last thing they want at Foggy Bottom is a lispy lilt to translated Arabic. I mean, who’s going to take THOSE savages seriously?


  7. Zookeeper says:

    #6 – Funny stuff, Badmoodman.


  8. Clif says:

    Since most Arabic books don’t have pictures and just squiggley marks Bush doesn’t understand them. Bush doesn’t attempt to read them so he doesn’t think anybody else does.


  9. Evil Spaniard says:

    0 – The number of Middle East political experts in 2001… and 2006 too.


  10. lib4 says:

    Just insane…..how is that possible???


  11. kindness says:

    Maybe we could pool our money to get King dumbya some Pop Up arabic books. Then he could claim to be fluid in Arabic too.


  12. Evil Spaniard says:

    Wait a second… and the NSA is recording thousands of phone calls, emails, etc. in search of ISLAMIC terrorists? So they have a mountain of hard drives without translating as of now?


  13. dlet says:

    Hey we are bringing democracy to them. That doesn’t have to include learning their language or culture. That would slow down the process. Anyway we have five fluent speakers. That gives us enough for the amoount of countries that we want to occupy.


  14. Anti Warhol says:

    Well, anyone who has been to Europe knows that most Americans believe that anyone can understand English if you shout loud enough.


  15. WaltTheMan says:

    Definitions:
    Multi-linguist – Someone who speaks many languages.
    Bi-linguist – Someone who speaks two languages.
    American – Someone who speaks only one language.


  16. Evil Spaniard says:

    #14 Well, in fact we do, but we love to see a redneck sweating over his dictionary to finally crow a foolish sentence while making funny faces… and those movies where an american thinks that saying “I’m an american citizen” would shield him of any harm, or shouting “Nobody understands my f*king language?”, are funny, too. But we’re in our home, why would us bother to speak in another’s one?

    But, if you’re polite, we have no problem helping you the most times.


  17. DeeLuzon says:

    My favorite part of the article to which you link is the proposal for “study-abroad opportunities for up to 3,000 high school students.” I can just imagine the parental reactions to requests from their teenaged kids to do a fun semester at the University of Tikrit (or Tehran or Beirut or…)! And then, after having the times of their lives, they can skip college altogether and just enlist in order to go back and hang with (or shoot at) all the pals they made.


  18. Clif says:

    #16 polite left the republican party around 1980


  19. AustinSF says:

    There would be just that many more who would know Arabic in if the Bush Administration had not expelled so many from the Gay Community that are Language Experts. Shame America Shame.


  20. big papa says:

    Once again,

    Who’s translating those “THOUSANDS” of “intercepted” al Qaida transmissions to the US?


  21. Gregor Samsa says:

    Which brings several questions to mind.

    The Bush administration has justified the illegal wiretaps as essential tools in the “war on terror”.

    But we know Bush & Co haven’t implemented the 9/11 commission’s recommendations to improve intelligence gathering, sharing, and processing -reason why the 9/11 Commision gave the Bush administration failing grades.

    We also know they do not have enough Arabic translators to efficiently translate all the intercepted conversations between the US and Arabic-speaking countries.

    So, if the intelligence agencies do not have the capability to translate conversations, and they still fail to adequately process whatever information they do manage to translate -How can this eavesdropping be an essential tool in the war on terror?

    If everything involving these wiretaps is so unimpressive, why is the Bush administration so hooked on them? What are they really been used for?


  22. Gregor Samsa says:

    I meant to say “What are they really being used for?”


  23. Zookeeper says:

    #20 – Nobody. It’s good enough for Bush that they exist as justification to spy on us.


  24. Evil Spaniard says:

    #22 And even more important: that trashes the whole “24 hour limit scenario” for not obtaining FISA warrants…


  25. The fly-man says:

    Aren’t these a little more important? And what about the NSA? Does that include the Navy too? http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=AF


  26. Mark says:

    I can picture it now. After 9/11 hundreds people start inquiring about learning Arabic and working for the government in the war on terror, or perhaps they already speak Arabic. Except with this administration anyone who has any desire to speak Arabic or knows Arabic must be the enemy, so they get investigated, imprisoned, beaten, then tossed out of jail with no more desire to be a linguist. Repeat this pattern again and again.


  27. Innocent Bystander says:

    Think this is bad? How about secret US commissions allow the ports of Philadelphia, NY, NJ, NO, Miami, and Baltimore to AQ/BCCI bankers from the UAE? I shit you not…..see this post at DU:

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2454971&mesg_id=2454971

    Anyone know what the current definition of treason is?


  28. Innocent Bystander says:

    Sorry, that is: a secret US commission approving the sale to these people.


  29. Lora says:

    As I have pointed out on other threads, in great contrast to the Busheviks’ virtual inaction about the lack of personnel in the various American intelligence agencies fluent in Arabic and other languages spoken in the Muslim countries in the wake of 9-11, almost immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the US government under FDR established centers for intensive training in the Japanese. If there are still just 10 people in the State Dept. fluent in Arabic, I imagine the number for languages like Farsi, Pashwa, Urdu is even lower or nil in some cases. More time has elapsed between 9-11 and today than between Pearl Harbor and the conclusion of World War II, yet the need for translators capable of rendering intercepted telephone calls/e-mails into English still hasn’t dawned on the Busheviks–unless, of course, the warantless tapping is really being done on the English-speaking opposition in the US–something I wouldn’t put past this administration. But I prefer not to get into that here and now.


  30. big papa says:

    If there are still just 10 people in the State Dept. fluent in Arabic, I imagine the number for languages like Farsi, Pashwa, Urdu is even lower or nil in some cases. More time has elapsed between 9-11 and today than between Pearl Harbor and the conclusion of World War II, yet the need for translators capable of rendering intercepted telephone calls/e-mails into English still hasn’t dawned on the Busheviks

    Comment by Lora #29

    Lora,

    The “illusion” of an American anti-terrorist intelligence network…

    …hard at work thwarting terrorist plots against the american people here at home…

    …is ALL that is sufficient for the treasonous inbred Bushite worshippers to sing his praises…

    “creating reality”: A republiscum trademark since 2000

    patent pending…



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