Charlie Savage takes a look at an inspector general's report on the FBI that concludes the bureau is slow to translate intelligence information -- partially because of a lack of translators:
The inspector general report consisted largely of numbers — some of which were disputed by the bureau — and did not contain any specific examples of cases in which the bureau failed to detect a potential terrorist as quickly as possible because of a delay in reviewing material.
The report also contains new information about the bureau's efforts to hire more translators. It showed that the number of the bureau's linguists — both staff members and contractors — had fallen slightly to 1,298 as of September 2008, from a peak in 2005. It met its hiring targets in 2008 for only 2 of 14 targeted languages.
The first thing that comes to mind is that this is exactly why prominent conservatives shouldn't be behaving as though we're in an epic clash of civilizations with Islam or treating Muslim Americans as potential fifth columnists, given that many Muslim Americans probably have the kind of language skills the bureau is looking for.
The second is that part of the problem here may be that the FBI is simply gathering too much information in the first place, given that the problem seems to be centered around "backlogs in reviewing audio recordings, including telephone calls, and electronic files, like e-mail messages and Web pages." The proposed reforms to the PATRIOT Act would have prohibited bulk collection of information by requiring that one party to the communication be an actual target. Civil-liberties protections are primarily about protecting people's rights, but they also help intelligence gathering by prohibiting the kind of fishing expeditions that end up draining resources for false leads.
-- A. Serwer
