Army interpreters betraying soldiers
U.S. resorts to hiring ex-Saddam loyalists to gather intelligence
Posted: February 10, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Paul Sperry
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is turning to local Iraqis once loyal to Saddam
Hussein to meet a critical need for Arabic translators in areas of resistance.
And some of the hired interpreters are betraying soldiers hunting for guerrilla
fighters and the caches of arms they're using to attack American soldiers,
military intelligence officials told WorldNetDaily.
"We heard about dozens of cases where the infantry would find out where stuff
was, brief the interpreter, but the interpreter would get out of sight," said
one Army intelligence official who recently returned from Iraq. "And when the
infantry went on the raid, the stuff wouldn't be there."
Additionally, two recent internal reports by Army investigators have expressed
doubts about interpreters' loyalty.
In one undated report prepared by the Center for Army Lessons Learned in Fort
Leavenworth, Kan., investigators in Iraq observed that local interpreters
seemed to be holding back information from soldiers during interrogations of
detainees.
"The foreign national would give a 10-minute answer, and the interpreter would
translate 'yes' or 'no,'" said the trip report, authored by Lt. Col. Robert L.
Chamberlain, a top Army intelligence trainer. "Who knows what agenda the
interpreter has?"
In another report, dated Sept. 17, Chamberlain complained that some
interpreters have led soldiers to the wrong targets.
"If an interpreter is running a source and receives a single source,
unconfirmed report of some activity, he immediately brings this up the chain of
command without conducting any analysis," he said. "Then this information is
nominated at the next targeting meeting, and bam, the wrong target is engaged
and the media is there saying what bad things soldiers are doing. Yes, this
scenario has occurred."
Chamberlain said a shortage of competent and reliable interpreters is hurting
occupation efforts.
"The U.S. Army does not have a fraction of the linguists required to operate"
in either Iraq or Afghanistan, he said in one evaluation.
Indeed, a top Army personnel official projected before Operation Iraqi Freedom
that several hundred Arabic translators, interpreters and cryptologic linguists
would be needed to collect human intelligence and run tactical intelligence
operations in that war alone.
Yet the Army had only 209 authorized positions for human intelligence
collectors – and 39 of them were unfilled, according to a General Accounting
Office audit before the war.
"The greatest number of unfilled human intelligence collector positions was in
Arabic," the GAO report said.
The shortfall was worse among Army translators and interpreters. The Army had
just 84 authorized positions and only half – 42 – were filled, GAO found.
Due to the translator shortage, American commanders have had to hire former
Baathist and Fedayeen members to help with interrogations, officials say. And
weeding out the disloyal interpreters is difficult.
"We know we've got Baathist and Fedayeen working for us as interpreters," the
Army intelligence official said. "Except nobody knows how to get rid of the bad
ones. There aren't enough counterintelligence agents to run counterintelligence
ops against the interpreters."
The official, who asked not to be identified, added that defense contractors,
including Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, are hiring local Iraqis
without security clearance. The Class 1 interpreters, as they're called
(meaning they haven't undergone any vetting), are paid about $10 a day – "a
king's ransom over there," the official said, and a fraction of the going rate
for language contractors in the U.S.
A military spokesman in Baghdad had no comment.
Defense analysts say Iraqi interpreters and informants could be an asset or a
liability, depending on how closely soldiers monitor them. If soldiers lose
contact with them for any period of time, they are more likely to be misled.
"You have to be in regular contact. That means you have to keep up human
contact, even though you're bringing Iraqi police security forces into the
area," said Anthony Cordesman, senior defense analyst with the Center for
Strategic and International Studies here. "You still have the problem that all
of these [locals] are both an asset and something you have to watch and
maintain contact with, or they could easily become a source of misinformation."
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| User: "Woodswun" |
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| Title: Re: Army interpreters betraying soldiers |
10 Feb 2004 04:28:35 PM |
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In article <20040210082037.24620.00001690@mb-m13.aol.com>, (TonyZ2001) wrote:
Army interpreters betraying soldiers
U.S. resorts to hiring ex-Saddam loyalists to gather intelligence
Posted: February 10, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Paul Sperry
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is turning to local Iraqis once loyal to Saddam
Hussein to meet a critical need for Arabic translators in areas of resistance.
And some of the hired interpreters are betraying soldiers hunting for guerrilla
fighters and the caches of arms they're using to attack American soldiers,
military intelligence officials told WorldNetDaily.
Are we supposed to be surprised by this? I think we all know that the US was
not at all prepared for Iraq - we've been "doin' things real stupid" ever since
we first started sending ground troops in, and this is just more of the same.
Woods
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| User: "Ex." |
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| Title: Re: Army interpreters betraying soldiers |
10 Feb 2004 08:29:42 PM |
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"Woodswun" <woodswun@tepidmail.com> wrote in message
news:nWcWb.57598$%72.29886@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
: In article <20040210082037.24620.00001690@mb-m13.aol.com>,
tonyz2001@aol.com (TonyZ2001) wrote:
: >Army interpreters betraying soldiers
: >U.S. resorts to hiring ex-Saddam loyalists to gather intelligence
: >
: >Posted: February 10, 2004
: >1:00 a.m. Eastern
: >
: >By Paul Sperry
: >2004 WorldNetDaily.com
: >
: >WASHINGTON â?" The U.S. Army is turning to local Iraqis once loyal to
Saddam
: >Hussein to meet a critical need for Arabic translators in areas of
resistance.
: >
: >And some of the hired interpreters are betraying soldiers hunting for
guerrilla
: >fighters and the caches of arms they're using to attack American
soldiers,
: >military intelligence officials told WorldNetDaily.
:
: Are we supposed to be surprised by this? I think we all know that the US
was
: not at all prepared for Iraq - we've been "doin' things real stupid" ever
since
: we first started sending ground troops in, and this is just more of the
same.
'doin' things real stupid' ....sounds like a George quote ... correct??
.
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| User: "Woodswun" |
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| Title: Re: Army interpreters betraying soldiers |
11 Feb 2004 05:23:53 PM |
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In article <DsgWb.5155$sO4.729323@news20.bellglobal.com>, "Ex." <Eat.Healthy@Turdmail.com> wrote:
"Woodswun" <woodswun@tepidmail.com> wrote in message
news:nWcWb.57598$%72.29886@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
: In article <20040210082037.24620.00001690@mb-m13.aol.com>,
tonyz2001@aol.com (TonyZ2001) wrote:
: >Army interpreters betraying soldiers
: >U.S. resorts to hiring ex-Saddam loyalists to gather intelligence
: >
: >Posted: February 10, 2004
: >1:00 a.m. Eastern
: >
: >By Paul Sperry
: >2004 WorldNetDaily.com
: >
: >WASHINGTON â?" The U.S. Army is turning to local Iraqis once loyal to
Saddam
: >Hussein to meet a critical need for Arabic translators in areas of
resistance.
: >
: >And some of the hired interpreters are betraying soldiers hunting for
guerrilla
: >fighters and the caches of arms they're using to attack American
soldiers,
: >military intelligence officials told WorldNetDaily.
:
: Are we supposed to be surprised by this? I think we all know that the US
was
: not at all prepared for Iraq - we've been "doin' things real stupid" ever
since
: we first started sending ground troops in, and this is just more of the
same.
'doin' things real stupid' ....sounds like a George quote ... correct??
Not that I'm aware of. I put it in quotes because I was putting it into hick
dialect. It would be redneck dialect, except I'm up North, so we apparently
don't qualify, according to my son-in-law from Mississippi. (Darned elitist
snobs!)
;-)
Woods
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