Although Jews and other non-Muslims have had difficulty getting government jobs as Arabic translators, it seems from a WND report today that at least some of the people they did hire may not have been fully loyal to the U.S.: “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.”
If this is true, it is not altogether surprising. After all, there is a strong sense in the Islamic world that a believer must not under any circumstances side with an unbeliever against another believer. While this, like any core belief, is not universal there, it is very likely responsible for the fragging attack of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the American soldier who attacked his commanding officers last year in Kuwait, and for the British soldier who went AWOL rather than go to Iraq. (After all, the Qur’an says: “If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (forever)” (Sura 4:93).)
Edmonds “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. WorldNetDaily has obtained a copy of the 9-page letter.
“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.”
Indeed: “She says she caught a Turkish translator intentionally blocking intelligence from being translated by labeling it as ‘not pertinent.’ The translator also intentionally mistranslated documents and other information, she says. And she alleges the same linguist, Melek Can Dickerson, was granted security clearance by the FBI despite ties to targets of FBI investigations.
“After she brought the alleged breaches to the attention of her supervisors, Edmonds was fired by the FBI. Her termination letter does not state a reason.
“Edmonds filed a lawsuit, but Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller got a federal judge to block it by asserting the extremely rare claim of ‘State Secret Privilege.'”