Joel Mowbray points out a serious problem. From the Washington Times:
The federal Bureau of Prisons is holding 119 persons with “specific ties” to international Islamist terrorist groups, yet has no full-time Arabic translators or a system to monitor their communications, The Washington Times has learned.
A congressional aide said Bureau of Prisons officials maintain an informal list of 17 employees who are proficient in Arabic. The prison officials acknowledge, however, that none of the workers had been tested to determine Arabic fluency or undergone a special screening or background check, the aide said.
Capitol Hill is starting to notice.
“It’s ludicrous to think that the Bureau of Prisons doesn’t have a single full-time translator to monitor their communications,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, in a statement given to The Washington Times before Thursday’s multiple terror bombings in London.
Mr. Grassley called the current system “a recipe for disaster.”
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“There is no question that the number of Arabic translators should be beefed up as quickly as possible — the very last thing that prisoners should be able to do from behind bars is write a letter to encourage, recruit or aid terrorists in their plans to attack here or around the world,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said in a separate statement to The Times.After inquiries from members of Congress and The Times, prison officials said last week that they had hired one designated, full-time Arabic translator and plan to hire one more. But the employee had not begun work as of today and there was no indication of any fluency test or special background check…
Read it all.