WASHINGTON Ñ The FBI has doubled its number of Arabic translators
since September 11 and in July will launch a counterterrorism training program with instruction on the tenets of Islam.
U.S. officials said many of the translators are Arab-Americans who responded to a call by the FBI on
Sept. 17 for language experts in Arabic and Farsi.
Officials said Arabic translators have helped the United States in
interviewing prisoners captured in Afghanistan and now detained at
Guantanamo Bay, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the Arabic translators have been deployed to FBI
offices around the United States and abroad.
FBI director Robert Mueller said on Friday that the agency plans to hire
additional translators and linguists. The agency has 11,000 workers.
"We have doubled our numbers of Arabic translators, and linguists, and
many more candidates are in the process of being hired," Mueller told the
American Muslim Council convention. "Already, these language experts have
made important contributions. They have helped us substantially reduce the
backlog of materials needing to be translated."
Earlier this month, the FBI hosted a panel of Muslim speakers regarding
the concerns of the American Muslim community and participated in a
nationwide satellite broadcast on Arab-American and Islamic cultural
awareness for agency investigators.
In July, the FBI will launch a
counterterrorism training course, including instruction on the tenets of
Islam, for joint terrorism task forces.
Mueller called on Arab-Americans to report any suspicious activity to
the FBI and to help its agents become culturally sensitive to Muslims around
the world. He said the agency has restructured its headquarters and hired
analysts as well as borrowed resources from the CIA.
"We have nearly half a billion dollars in funding from Congress,"
Mueller said. "We are overhauling our technology as quickly as we can, given
how far we are in being behind the technology curve."
