![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Information, prior to its transformation into intelligence, may be found in any of the languages currently spoken throughout the world. Although English is, in general, the main language used for global communication, it is no longer the principal language in which the most sensitive information, such as that concerning international organized crime and terrorism, is collected. This sought-after information is now found among the less common (and hence less well-studied) languages, as well as embedded within dialects and local nuances and inflections.
Resumen
La información, previa a su transformación en inteligencia, ya está en cualquiera de los idiomas que actualmente se hablan en el mundo. El inglés, aunque idioma vehicular global para la comunicación, ya no es en el idioma en que se recoge la información más sensible, tanto de la delincuencia internacional organizada, como en el terrorismo. Son ahora en los idiomas menos frecuentes (y menos estudiados), así como en los dialectos y las inflexiones pragmáticas del lenguaje en los que reside esta codiciada información.
Notes
1. Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. (2012). S. HRG. 112-663: A National Security Crisis: Foreign Language Capabilities in the Federal Government, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 20.
2. Ibid.
4. For more information on this issue, see CRS Report RL31625, Foreign Language and International Studies: Federal Aid Under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, by Jeffrey J. Kuenzi.
5. In 1990, the Department of Education established the first Language Resource Centers (LRCs) in US universities, a home response to a growing national need for knowledge and skills in minority languages. More than 20 years later, there are 15 LRCs with grants funded under higher education legislation, which have formed a national framework of resources to improve the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Currently, there are 15 language centers in as many American universities, which provide the resources to support the study of minority languages—currently so relevant to the fight against terrorism; see Language Resource Centers (LRC) http://www.nflrc.org/lrc_broc_full.pdf.
6. H.R. 4628 Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2003; National Flagship Language Initiative, Section 333, D, about education: (1) under the National Flagship Language Initiative, institutions of higher education shall establish, operate, or improve activities designed to train students in programs in a range of disciplines to achieve advanced levels of proficiency in those foreign languages that the Secretary identifies to be the most critical in the interests of the national security of the United States.
7. The State has increased the number of overseas postings requiring language skills by 27%. In 2001, there were 2581 overseas posts (29% of the total) that mandated specific languages. In October 2005, there were 3267 overseas posts (43% of the total) that required specific foreign language skills. These posts span 69 different languages.
8. Normal languages: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish. Very difficult languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Difficult languages: Albanian, Amharic (Ethiopian), Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Byelorussian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Kazakh, Khmer, Kurd, Kyrgyz, Loa, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Mongolian, Nepali, Pashto, Persian (Dari, Farsi, Tajiki), Polish, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Xhosa, and Zulu.
9. In the Middle East, a region of great importance during the War on Terrorism, 37% of overseas posts were occupied by personnel without the necessary language skills. This shortfall was even greater in certain other critical postings: 50% in Cairo, Egypt, and 50% in Sana’a, Yemen.
10. With these levels, one can ask the necessary questions during a consular interview but not always understand the replies. Consular officials sometimes granted visas in error due to language difficulties, as they would issue them without fully understanding the responses given by the applicants being interviewed.
11. United States Government Accountability Office, Department of State: Staffing and Foreign Language Shortfalls persist Despite Initiatives to Address Gaps: Report to the Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate. GAO-06-894, August 2006.
12. For example: an Embassy spokesman was only able to participate in an hour-long media program, which was conducted entirely in Arabic, due to the fact that he held a level 4 Arabic qualification.
13. In 2002, there were only two graduates.
14. During the spring of 1944, British Naval Intelligence processed an average of 18,000 translations.
15. UNESCO is unable to verify this number but it is estimated to be between 6000 and 8000. See UNESCO World Report, (Citation2009), Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue.
16. The dialect used by the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan.
17. U.S. Senate, Report No. 107-351, and U.S. House of Representatives, Report No. 107-792, report of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of 11 September 2001, 107th Congress, 2nd session, December 2002 (declassified and released in July 2003), 343–344.
18. Gandel, C., 9 Recession-Proof Careers, Readers Digest. Retrieved from http://www.rd.com/money/9-recessionproof-careers.
19. Amharic, Arabic, Balochi, Bambara/Bamana, Dari, Hausa, Hindi, Kazakh, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Farsi, Punjabi, Somali, Tajik, Tamasheko, Turkish, Urdu, and Yoruba.
20. English for Heritage Language Speakers (2005). Retrieved from http://www.ehlsprogram.org/.
21. Intelligence Community Needs More language specialists. 2 March 2007 by Steven Rothberg, https://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog/2007/03/02/intelligence-community-needs-more-language-specialists/;
Intelligence Community Directive 630. Signed by Director of National Intelligence on 14-5-2012, http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-rr-sept-20170912-story.html;
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/merrymar44%40gmail.com/15f35a9ba23d8894?projector=1;
CIA Director Calls for a National Commitment to Language Proficiency at Foreign Language Summit. 8 December 2010, https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-2010/foreign-language-summit.html;
Ensuring Language Capability in the Intelligence Community, by Asch, Beth J. and John D. Winkler https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR1284.html;
HR4573-108°Congress (2003–2004). Intelligence Community Language Capabilities Enhancement Act of 2004. https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-bill/4573/all-info
§3201. Program on advancement of foreign languages critical to the intelligence community, http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title50-section3201&num=0&edition=prelim;
Understanding the Written Foreign language. Something as simple as matching names in an intelligence database can help fight terrorism. 1 October 2013. Robert K. Ackerman https://www.afcea.org/content/?q=understanding-%E2%80%A8the-written-%E2%80%A8foreign-language .
22. United States Government Accountability Office. Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and State Could Better Assess Their Foreign Language Needs and Capabilities and Address Shortfalls, U.S. Senate GAO-10-715T, 29 July 2010.
23. Independent Agency, not subject to any party and reporting to Congress.
24. Intelligence gathering by means of signal interception.
25. White Paper: Ingold, C. W., & Wang, S. C. (2010). The teachers we need: Transforming world language education in the United States. College Park, MD: National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. Retrieved from: http://www.nflc.org/publications/the_teachers_we_need.pdf.
26. This is the basic center for language training within the DoD, running intensive courses of 12 to 63 weeks in length. Although it is run by the DoD, it comprises teachers and students from all of the Armed Forces and Marines, who also provide instruction to members of the Federal Agencies of the Administration, as well police throughout the country. It offers instruction in Afrikaans, classic Arabic, Dari, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurmanji, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Kurdish, Serbo-Croat, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Uzbek, and Iraqi dialects.
27. Strategic Human Capital Plan. An Annex to the U.S. National Intelligence Strategy. (22 June 2006). Office of the Director of National Intelligence, June, 22, 2006, 23.
28. Apart from specific training in cryptology, it also offers (whether to military or civilian members of the NSA) training courses in foreign languages, which are accredited by the other American educational institutions.
29. Belonging to the State Department, this is the Federal Government’s basic training institution for its foreign affairs staff, diplomats, and civilian support officers. In its linguistics field, it offers instruction in 70 foreign languages to more than 100,000 people per year, both for the State Department and the Armed Forces.
30. The CIA has a comprehensive program for the training and understanding of foreign languages, for which it makes use of native speakers and the latest technology in order to teach up to 16 different languages. Afterward, there are generous incentivization schemes whereby those who attain good levels of proficiency can achieve bonuses of up to 35,000 USD.
31. Strategic Human Capital, and Annex to the US National Intelligence Strategy, 22-06-06, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, p. 23.
32. They were close air support units, consisting of three men (two Special Forces soldiers and an embedded Air Force specialist). These three operators would crouch behind an earth mound and set up their equipment: a rubber-coated optical sight and a laser illuminator that looked like a set of tripod mounted binoculars. The illuminator emitted a beam centered on the target, so that a laser-guided bomb could be directed onto it from high altitudes.
33. He was the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence for the NYPD, and was the first to be appointed to that position, as part of the response to the 9/11 attacks. Before that, he had been the Deputy Director for Operations of the CIA.
34. Dickey, C. Op. cit., pp. 141–159.
35. Raymond Walter Kelly was the longest serving commissioner in the history of the NYPD and the first person to hold the post for two nonconsecutive tenures. Kelly had spent 47 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands and as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and again from 2002 until 2013. Kelly was the first person to rise from Police Cadet to Police Commissioner, holding all of the department’s ranks.
36. NYPD Language Access Plan. (June 14, 2012), New York Police Department, 12.
37. Ibid., p. 2.
38. This executive order reckons that there are 3.4 million immigrants and 1.8 others with a limited understanding of English.
39. One part of this municipal order prescribes Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the other, the general laws on crime control, namely the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, which prohibit discrimination for motives of race, color, or nationality by those organizations that receive Federal funding. In this sense, all police departments that receive funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ) are subject to these requirements, as well as other Civil Rights legislation.
40. To be specific, this covers a number of factors that have been used by the DOJ, among which is the demographic analysis of the relevant area or neighborhood.
41. NYPD Language Access Plan. Op. cit. p. 4.
42. Victoria is the most culturally diverse state in Australia. Nearly a quarter of Victoria’s population was born abroad and more than 20% have a father who was born overseas. The citizens of Victoria originate from more than 200 different countries, speak more than 230 languages, and follow some 120 different religions. The majority of the population of Victoria that was born abroad arrived in Australia as immigrants seeking a better life for themselves and their children. A significant number arrived in Australia as refugees—first, Europeans who had been displaced during the World War II, later on, refugees from the Indo-China wars, and most recently, fleeing from the conflicts in the Republic of the Former-Yugoslavia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.
43. The Way Ahead Strategic Plan 2003–2008. Victoria Police. Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=14021.
44. Pickering, S., McCulloch, J. y Wright-Neville, D. (2008). Counter-Terrorism Policing. Community, Cohesion and Security, Nueva York: Springer, 2008, 79–82, and Multicultural Police Statement (2008), Victoria Police, 2008.
45. Testimony by the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism, John J. Miller, NYPD, appearing before The New York City Council Committees on Public Safety and Fire and Criminal Justice Services, 12 November 2014.
46. One out of four has a Spanish language grade, some 27%; see NYPD Language Access Plan, Op. cit. p. 8.
47. Although American legislation is very rigid, the NYPD uses these methods because there are no Federal laws or regulations that prevent the use of non-certified foreign language speakers.
49. Baluchi, Cambodian, Chechen, Fula (Fulani), Indonesian, Kurdish, Laotian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Somali, Swahili, Swedish, Twi (Akan), and Wolaf. See: http://www.nypdrecruit.com/inside-nypd/language-opportunities.
50. Posner, R. A. (2006). Uncertain Shield. The US Intelligence System in the throes of Reform, Nueva York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 111.
51. Posner, R. A. (2005). Remaking Domestic Intelligence, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 43.
52. In 2004, it had a budget of 66.1 million USD while in 2008 this budget had reduced to 43.8 Million USD.
53. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Foreign Language Translation Program. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General Audit Division. Audit Report 10-02. October 2009.
54. During the fiscal year 2008, the FBI covered 878.383 h of foreign language and English in audio alone, 1.610.091 pages of text, and 795.212 electronic files. During this audit (audit Report 10-02 of October 2009) one finds that between fiscal years 2006 and 2008 between 25% and 31% of the material was not reviewed. The FBI maintains that this material could not be analyzed because of a lack of personnel or insufficient linguistic capability. In the fiscal year 2007, the FBI only had linguists in 17 out of the 42 languages that were set in their objectives. Regarding Security accreditation, those linguists who deal with terrorism and counterterrorism matters must have a security accreditation rated at Top Secret, renewed every 5 years.
55. It is very difficult to find the appropriate personnel. Apart from being subjected to polygraph tests and background checks, they must have a good understanding of English.
56. H.R.3162, THE USA PATRIOT ACT OF 2001, Title IX Section 907, National Virtual Translation Center, United States Code Title 50, Section 3361—National Virtual Translation Center, and The Economy Act of 1932—Provide Services to U.S. Government Entities.
57. These must be US citizens who have been cleared through very rigorous background checks, including polygraph analysis, and have passed a test in language comprehension.
58. Some 114 locations, whether in the United States or overseas.
60. Lázaro, F. (1 August 2016). El ISIS ficha traductores para amenazar a España en la red. El Mundo. Retrieved from http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2016/08/01/579e49f6468aeb47138b45e5.html.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
José Duque Quicios
José Duque Quicios, Colonel, Spanish Guardia Civil, was deputy director for International Cooperation and Managing editor of the professional in-house magazine 'Guardia Civil'. Served in a WEU Embargo mission as Chief, Spanish-German contingent, Bulgaria, and in a joint French PHARE project, reorganising the Romanian Gendarmerie. He developed an ethics code for the Romanian and Russian Gendarmerie under a Council of Europe mandate and collaborated with the OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit. Over thirty years, he researched global police and intelligence systems, publishing extensively, including coordinating a police-intelligence legal glossary covering 53 languages, working with more than 160 collaborators.