Major problems cited in Iraq interpreter contract

A company with a $4.6 billion contract to supply U.S. forces in Iraq with Arabic-speaking translators received a scathing review on Wednesday from government officials who described tens of millions of dollars in questionable costs and poor management.

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Recruiting Arabs Still Tough for Army

The billboard displays a phone number and only two English words: "Call Mona." The rest is in Arabic. But if you can read it, the Army wants you.

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An advocacy group sued New York City's welfare agency on Tuesday, seeking to force it to comply with laws and policies that require translation and interpretation services for its clients.

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Language could be one of the best ways to get ahead in business and many other sectors too.

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[Excerpt:] - CIA is looking for creative people, with interest in foreign affairs, strong writing and analytical skills, fluent in Bulgarian and English.

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During his nearly four years as a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq, Saman Kareem Ahmad was known for his bravery and hard work. "Sam put his life on the line with, and for, Coalition Forces on a daily basis," wrote Marine Capt. Trent A. Gibson.

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For 15 years, Italian Simona Stanzani has been translating manga from Japanese into Italian and English.

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Interpreters working for African Union (AU) troops in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur have gone on strike over unpaid wages. Some 150 Sudanese interpreters who translate between AU troops and non-Arabic-speaking refugees say they have not been paid for three months.

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NY Congressman Gary Ackerman, confronting Condoleezza Rice on the military's firing of 300+ Arabic and Farsi translators, asked whether the State Dept. wouldn't be interested in them. Or does the State Dept have a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy like the military?

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In-Q-Tel, a venture-capital company funded by the CIA, has invested in a company that produces software that helps private companies glean information from recorded customer-service calls.

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For science-fiction buffs, it's probably a common-sense solution.

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A "Tower of Babel" device that gives the illusion of being bilingual is being developed by US scientists. Users simply have to silently mouth a word in their own language for it to be translated and read out in another.

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The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not read all the mail from and to terrorists and other high-risk inmates on current monitoring lists and does not have enough proficient translators for foreign-language mail, a report said yesterday.

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We are pleased to announce that the Language Knowledge Center (LKC) is being launched today.

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"He's known at the US military base here as Roger, from the radio lingo used in old American war movies that he watched to learn English. Like the other Iraqi interpreters working with the Americans, he is certain that if his identity were revealed he would be killed.

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