Fear of Sabotage by Mistranslation at Guantánamo

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — American interpreters at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who are under suspicion of espionage may have sabotaged interviews with detainees by inaccurately translating interrogators' questions and prisoners' answers, senior American officials said on Monday.

It is unclear in how many cases, if any, this may have happened, the officials said. But military investigators are taking the issue seriously enough to review taped interrogations involving the Arabic-language interpreters under scrutiny to spot-check their accuracy.

If the investigators' worst fears are realized, officials said, scores of interviews with suspected Qaeda or Taliban prisoners at the Cuban detention center could be compromised, and military officials could be forced to reinterview many of the camp's 680 detainees.

"There are enough suggestions that give us cause to compare the audiotapes with the translations," said one senior American official familiar with the inquiry. The official declined to say what those suggestions were, and other senior American officials similarly refused to cite any specific evidence of deliberate mistranslation by the interpreters.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/politics/07GITM.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

[Newsjock]

1. "My hovercraft is full of eels"

Is that what our government has become? A Monty Python sketch?

[Ivory_Tower]

4. Hey, that's MY line!

I've also found that "Would you liiike to come back to my place bouncy-bouncy?" is not an effective ice-breaker.

At least they taped the interviews, though. I would have thought that with something this important to the government, they'd at least spot-check the interviews with a second and maybe third translator. Oh wait...I keep forgetting who's in charge these days...uh, who IS in charge these days?

[berry]

7. If the interviews were taped, what's the point of re-interviewing?

Can't they just check the translations against the tapes?

Also, as someone who has done translating, this sends chills down my spine. There needs to be some sophistication about these checks. Between languages as different as Arabic and English, there is a lot of room for variant translation and interpretation. This could be a set-up (though I have no idea why they would want to have a scandal like this, I am paranoid enough to wonder).

I also wonder how many volunteers will be signing up for translation duty in the future....

[minkyboodle]

6. I also think I overheard

Throw up your panties Sir, I am no longer infected.... nice python reference... gave me a laugh
Scott

[Maple]

2. Gee

and here they were planning on executing some of the prisoners.

[Hobarticus]

3. Don't think this will stop them...

This could be the only thing that keeps them alive.

[JewelDigger]

5. Just in case anyone was 'wondering' what we're doing with these Gitmo

prisoners....we're, ehm, re-torturi, oooh sorry, 'interviewing them AGAIN' :-)