Exclusive: Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can't Speak Afghan Languages

[unhappycamper]

Exclusive: Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can't Speak Afghan Languages
By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and JOSEPH RHEE
Sept. 8, 2010

More than one quarter of the translators working alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan failed language proficiency exams but were sent onto the battlefield anyway, according to a former employee of the company that holds contracts worth up to $1.4 billion to supply interpreters to the U.S. Army.

"I determined that someone -- and I didn't know (who) at that time -- was changing the grades from blanks or zeros to passing grades," said Paul Funk, who used to oversee the screening of Afghan linguists for the Columbus, Ohio-based contractor, Mission Essential Personnel. "Many who failed were marked as being passed."

After being asked about the allegations, U.S. Army officials confirmed to ABC News they are investigating the company.

Funk outlined his claims in a whistleblower lawsuit unsealed earlier this year against Mission Essential Personnel, saying the company turned a blind eye to cheating on language exams taken over the phone and hired applicants even though they failed to meet the language standards set by the Army and spelled out in the company's contract. He alleges that 28 percent of the linguists hired between November 2007 and June 2008 failed to meet the government's language requirements. The company has contested those claims in court, and this week rejected them as false in an interview with ABC News.

Civilian translators have for nearly a decade been playing a crucial if unsung role in the Afghanistan war, embedding with troops as they have moved through the countryside, helping soldiers gather information from local villagers, and attempting to spread the message of security, moderation and peace that undergirds the U.S. presence there. Some Afghan veterans have rated the value of a skilled interpreter as equal to that of a working weapon or sturdy body armor.

[Swamp Rat]

1. Holy shit!!

:wow:

[Ken Burch]

2. Oh great....THAT'S really going to help the escalation succeed....

yessirreebob...

:eyes:

[jberryhill]

3. No Problem

Most languages are just like English - just shout it louder and slower. Then, if they still pretend not to understand, they are terrorists.

Simple

[stray cat]

4. That isn't news if you were awake the last 7 years - it has been front and center as a problem

But you may have to read something other than du to see it

[Solly Mack]

5. k/r

[bullwinkle428]

6. "Gee, nothing bad should really happen when we kick out all

of these translators for being gay!"

[Blue_Tires]

7. yet another pentagon contractor paid exhotbitant fees to deliver a service

so shitty that it's maybe one half-notch above what 20 random people plucked from the street could provide using only a tourist phrasebook...

these hustlers have it down to a science...no wonder the private military services/information gathering companies are mulitplying by the day in Northern Va.