A few weeks back I had written about language challenges being faced by US National Security Agency (NSA) in Afghanistan. The problem continues to exist with the ongoing critical shortage of language translators.
The terrorists hunted by US security agencies communicate with each other in obscure dialects through emails, text messages and phone calls. So when any such communication is intercepted, the NSA is supposed to relay it to authorized translation centers where the message is translated into English in the shortest possible time, and then distributed as reports and even raw transcripts to the policymakers and commanders. However, the reality is that in many instances, the US military is unable to take prompt action because of the unavailability of professional translators who could readily translate the information into English.
Intelligence officers have offered considerable amounts of money to suitable language translators but the demand continues to be much higher than supply. A recurring problem is that many translators fail the require security clearance - a number of them being too old or not fit enough to face the hardships that come with working in the tough terrain of Afghanistan.
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