Lost in Arabic translation

A bipartisan State Department advisory panel on public diplomacy, headed by Edward Djerejian, a former ambassador to Israel and Syria, found that only 54 of 279 Arabic speakers employed by State are fluent. Of those, only six were fluent enough to appear on Arabic television programs. As of December 2003, the Army had approximately 1,300 active-duty soldiers who it said can read or speak some Arabic. The FBI has raised concerns over the shortage of Arabic translators, which has created a backlog of thousands of documents that require translation.

Another antiterror case involves former Air Force interpreter Ahmed Al Halabi, a Syrian-born US citizen accused of espionage at Guantánamo Bay.

A former military translator, Suzan Sultan, came forward to say she had mistranslated a letter from the Syrian government to Mr. Halabi. She translated the letter as saying that the Syrians gave him permission to visit another country, Qatar. Later, Ms. Sultan testified, she realized that the word "Qatar," could also mean "homeland" or "region." This mistake could make or break Halabi's case. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Meanwhile, in Spain, which has been a major US ally in the war on terror, Al Jazeera correspondent Tayseer Alouni, famous for having had the first exclusive interview with Osama bin Laden just one month after Sept. 11, 2001, was arrested last September for allegedly having more than just journalistic ties to Al Qaeda. After his release from jail, Mr. Alouni appeared on Al Jazeera, explaining that his telephone conversations had been monitored and mistranslated.

In the conversations, Alouni said he was discussing the "Nawawi 40," a commentary of 40 of the Islamic prophet's sayings compiled by Imam Nawawi, a revered 13th century Islamic scholar. But in Arabic, the word "nawawi" also means "nuclear," and the interpreter thought Alouni was referring to 40 nuclear weapons.

As the global war on terror continues, focusing on Arabs and the Middle East, the US government and its allies in this war must do more to increase the number of translators, screen them properly, improve their skills, and double-check translations.

Government translators and contractors must implement a standard checking system to guarantee the most accurate translations possible. Current translators must take more intensive refresher courses, especially in colloquial Arabic, to familiarize themselves with the nuances of different dialects. Translators must also enter immersion programs, allowing them to live in, understand, and experience the cultures from which they are translating or interpreting. Finally, better incentives must be offered to attract high-quality translators.

These are simple recommendations. But simple translation mistakes could mean, at least, the possibility of life in prison or tangled up in court, and at worst, the possibility of the death penalty for many innocent people here in America and abroad, who are under the watchful eye of international counterterrorism authorities.

• Souheila Al-Jadda is a freelance writer and an Arabic translator for the news program "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East," aired on Link TV and available on www.linktv.org.

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