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With a terrorist arrested seemingly every week these days, you'd be hard pressed to find someone with something negative to say about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But with lives on the line in the war on terror the Bureau is under more of a spotlight than ever before. And as it turns out, they have too much information about possible terrorist plots, activities and personnel and not nearly enough people or time to go through it.
The FBI's collection of wiretapped phone calls and intercepted e-mail has been soaring in recent years for obvious reasons. But according to the Justice Department the Bureau is failing to review "significant amounts" of such material.
The main issue is a lack of translators, according to a Justice Department report released in October. Senator Charles E. Grassley has praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation but described the linguist department as "a big hole." "Not reviewing such material increases the risk that the FBI will not detect information in its possession that may be important to its counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts," said the report, which was issued by the office of the department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine.
The good news is that when it comes to arresting suspected terrorists that communicate in English, the FBI is on a tear. Investigations into possible strikes against everything from malls to government officials to skyscrapers have produced a string of arrests.
In a statement released to the press, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it was working to reduce its backlog of unheard audio recordings and electronic documents, and that it continued seeking to hire or contract with more linguists. But with higher paying positions available in the private sector and an exodus of high-skill immigrants as a result of the recession and immigration crackdowns that could be an uphill climb.
"The FBI remains committed to reviewing all foreign language material in a timely manner and setting priorities to ensure that the most important material receives the most immediate attention," the agency said in a statement. But the Bureau's not moving quickly enough to address those concerns according to some. Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has pressed the FBI to improve its translation abilities, said more action is required.
"Today's report appears to point to more of the same by the FBI with its translation department," Mr. Grassley said in a statement. "The FBI needs their feet held to the fire in order to make substantive changes in the translation area." The inspector general report, citing field office reports, said there might be as many as 47,000 hours of counter terrorism audio recordings that were not reviewed as of September 2008, which would be a more than fivefold increase in the backlog since 2003.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the FBI, called the report "troubling." "While the FBI has made progress in this area," Mr. Leahy said in a statement, "I remain concerned that the bureau's ability to adequately review this material is still seriously deficient." Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites       
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