Language in Intelligence

The following examples illustrating the role language plays in intelligence and counter-terrorism are drawn from the testimonies of senior U.S. Government officials before the Senate Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, Governmental Affairs Committee, September 14, 2000. The full transcripts are available from Federal News Service.

Ellen Laipson, National Intelligence Council:

"One cannot overstate the centrality of foreign language skills to the core mission of the intelligence community. Foreign languages come into play at virtually all points of the intelligence cycle, from collection to exploitation, to analysis and production. The collection of intelligence depends heavily on language, whether the information is gathered from a human source through a relationship with a field officer or gathered from a technical system."

"Information then has to be processed and exploited, which entails verifying the accuracy and explaining it in clear and unambiguous terms. All source analysts then integrate these intelligence reports, along with media reports, including information from the Internet, which as many people don't know is now increasingly in non-English languages, embassy reporting and other information to produce finished intelligence products for decision-makers."

"Of course, the finished product is in English, but the inputs may come from several different foreign languages and need to be assessed by a range of people with the ability to translate and interpret the material in its original language and in its particular context."

"The intelligence community often lacks the foreign language skills necessary to surge during a crisis, for example, Serbo-Croatian skills in the period of the buildup to the NATO bombing of Serbia. At times we obtain large volumes of documents that may be critical to make the case about gross human rights abuses by someone like Saddam Hussein but lack of this scale of translating capacity makes it hard to provide thorough enough analysis in a timely way for policy decisions."

And lack of language skills can limit our analysts' insight into a foreign culture, restricting their ability to understand and anticipate deterioration in a particular situation. This often diminishes our ability to warn policymakers about a potential trouble spot. Thousands of technical papers that provide details on foreign research and development in scientific or technical areas currently go untranslated because we lack the funds and personnel to interpret the material. Should this situation continue we could face the possibility of a technological surprise."

Mr. Christopher Mellon, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, C3I:

"Foreign language skills and area expertise are integral to or directly support every foreign intelligence discipline and are essential factors in national security readiness, information superiority, in coalition peacekeeping or war fighting missions."

Mr. David Alba, Assistant Director in Charge, Investigative Services Division, FBI:

"When you look at the FBI's major initiatives, such as foreign counterintelligence, international terrorism, international drug investigations and multi-national white-collar crime, foreign language ability becomes even more critical...." "Court-authorized electronic surveillance is highly effective and often involves a foreign language. Criminals usually use coded language to cover their activity and this complicates the issue even further. In 1993 you may remember the plot to bomb several New York landmarks by radical followers of an Egyptian sheik. The codeword used for the bombs was the Arabic word 'Hadduta,' which literally means a child's bedtime story when translated from Arabic. It sounded innocent enough but it became obvious that something was wrong when the suspects talked about preparing four 'Hadduta,' renting a warehouse for the 'Hadduta' and buying oil and fertilizer for the 'Hadduta.'"