“After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the F.B.I. discovered that it had been in possession of crucial clues, in Arabic, of videotapes, notebooks and at least one recorded phone call. But no one who knew Arabic listened to them until after the bombing. Still, there was no major effort to hire linguists. In September 2000, several intelligence officials testified at a Senate hearing about the shortage of trained linguists, warning that they already faced translation backlogs.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Robert Worth, “Agents Wanted. Should Speak Pashto.” The New York Times, Oct. 1, 2001