By Staff
It's hard to believe more than five years after 9/11, but none of the FBI's 12,000 agents can speak Arabic as fluently as a native speaker.
Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Just 33 have limited proficiency in Arabic.
Of 1,400 FBI agents who possess at least limited proficiency in a language other than English, nearly 900 of them speak Spanish.
It seems like this would be a priority given the sector of the world that has forced the FBI to remake itself into a counter-terrorism force.
According to a report in The Washington Post, it's not that the bureau is ignoring the need for institutional competence in Arabic, adding almost 200 translators.
There are probably plenty of agencies struggling to get personnel up to speed in a difficult language that Americans don't typically grow up studying.
The Justice Department's inspector general recently reported that the Federal Bureau of Prisons was not reading large volumes of terrorists' mail in part because it lacks sufficient language expertise.
The military's linguist shortage has caused no end of problems in Iraq.
Whatever happened to?: Anita Hill. Fifteen Octobers ago, in 1991, she testified in the Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that her onetime boss at the Department of Education had sexually harassed her – an allegation he denied. Thomas was narrowly confirmed.
Hill is now a law professor at Brandeis University near Boston.
Anniversary: "The Colbert Report," one.
Stephen Colbert announced Oct. 17 the auction of the portrait that hangs above the fireplace on the set of his Comedy Central show on eBay until Oct. 27.
The winner will be announced Oct. 30, with proceeds benefiting Save the Children.
When not lampooning conservative talk shows as a character reminiscent of Fox's Bill O'Reilly, Colbert also sponsored the "Green Screen Challenge," inviting viewers from "Colbert Nation" to furnish new video background for footage of him fighting with a light saber.
It was a nice touch when Bonnie R. beat out a late entry from George L. (Lucas, the "Star Wars" director, appeared on the climactic program).
Obit: CBGB (country, bluegrass and blues), the birthplace of punk and where the Ramones got their start in New York's Bowery, gave itself a headbanging funeral Oct. 15 with a eulogy by Patti Smith, 59.
Obit: Gerry Studds, 69, D-Mass., the first openly gay member of Congress, died recently.
The House censured Studds in 1983 for having an affair with a 17-year-old male page.
He survived the sex scandal to be elected to several more terms.
In 1996 Congress named a national marine sanctuary after Studds in tribute to his environmental legacy.