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uncle sam|1.24.07 @ 11:21AM|#
Or perhaps his contempt for the people.
|1.24.07 @ 11:52AM|#
Well, dear Mr Sullum,
as it seems, 72 hours are not a lot of time when it comes to the surveillance of foreign intelligence TODAY -- as opposed to the good old days of the cold war.
You see, it takes quite a bit of time to translate communications from Arabic, Pashto, Kafiri, Urdu, Farsi-e Darbâri etc. into English, not to to mention the task of analyzing said communication.
If I remember rightly from the 9/11 report, it usually takes up to two weeks for the FBI to get translated transcripts of wiretaps in urgent cases, due to the lack of linguists. Perhaps the NSA is faster, however I doubt it -- this kind of work can not be done by computers, so a lot of numbercrunching muscle doesn't mean much.
Mike Laursen|1.24.07 @ 6:57PM|#
One could argue that a lack of linguists to quickly translate transcripts in urgent cases is a sign of mismanagement, lack of foresight, and misplaced priorities in FBI management. In fact, I'll just go ahead and argue that.