FBI lacks agents who are proficient in Arabic

WASHINGTON — Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none works in sections that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new bureau statistics.

Counting agents who know only a handful of Arabic words — including those who score "zero" on a standard proficiency test — only 1 percent of the FBI's 12,000 agents have any familiarity with the language, the statistics show.

The shortage of special agents with foreign-language skills shows the extent to which the FBI has focused on translators since the Sept. 11 attacks, in part because officials believe it is more valuable to have specially trained linguists.

The numbers also reflect the FBI's continued struggle to attract agents who speak Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and other languages of the Middle East and South Asia, even as it leads a fight against terrorist groups primarily centered in those parts of the world.

In a recent deposition filed in an employee lawsuit, a senior FBI official testified that the bureau's two International Terrorism Operations Sections (ITOS) do not require agents to know Arabic, even though the sections coordinate all foreign terrorism investigations. Only four agents in ITOS have any familiarity with Arabic, and none is ranked above elementary proficiency, documents show.

"There are no agent positions, at any level, in either ITOS I or II that utilize the Arabic language as part of their ITOS duties or responsibilities," Michael Heimbach, head of ITOS I, testified. "... As such, knowledge of the Arabic language is not a skill set utilized by either ITOS I or II."

FBI officials said it is not crucial for agents working in the ITOS sections to know Arabic or other foreign languages because they rely primarily on documents or interviews already translated by FBI linguists. As for agents in the field in the United States or overseas, FBI officials say translators are readily available when needed by investigators, usually within 24 hours.

But Daniel Byman, a Georgetown University associate professor who heads the school's Security Studies Program, said the FBI's continuing failure to attract Arabic-speaking agents is "a serious problem" that hurts the bureau's relations with immigrant communities and makes it more difficult to gather intelligence on extremist groups.

"With any new immigrant communities, they need these language skills, whether it's Vietnamese or Pakistani or Arabic," Byman said. "It also often gives you extra cultural knowledge and sensitivity. It makes you more sensitive to nuance, which is what investigations are often all about."

Margaret Gulotta, chief of the FBI's language services section, said the bureau has made significant progress since 9/11 in increasing the number of translators who speak Arabic and other foreign languages. The number of translators proficient in Arabic has grown from 70 in September 2001 to 269 as of July — an increase of nearly 300 percent — while the overall number of linguists has nearly doubled.

The FBI also has a "very aggressive training program" of foreign-language instruction for agents and other programs that make it easier to hire candidates with foreign-language ability, Gulotta said. In fiscal 2005, she said, more than 1,600 agents took classes.

"Do we need more Arabic-speaking agents? By all means we want more Arabic-speaking agents," Gulotta said. "But admittedly it's a very difficult group of people to recruit and hire. ... We've been a lot more successful in recruiting and hiring contract linguists and language specialists."

Gulotta said several factors limit the number of foreign speakers who can become agents. Special agents must be U.S. citizens. They must undergo background checks that are much more difficult to pass if the candidate has relatives or friends overseas.

"It is easier to get a security clearance if you don't have any interaction with foreigners, which is not what you want if you want better interaction with foreigners," Byman said.