1. Read about Congressional committees in the "Background" below. What conclusion did the Senate Committee on Intelligence conclude about the number of U.S. intelligence personnel who are capable of reading and speaking targeted regional languages?

2. Why is it imperative that U.S. intelligence agencies have personnel capable of reading and speaking specific targeted languages?

3. How do CIA officials (and an unnamed former intelligence officer, para. 12-20) explain the lack of qualified translators almost eight years after 9/11? Be specific.

4. Do you think that U.S. intelligence should work with translators who attend extremist mosques or have untrustworthy relatives? Explain your answer.

5. a) What problem do intelligence agencies have with American translators who become fluent in one of the languages needed?
b) How do you think the agencies should attempt to solve this problem? Be specific.

6. Think about the following information from wikipedia.org below. The U.S. Intelligence community is obviously facing a challenging situation. Terrorists plotting attacks will of course speak dialects they believe the U.S. does not have the capability to translate. How should the CIA, NSA and others move forward to gain the capability of translating multiple languages and dialects in the coming years?

[Pakistan's population is close to 200 million.]  Many regional languages are spoken in Pakistan and the major ones according to the number of native speakers are:
Punjabi (44%)
Pashto (15%)
Sindhi (14%)
Saraiki (10%)
Baluchi (4%)
Pakistan has about 1 million native speakers of Persian. Persian continues to be an important literary language in Pakistan. Arabic is popular due to religious significance. Most Pakistanis understand at least two languages.

Other languages spoken in Pakistan include: Aer, Badeshi, Bagri, Balti, Bateri, Bhaya, Brahui, Burushaski, Chilisso, Dameli, Dehwari, Dhatki, Domaaki, Farsi (Dari), Gawar-Bati, Ghera, Goaria, Gowro, Gujarati, Gujari, Gurgula, Hazaragi, Hindko (two varieties), Jadgali, Jandavra, Kabutra, Kachchi (Kutchi), Kalami, Kalasha, Kalkoti, Kamviri, Kashmiri, Kati, Khetrani, Khowar, Indus Kohistani, Koli (three varieties), Lasi, Loarki, Marwari, Memoni, Od, Ormuri, Pahari-Potwari, Pakistan Sign Language, Palula (Phalura), Sansi, Savi, Shina (two varieties), Torwali, Ushojo, Vaghri, Wakhi, Waneci, and Yidgha. Some of these have a relatively small number of speakers, while others have hundreds of thousands of speakers.

There are two official languages of Afghanistan, in addition to other languages that are spoken. The two official languages are also the most commonly spoken; the Dari dialect of the Persian language, is spoken as their first language by about 35% of the population, though this percentage also includes speakers of the Hazaragi dialect, about two million people. Pashto is also an official language and is spoken by 50% of the population. In addition, many Turkic languages such as Turkmen and Uzbek are spoken, as well as over thirty other languages. Much of the population is bilingual.