Untranslated

The FBI has a huge, growing backlog of material related to terrorism investigations that remains untranslated.

None of the backlogged material came in what the bureau considered its highest-priority investigations, Glenn A. Fine, the inspector general at the Justice Department, told the Senate Judiciary Committee, in releasing the findings of a new report by his office.

Still, Mr. Fine said the F.B.I. "has no assurance" that some 8,300 hours of untranslated material does not include information that could be critical to terrorism investigations.

In addition, the bureau told the committee that its long-delayed effort to overhaul its computer system and allow agents to search terrorism files more easily would not be completed until 2009 at the earliest.

Leading senators and national security experts said they were frustrated to learn that two of the F.B.I.'s most pressing problems - its computer capabilities and its ability to translate terrorism material - have continued to languish, and in some respects have worsened.

Our FBI agents have, certainly, been working like fiends to bring their infrastructure up to snuff since their failings pre-9/11, right? Apparently not enough. Anybody know a super double secret Babelfish site to direct our Agency Friends toward?