] A shortage of Arabic speakers has plagued the
] entire intelligence community. Though U.S. intelligence
] was using all the best technology -- spy satellites,
] high-tech listening posts and other devices -- to
] listen in on the conversations of possible terrorists,
] far too often it had no idea what they were saying. A
] congressional inquiry after 9/11 found enormous backlogs.
] Millions of hours of talk by suspected
] terrorists -- including 35 percent of all
] Arabic-language national-security wiretaps by the
] FBI -- had gone untranslated and untranscribed. Some of
] the overseas intercepts contained chillingly precise
] warnings. On Sept. 10, 2001, the National Security Agency
] picked up suggestive comments by Qaeda operatives,
] including "Tomorrow is zero hour." The tape of
] the conversation was not translated until after 9/11.

Interesting Newsweek article on the status of our terrorist wiretapping efforts.