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by gpm 1657 days ago
> The CIA employs linguists!?

Not sure why this is a surprise? They're in the business of understanding information from all over the world, in all languages... and are undoubtedly interested in things like "this accent means this person came from this part of the country" too.
2 comments
jessaustin 1656 days ago
It could be a surprise because they always blame translation difficulties whenever they fail to predict important events e.g. fall of USSR, 9/11, no WMDs, 12-hour Taliban flash-takeover of Afghanistan, etc. One almost suspects that they don't particularly care to get "intelligence" right since they have other priorities.
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mhh__ 1657 days ago
Sarcasm. I hoped it was obvious from the second paragraph.
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gpm 1657 days ago
Oops, sorry.

I read it as "well this one is surprisingly, but the list is generally reasonable". My bad.

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