Kinne and Faulk described working in massive facilities at Ft. Gordon where rows of linguists and analysts wearing headphones comb through intercepts collected from all over the world, transcribing the recordings in English. Ft. Gordon is one of three military facilities in the United States -- the others are in Texas and Hawaii -- dedicated to so-called signals intelligence analysis.
Kinne said the recordings she transcribed were mainly intercepted transmissions from satellite phones in the Middle East. The recordings would initially be sorted by computer and given rankings from 1 to 9, with the lowest numbers associated with terrorists and other immediate threats and given greatest priority.
"Humanitarian aid organizations were priorities around 5 or 7," said Kinne, who now works at a veterans hospital in Vermont and has joined an antiwar veterans group.
She said she reported her concerns to superiors as well as members of Congress, including Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), but "nobody ever bothered to call me back."
Faulk, who worked until recently as a reporter for a community newspaper in Augusta, Ga., said he was one of as many as 3,000 linguists at Ft. Gordon, many of them in their early 20s. His group spent much of its time monitoring calls into and out of Baghdad's Green Zone, the fortified enclave that houses the U.S. Embassy and military and intelligence commands.
"I think it was a small number of people abusing the program," Faulk said. "But I also think that the majority of translators, because of their age -- very young, very often recruited right out of high school -- are susceptible to falling into this trap."
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greg.miller@latimes.com
