Showing posts with label dea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dea. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Ebonics Experts Needed By Justice Department

AUGUST 23--The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media”

The DEA’s need for full-time linguists specializing in Ebonics is detailed in bid documents related to the agency’s mid-May issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) covering the provision of as many as 2100 linguists for the drug agency’s various field offices. Answers to the proposal were due from contractors on July 29.

In contract documents, which are excerpted here, Ebonics is listed among 114 languages for which prospective contractors must be able to provide linguists. The 114 languages are divided between “common languages” and “exotic languages.” Ebonics is listed as a “common language” spoken solely in the United States.

Ebonics has widely been described as a nonstandard variant of English spoken largely by African Americans. John R. Rickford, a Stanford University professor of linguistics, has described it as “Black English” and noted that “Ebonics pronunciation includes features like the omission of the final consonant in words like ‘past’ (pas’ ) and ‘hand’ (han’), the pronunciation of the th in ‘bath’ as t (bat) or f (baf), and the pronunciation of the vowel in words like ‘my’ and ‘ride’ as a long ah (mah, rahd).”

Detractors reject the notion that Ebonics is a dialect, instead considering it a bastardization of the English language.

The Department of Justice RFP does not, of course, address questions of vernacular, dialect, or linguistic merit. It simply sought proposals covering the award of separate linguist contracts for seven DEA regions. The agency spends about $70 million annually on linguistic service programs, according to contract records.

In addition to the nine Ebonics experts, the DEA’s Atlanta office also requires linguists for eight other languages, including Spanish (144 linguists needed); Vietnamese (12); Korean (9); Farsi (9); and Jamaican patois (4). The Atlanta field division, one of the DEA’s busiest, is the only office seeking linguists well-versed in Ebonics. Overall, the “majority of DEA’s language requirements will be for Spanish originating in Central and South America and the Caribbean,” according to one contract document.

The Department of Justice RFP includes a detailed description of the crucial role a linguist can play in narcotics investigations. They are responsible for listening to “oral intercepts in English and foreign languages,” from which they provide verbal and typed summaries. “Subsequently, all pertinent calls identified by the supervising law enforcement officer will be transcribed verbatim in the required federal or state format,” the RFP notes.

Additionally, while “technology plays a major role in the DEA’s efforts, much of its success is increasingly dependent upon rapid and meticulous understanding of foreign languages used in conversations by speakers of languages other than English and in the translation, transcription and preparation of written documents.” (11 pages).

To read more click below.........

Saturday, March 27, 2010

TWO EASTERN SHORE MEN ARRESTED BY DEA


An Eastern Shore auto shop owner and his "right-hand man" were arrested this week on federal charges of leading a large-scale cocaine and marijuana distribution ring, the DEA said.

Harry Byrd West, also known as "Kojak," and an associate, Terrance Durell Price, were responsible for distributing multiple pounds of cocaine, crack and marijuana throughout the Eastern Shore, according to the DEA. The investigation began when an informant told authorities that West was traveling to Florida, North Carolina and Delaware to obtain drugs, according to a court affidavit filed by DEA special agent Jack Faddis Jr. The investigation has been going on for about a year. The informant told agents that Price and West cooked cocaine into crack from West's auto shop, AA Auto, in Cheriton, the affidavit says. The informant began making DEA-controlled drug purchases from the pair, and the transactions were captured on video and audio tape.

The DEA arranged multiple drug purchases from Price and West using different informants. The DEA said it also learned West was dealing drugs from a trailer in Capeville and a house in Machipongo. Another informant told agents West has been dealing for at least 10 years, the DEA said.

West made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Thursday and will return Monday for a bond hearing. Price is expected to be brought to court next week.


www.shoredailynews.com