Translator With Foreign Links Discusses Clearance

An East Asian national who has provided translation services to the U.S. President discusses (registration required) her work and ability to acquire security clearance despite her unique background.

...as a translator with national security clearance, Abbas has visited Prague, the White House, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in just the past year….

born in East Turkistan, a formerly independent nation populated largely by people of the Uyghur ethnicity now governed by China… [Abbas] is now one of few speakers of the Uyghur language in the United States, and one of very few who possesses security clearance…

“I didn’t want to be in the middle of it,” Abbas said, “but [the U.S. military] told me I was the only qualified person who could get security clearance.”

Filed Under: Adjudication, Career