A July audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, released Monday in unclassified summary form, shows that 123,000 hours of audio in languages related to counter terrorism activities (such as Arabic and Farsi) remain untranslated, while a whopping 370,000 hours of counterintelligence audio gather digital dust in the FBI translators' "IN" bin.

Also unsettling is the finding that 36 percent of al-Qaida communications are not being reviewed within 12 hours of interception, as FBI Director Robert Mueller has mandated (the report is here).

The backlog's chief cause appears to be that the FBI doesn't have nearly enough language experts. But lack of money is not to blame. Although the FBI's language services funding has more than tripled since 2001 (to $70 million this year), the number of linguists has risen only 37.5 percent, to 1,214. The Bureau also is saddled with inadequate digital collection systems that sometimes delete older material to make room for newer material. It doesn't even know how much has been deleted.

The 157-page audit's 18 recommendations include some fixes the FBI already is implementing, such as hiring more translators.

In a way, the backlog demonstrates how difficult it is - all but impossible, really - to sift through the exponentially growing terabyte-mountain of electronic data that humankind now generates. Maybe that's a comfort to those who fear that government electronic surveillance, such as the shadowy "Echelon" system that's been talked about for years, will take away what's left of our privacy.

But for a nation that has rearranged its enforcement priorities, created a whole new federal department and invested untold billions to help forestall another 9/11, the FBI's failure to translate is unsettling indeed.