Interpreters
Iraqi Ali Kanaan suffered hearing loss and burns to more than a third of this body as a result of a 2006 bombing while he was working as an interpreter for the U.S. military. He says he was pressured into taking an insurance settlement he did not think was adequate. (Matthew Staver / For The Times)
Ali Kanaan, a former interpreter for the U.S. military in Iraq, talks in a Colorado shop with Colleen Driscoll, who oversaw interpreters’ insurance claims for defense contractor L-3 Communications. Driscoll left L-3 in 2007. She said the cause was a dispute with company executives over treatment of injured interpreters. (Matthew Staver / For The Times)
Iraqi interpreter Malek Hadi lost his leg in a 2006 blast while assisting the U.S. military police. He now lives in Arlington, Texas, on $612 in monthly disability payments. “When we were in Iraq, we were exactly like the soldiers,” Hadi said. “Why are we treated differently now?” (Allison V. Smith / For The Times)
