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)
