2014年经济学人 阿拉伯银行 恐怖分子的共犯

Arab Bank

Consorting¹ with terrorists

A venerable Jordanian bank is found complicit in terrorist attacks

AFTER a six-week trial it took only two days for a jury to find Arab Bank guilty of knowingly providing assistance to Hamas, the Palestinian militant² group that runs Gaza, and consequently of complicity in two dozen terrorist attacks Hamas launched between 2001 and 2004 in which Americans were hurt or killed.

The case was originally filed a decade ago and this week's verdict notwithstanding, it is far from over. Damages will be assessed in another trial. Arab Bank, which is based inJordan, has vowed³ to appeal, labelling the proceeding⁴ “a show trial”, in which it was prevented from providing exonerating⁵ evidence by other countries' laws on bank secrecy⁶.

The case was the first test of an anti-terrorism law passed in 1990 in response to the murder of an American tourist by Palestinian militants⁷ in 1985. Arab Bank faces additional claims from hundreds of others harmed during the same period but by other Palestinian groups. Similar cases have been filed in American courts against various foreign banks, including Bank of China, CréditLyonnaisand a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

At the nub of these cases is the question of how far a bank can reasonably be expected to go to understand its clients' activities. Arab Bank argued that it had never intended to provide any service that contributed to terrorism, and to that end had screened its clients using official lists of known terrorists. It failed only by mistake, when the spelling of names on the lists did not match its own.

The plaintiffs argued that it must, or at least should have, known better. Bank documents, for example, showed payments tied to “martyrdom operations”; the most notable misspelt name was Ahmad Yassin, the founder⁸ of Hamas.

Among the most important legacies⁹ of the case will be the standard used to determine complicity. Arab Bank argued that there must be a direct causal relationship between a service and a terrorist act—that but for the service, the act would not have occurred. But the court ruled that the assistance need only be substantial and its consequences foreseeable. There are conflicting precedents¹⁰, but on September 22nd the appeals court hearing the case involving RBS ruled that the standard for culpability¹¹ need only be “material support to a terrorist organisation”, not whether it “aided terrorist activities.” That is a much lower bar.

1 consorting   

v.结伴( consort的现在分词 )；交往；相称；调和

参考例句：

• He' d been consorting with known criminals. 他一直与那些臭名昭着的罪犯有交往。 来自辞典例句
• Mr. Berlusconi's wife publicly accused him of 'consorting with minors' and demanded a divorce. 贝卢斯科尼的妻子公开指责他“与未成年人交往”，并提出离婚。 来自互联网

2 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

3 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

4 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。

5 exonerating   

v.使免罪，免除( exonerate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

6 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 legacies   

n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 )；遗留之物；遗留问题；后遗症

参考例句：

• Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind. 书是伟大的天才留给人类的精神财富。 来自辞典例句
• General legacies are subject to the same principles as demonstrative legacies. 一般的遗赠要与指定数目的遗赠遵循同样的原则。 来自辞典例句

10 precedents   

引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例

参考例句：

• There is no lack of precedents in this connection. 不乏先例。
• He copied after bad precedents. 他仿效恶例。

11 culpability   

n.苛责，有罪

参考例句：

• As if the estrangement between them had come of any culpability of hers. 姐弟俩疏远的责任竟仿佛落到了她的身上！ 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• The offence, as now defined in English law, covers a wide spectrum of culpability. 英国法律规定，违法包括很多种过失行为。 来自互联网