美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-08-05

 New claims tonight about how much even low-level government employee and contractors¹ can find out about you with just a few computer key strokes. They're the latest revelations from NSA leaker Edward Snowden and whether it's top intelligence officials in Washington or the director of the National Security Agency, the programmers convention in Las Vegas, people are feeling the heat. 

 

I'm saying I don't trust you. 

 

You lied to Congress. Why would we believe you're not lying to us right now? 

 

He said he hasn't lied to Congress. Meantime, as the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a batch² of classified documents on its Domestic Intelligence Gathering³ Operations, material that was not scheduled for declassification⁴ until the year 2038. It included a 2011 Justice Department briefing paper describing two now familiar NSA programs for logging phone and e-mail data. 

 

It says, quote "Only a tiny fraction of such records are ever viewed by NSA intelligence analysts⁶," but the new information from Edward Snowden shows accessing such information is available to a very wide range of NSA analysts and is simple and is easy to get. Detailed⁷ extensively in Britain's "Guardian⁸" newspaper, the program is called Xkeyscore, an NSA analyst⁵ requiring no prior authorization⁹ from any court for using it to conduct searches on Americans. 

 

They only have to fill in a box stating there is some kind of foreign connection. In addition, the article details how XKeyscore searches not just e-mail subject lines and addresses but also the body of the message itself. Also social media activity and Web browsing¹⁰ history. Now the NSA maintains that access to XKeyscore and other search tools is limited. 

 

Count Michigan Republican Congressman¹¹ Justin Amash is a skeptic¹². He tried and nearly succeeded last week in passing legislation to rein¹³ in the NSA and is now backing a bipartisan effort to try again. 

 

Congressman, this program revealed in "The Guardian" today, XKeyscore, how concerned should people be about it? 

 

Very concerned. We're going to have a classified briefings tomorrow with Keith Alexander and I intend to ask some questions. One of the things that we don't know is where is the content coming from. There is a whole array of content coming in, whether it be e-mails or other Internet information and I'd like to know and my colleagues would like to know where this data is coming from. 

 

Did you know about this beforehand? Because, you know, what the people in the intelligence community always say is well, look, there is congressional oversight¹⁴ but my understanding is, there's only congressional oversight about what the NSA happens to tell you about. 

 

Yeah, we have these briefings and is it possible that in some document somewhere when they hand you 200 pages and tell you, you can only look at it in a room, that there's some line about this program? It's possible. I don't know. 

 

The problem we have when we go to these briefings is that we have to ask exactly the right question to get the right answer. If we don't ask the precise question, we don't get an answer. 

 

We've had a number of intelligence officials over the last couple of months or weeks certainly saying, well, you know, these, some of these programs, these collecting of metadata, collecting of phone calls or phone numbers, it's stopped dozens of terrorist attacks. 

 

Now Senator Patrick Leahy, he came forward and said well, look, maybe it stopped or was involved in one, but when you actually start to look at the details of how these programs were used it has not stopped nearly the number that some intelligence officials have been claiming. 

 

Yeahs, and they've been, there are many of them who have been very careful to say under this program and other programs we have stopped 54 terrorist attacks. There are some members of Congress who have not been very careful and I think have bordered on giving false testimony¹⁵ to the American people. 

 

And we should take a close look at that, but yeah, they, I think those who are careful and cautious about what they say realize that it's not this particular collection of phone records, mass collection of phone records, that is doing the work here. 

 

I spoke¹⁶ to Glenn Greenwald on this program last night. He pointed¹⁷ out that people within the government, you know, high-level officials, leak classified information all the time if it suits their political interest or, you know, whatever interest they may have and nothing seems to happen to them and yet, people with no status, no political connections like Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden, or even lower-level officials, they leak classified information and get hit with the full blunt of the U.S. justice system particularly under the Obama administration. 

 

I'm certainly not condoning¹⁸ the breaking of any law, but is the system unfair here? 

 

I think the system is unfair. And we need a better way for those who want to blow the whistle on the government to do so. There is a lot of talk that Edward Snowden could go to, for example, a member of Congress and tell them about the program, that it wasn't being applied¹⁹ in what he thought was a constitutional manner. 

 

And that's just not true. Edward Snowden could have come to me or most members of Congress and talk about it. He had to go to his superiors and he might be able to talk to some people on the intelligence committee. So they don't have a lot of avenues, and if you look at some of the intelligence committee members, it's pretty stacked(预先做好手脚) in favor of people who support these programs with the exception of a few people like Senator Wyden and Senator Udall and some others.

1 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

3 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

4 declassification   

n.不再当机密文件处理，从机密表删除

参考例句：

• Technology of GCD is the combination of grid computing and declassification. 网格密码破解技术 (GCD)是网格计算理论和密码暴力破解需求的结合。 来自互联网
• Its essential is how to determine the reasonable allocating among all parts of the declassification system. 该问题的实质就是如何确定到解系统各部分的合理配置关系。 来自互联网

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

7 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

8 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

9 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

10 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

12 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？

13 rein   

n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治

参考例句：

• The horse answered to the slightest pull on the rein.只要缰绳轻轻一拉,马就作出反应。
• He never drew rein for a moment till he reached the river.他一刻不停地一直跑到河边。

14 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

15 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

16 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

17 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

18 condoning   

v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I'm not condoning what he did, all right? 我并不是宽恕他的所作所为，好吗？ 来自电影对白
• Communist Party conservatives abhor the idea of condoning explicIt'sex. 党内的保守势力痛恨对赤裸性爱内容的宽容。 来自互联网

19 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。