密歇根新闻广播 FBI一男子在乌克兰死亡

 

In 2015, Billy Reilly disappeared while on a trip to Russia and Ukraine. In the five years leading up to his disappearance¹, the 28-year-old from Oxford², Michigan had been working part-time as an FBI informant.

Reilly's family spent years pleading with the U.S. government to help them find their son, but they received little assistance.

It was Wall Street Journal reporter Brett Forrest whose research into Reilly's disappearance eventually led to the discovery that the young man had been murdered while abroad.

Forrest says that Reilly possessed³ skills that were of exceptional interest to the FBI's counterterrorism efforts. Reilly taught himself Arabic and Russian, and he had a deep interest in global conflict. He infiltrated⁴ restricted online chat rooms used by people from movements related to global jihad, and those communications eventually drew the FBI's attention.

Reilly's value to the FBI, Forrest says, was his ability to blend into those chat rooms and successfully earn the acceptance of the people who used them. He was brought on as part of their Confidential⁵ Human Source Program.

He was one of these guys who could really get his hands around cultures. It wasn't just knowing facts, and it wasn't just knowing a language. It was about really identifying with people in different parts of the world, Forrest explained.

After five years working part-time for the FBI, Reilly announced to his parents that he would be visiting the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. He told them that he wanted to join humanitarian⁶ missions to help Ukrainians there who were affected⁷ by the ongoing⁸ war with Russia.

Six weeks into his trip, during which time he maintained regular contact with his parents, Reilly stopped responding to their messages. Not long after that, Reilly's handler from the FBI visited their family home in Oxford, claiming to know nothing of Reilly's whereabouts.

Forrest says that although Reilly's parents initially⁹ believed that that FBI was invested in determining what happened to their son, they eventually began to suspect that the agency was actually covering up facts related to the case and “thwarting efforts” to find him.

Reilly's parents even visited Russia themselves to piece together what may have happened to their son, but they found no answers. Then Forrest, with the help of a contact in Russia, was able to match a set of fingerprints¹⁰ from Michigan with one from a Russian database. That's when they discovered that Reilly had been murdered and buried in Eastern Ukraine.

His parents flew to the region to collect their son's remains¹¹, which they then brought back to Michigan.

Forrest says Reilly's story begs broader questions about what kind of responsibility the FBI — which expanded from a law enforcement body to an international intelligence organization in the wake of 9/11 — has to its sources.

The FBI has developed a clear policy of cutting sources loose when things start to have a potential to have some sort of negative blowback on the FBI. And when that happens, you have a situation where Billy Reilly — who'd spent five years giving all of himself, really, to the counterterrorism fight — when he needed the FBI the most, the FBI turned its back on him, Forrest said. So you want to ask that question: what recourse do these people and their families have when the FBI behaves that way?

This post was written by Stateside production assistant Isabella Isaacs-Thomas.

1 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

2 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

3 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

4 infiltrated   

adj.[医]浸润的v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The headquarters had been infiltrated by enemy spies. 总部混入了敌方特务。
• Many Chinese idioms have infiltrated into the Japanese language. 许多中国成语浸透到日语中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

6 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

9 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

10 fingerprints   

n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
• They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。