美国国家公共电台 NPR Counterterrorism Chief Sees Gains On The Battlefield, Stubborn Threats At Home

Counterterrorism Chief Sees Gains On The Battlefield, Stubborn Threats At Home

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Morning after morning this summer, it's felt like we all woke up, rolled out of bed and learned of some new atrocity¹.

(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: A grim national record has been set in Orlando, Fla., the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: There may have been as many as three explosions in the attack on Istanbul's main airport today.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: More than 70 people are reported to have been killed - many more were hurt - in an attack in the southern French city of Nice.

INSKEEP: It was a string of harrowing days for the victims of terror attacks and a string of long days for the man who is leading U.S. counterterrorism efforts. His name is Nick Rasmussen. And this summer's events have compelled him to draw on his years of experience at the National Counterterrorism Center.

NICK RASMUSSEN: The worst day at NCTC, I think, was the day of the Boston Marathon.

INSKEEP: He means the day in 2013 when two bombs exploded near the marathon finish line.

RASMUSSEN: If you're in the counterterrorism business, your first instinct is, what went wrong? What could we have done? Even before you have any idea at all what happened, you're starting to think, where did we let something drop? You take it very personally. And so, as you're watching it unfold on one of these big screens, you're immediately thinking, let's dig in.

INSKEEP: The big screens Rasmussen mentioned are on the floor of the counterterrorism operations center. Very few people ever see that floor. Our colleague Mary Louise Kelly headed to that floor to interview Nick Rasmussen.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE³: We are just about to turn into what you would never know is the hub of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. It's a little grassy⁴ hill. There's a line of cars about to turn into what looks like an anonymous⁵ suburban⁶ office park here in northern Virginia - a guy mowing⁷ the lawn. But just about everybody in these cars holds a top-secret security clearance⁸.

About a thousand people work here at the National Counterterrorism Center. It's staffed 24/7. They bring in cots when a big blizzard⁹ like Snowmageddon shuts down the roads, and everybody just sleeps here. At any given time, the big spy agencies are represented - the National Security Agency, the FBI, military intelligence, also, local law enforcement and first responders. A firefighter from LA might be working a few desks away from a CIA officer.

And just looking around, we're in a two-story operations center. Everybody's got three big monitors on their desks and big screens on the wall, which, at the moment, are showing cable news. But you could be watching - what? - live drone feeds coming in.

RASMUSSEN: Without going into too much specificity, yes, we're able to kind of monitor classified information on those screens.

KELLY: Nick Rasmussen, the man steering¹⁰ this enterprise, says one of his takeaways from the recent spate¹¹ of attacks is the speed at which terror recruits are now being radicalized. Rasmussen calls this a shortened flash-to-bang ratio.

RASMUSSEN: The ability of ISIS to reach to individuals on the internet or in social media and quickly turn them into, not just a believer or a consumer of radical¹² extremist material, but then someone who would actually take the next step and go to act on it, who would actually look to carry out an act of violence, an act of terrorism.

KELLY: And you're saying you see that compressed.

RASMUSSEN: And we're seeing that compressed. What may have taken months or even years previously¹³ can now take place over a matter of weeks.

KELLY: Which means fewer opportunities for counterterrorism officers to spot suspicious patterns of travel, communications, purchases. This is a lesson hard-learned after this June's attack in Orlando. I asked Rasmussen - with the benefit of hindsight, was there something you missed?

RASMUSSEN: From everything I could tell, the information we had available and the understanding we had and FBI had of the individual, Omar Mateen, led us to take - led the FBI to take all of the appropriate steps. What you can't account for - what nobody can account for is what's going on inside an individual's head.

And so, as much as I would like to find some nugget of information and say, aha, if we had just paid attention to this, somebody would've figured out what Omar Mateen had in mind, I just don't see it. I wish that I did. In some ways, it would make it easier if there was a single flaw that you could land on that would say, if we fix this, we will have closed that vulnerability.

KELLY: It speaks to the limits of counterterrorism.

RASMUSSEN: It does, and it speaks to partners in the local community to help do our work with us.

KELLY: I asked Rasmussen for a big-picture update on the campaign against ISIS or ISIL. Is the U.S. making progress?

RASMUSSEN: ISIL has certainly begun to lose territory in Iraq and Syria. And so it seems like a little bit of cognitive¹⁴ dissonance when, on the one hand, they're losing territory, and we're having success on the battlefield. And then, on the other hand, the group seems to be able to organize and carry out attacks in various places around the globe. So how do you explain that?

KELLY: I think it's a big disconnect...

RASMUSSEN: It is a big disconnect...

KELLY: ...For a lot of Americans trying to keep up.

RASMUSSEN: ...For a lot of Americans. But what we've observed is that there probably isn't a direct one-to-one connection between territorial¹⁵ control and ISIS's ability to operate as a terrorist network.

KELLY: Rasmussen admits the struggle against ISIS is likely to be long.

RASMUSSEN: It's hard for me to imagine a set of conditions that would prevail that would - that we would not have to worry about terrorism at all as a country.

KELLY: But, he argues, the changes put in place since 9/11, including this high-tech¹⁶ counterterrorism center where we're talking, have left the U.S. prepared.

RASMUSSEN: What we've done is create for ourselves an apparatus¹⁷ and an architecture that can respond to terrorism for decades, if not, you know, hundreds of years to come. I actually think that we're postured¹⁸ pretty well to deal with not only terrorism 1.0 and 2.0, but probably 3.0 and 4.0, as well.

KELLY: Any idea what that looks like?

Rasmussen pauses, leans back in his chair, considers that.

RASMUSSEN: We certainly have analysts¹⁹ here at NCTC who are charged with looking around the bend or over the horizon and thinking about what the - what terrorism looks like five years from now or 10 years from now. But I think, if anything, we've learned to have a great deal of humility²⁰ about that because so much has changed even in just the last few years as we've dealt with the terrorism landscape that ISIS has presented to us.

KELLY: Today's immediate² challenge - Rio. Nick Rasmussen says a team of about two dozen U.S. intelligence officers have traveled to Brazil for the Olympics. This is standard practice, both to keep officials back home in Washington informed about any possible threats and to share what the U.S. knows with the host country. This is the NCTC's mission in a nutshell - gathering²¹ thousands of threads of what can seem fleeting²² and contradictory²³ information, distilling²⁴ those threads, finding patterns, sharing them. So far, Rasmussen says the Brazilians have been a very good partner in this enterprise. Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.

1 atrocity   

n.残暴，暴行

参考例句：

• These people are guilty of acts of great atrocity.这些人犯有令人发指的暴行。
• I am shocked by the atrocity of this man's crimes.这个人行凶手段残忍狠毒使我震惊。

2 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

5 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

6 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

7 mowing   

n.割草，一次收割量，牧草地v.刈，割( mow的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The lawn needs mowing. 这草坪的草该割了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• "Do you use it for mowing?" “你是用它割草么？” 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

8 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

9 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

10 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

11 spate   

n.泛滥，洪水，突然的一阵

参考例句：

• Police are investigating a spate of burglaries in the area.警察正在调查这一地区发生的大量盗窃案。
• Refugees crossed the border in full spate.难民大量地越过了边境。

12 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

13 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

14 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

15 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

16 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

17 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。

18 postured   

做出某种姿势( posture的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She postured before the camera. 她在相机前摆出做作的姿势。
• The painter postured his model. 画家使模特儿摆姿势。

19 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。

20 humility   

n.谦逊，谦恭

参考例句：

• Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
• His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。

21 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。

22 fleeting   

adj.短暂的，飞逝的

参考例句：

• The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
• Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝，于是让自已尽情地享受。

23 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

24 distilling   

n.蒸馏（作用）v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )( distilled的过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• Water can be made pure by distilling it. 水经蒸馏可变得纯净。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• More ammonium sulphate solution is being recovered in the process of distilling oil shale. 在提炼油页岩的过程中回收的硫酸铵液比过去多了。 来自《简明英汉词典》