新奇事件簿 默克尔遭美国监视

Several German news sources are questioning how much President Obama knows about the US spying on German Chancellor¹ Angela Merkel. The 'Spiegel' magazine reported that the USA's National Security Agency (NSA) started tapping Ms Merkel's mobile telephone in 2002, under the George W. Bush administration. It says President Obama knew that the tap was still in place as early as 2010, before he visited Berlin in June of that year to tell Germans of the warm friendship that existed between their two countries. A newspaper reported that the contents of Ms Merkel's SMS messages and phone calls went straight to the White House. The US Embassy in Berlin was used as a base for the surveillance.

多家德国新闻媒体质疑美国总统奥巴马到底知道多少关于监视德国总理默克尔的事情。《明镜周刊》报道称在小布什当政期间，美国国家安全局于2002年开始监听默克尔的电话。周刊称奥巴马总统早在2010年就了解到监听一直在持续当中，之后奥巴马于当年6月访问柏林，重温两国友情。有报道称默克尔的短信息和电话内容能够直接到达白宫。美国驻柏林使馆是监视基地。

The spying allegedly began when former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder was in office. US intelligence sources were suspicious of his refusal to support the second Iraq War. Obama told Ms Merkel last week that he had not known of the bugging². However, a media report cites an NSA official who said Mr Obama ordered the programme to be escalated³. A document from the NSA warned of "grave damage for relations" if its spying programme was discovered. Ms Merkel is shocked that the USA may have engaged in the sort of spying she thought was a relic⁴ of the Cold War. She was also spied on in the former East Germany, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse⁵ of communism in Eastern Europe.

有人声称这样的监视行动是从德国前总理施洛德当政期间就开始的。美国情报部门曾经因他不支持伊拉克战争而表示过怀疑。奥巴马上周对默克尔称他对窃听一事不知情。但是，有媒体引用一位安全局官员的话说总统奥巴马命令将任务升级。一份来自安全局的文件警告称如果监听计划一旦被发现，会对两国关系构成伤害。默克尔对美国监听一事表示震惊，她认为这是冷战遗留物。在柏林墙以及东欧共产主义倒塌之前，默克尔在东德时期就遭到了监视。

1 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

2 bugging   

[法] 窃听

参考例句：

• Okay, then let's get the show on the road and I'll stop bugging you. 好，那么让我们开始动起来，我将不再惹你生气。 来自辞典例句
• Go fly a kite and stop bugging me. 走开，别烦我。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语

3 escalated   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The fighting escalated into a full-scale war. 这场交战逐步扩大为全面战争。
• The demonstration escalated into a pitched battle with the police. 示威逐步升级，演变成了一场同警察的混战。

4 relic   

n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物

参考例句：

• This stone axe is a relic of ancient times.这石斧是古代的遗物。
• He found himself thinking of the man as a relic from the past.他把这个男人看成是过去时代的人物。

5 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。