英国卫报:绑架为何成了一门生意(8)

Once Stewart made the decision, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which had been handling the case, withdrew all support.

斯图尔特一做出决定，负责此案的加拿大皇家骑警就停止了所有支持。

The hostage-negotiation team that had been camped in her living room moved out.

暂住在她客厅里的人质谈判小组搬走了。

Stewart, working with the Brennan family in Australia,

斯图尔特和布伦南一家在澳大利亚工作，

eventually raised enough money to hire a security consultant¹ from London-based firm AKE to take over the negotiations².

他们最终筹到了足够的钱，从伦敦的AKE公司聘请了一名安全顾问来接手谈判。

The consultant advised the families that negotiations would take several months and they would have to pay a ransom³ of around $600,000 each.

这名顾问告诉两个家庭，谈判将耗时数月，他们必须为每人支付约60万美元的赎金。

His prediction was spot on. Lindhout and Brennan were freed in November 2009.

他的预测完全正确。林德豪特和布伦南于2009年11月获释。

Their families ended up in massive debt.

他们的家庭最终负债累累。

In some cases, US and British hostages have also been freed through dramatic rescues.

在某些情况下，美国和英国的人质也戏剧性地被释放。

On 25 January 2012, US Navy Seals dropped into Somalia

2012年1月25日，美国海豹突击队空投到索马里，

and rescued kidnapped US aid worker Jessica Buchanan and her Danish colleague Poul Thisted, shooting dead nine of their kidnappers⁴.

解救了被绑架的美国援助工作者杰西卡·布坎南和她的丹麦同事波尔·西斯特德，枪杀了9名绑架者。

Officials had decided⁵ to launch a rescue because Buchanan had developed a kidney infection,

由于布坎南的肾脏感染，官员们决定展开救援，

and they believed her life was in danger.

他们认为她有生命危险。

Negotiations, which were being carried out by a security consultant and monitored by the FBI, were not progressing fast enough.

谈判由一名安全顾问进行，并由美国联邦调查局监控，进展得不够快。

Most importantly, the US had good intelligence on the hostages’ location and ideal weather conditions for a successful rescue.

最重要的是，美国掌握了关于人质地点的准确情报，而且完成成功营救的天气条件也很理想。

Despite such successes, rescuing hostages through military force is not a scalable solution to international hostage-taking.

尽管取得了这些成功，但通过军事力量解救人质并不是解决国际劫持人质问题的一个可扩展的办法。

Only a handful of countries have the military capacity to pull off such a raid, and they are also extremely risky⁶.

只有少数几个国家有能力进行这样的突袭，而且风险极高。

According to industry data, either a hostage or a rescuer is killed in half of all rescue operations.

根据行业数据，在半数的解救行动中都有一名人质或者解救者丧命。

One tragic⁷ example was the 2009 raid carried out by British special forces in Afghanistan

2009年英国特种部队在阿富汗实施的突袭行动就是一个悲剧性的例子，

that freed kidnapped New York Times reporter Steve Farrell,

他们解救了被绑架的纽约时报记者史蒂夫·法雷尔，

but led to the death of a British soldier along with two Afghan civilians⁸.

但是导致一名英国士兵和两名阿富汗平民死亡。

Farrell’s Afghan colleague, journalist Sultan Munadi, was also killed, possibly shot accidentally by British forces.

法雷尔的阿富汗同事，记者苏尔坦·穆纳迪也被击毙，可能是被英军意外射杀。

These deaths were all the more tragic because private negotiators who were communicating with the kidnappers already had a deal for both hostages’ release.

因为与绑架者沟通的私下谈判人员已经达成了释放人质的协议，所以这些死亡就更加悲剧了。

It was not clear that the British government was ever aware.

当时不清楚英国政府是否意识到了这一点。

1 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

2 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

3 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

4 kidnappers   

n.拐子，绑匪( kidnapper的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They were freed yesterday by their kidnappers unharmed. 他们昨天被绑架者释放了，没有受到伤害。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The kidnappers had threatened to behead all four unless their jailed comrades were released. 帮匪们曾经威胁说如果印度方面不释放他们的同伙，他们就要将这四名人质全部斩首。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

7 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

8 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。