【英语语言学习】斯诺登

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

 

Former NSA contractor¹ Edward Snowden has been exposing the most profound secrets of America's surveillance system, and the Obama administration's response to that? Declassifying² lots of other material. The NSA has been under orders to do that from the White House, yet many lawmakers are demanding even more, which raises the question: when do we know enough? NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.

 

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE³: To the list of institutions still quaking over Edward Snowden's leaks, add the small community of people who fight government secrecy⁴.

 

STEVE AFTERGOOD: We're living through a kind of slow-motion earthquake in government secrecy policy. And the full ramifications⁵ of it are not yet clear.

 

JOHNSON: Steve Aftergood writes a popular anti-secrecy blog and a few years ago he sued the government to make public the intelligence budget. But nothing compares, Aftergood says, to what's happening now, since Snowden started sharing documents with reporters.

 

AFTERGOOD: Already we've seen a more extensive disclosure of classified information about current intelligence programs than we've seen for at least 40 years, and maybe ever.

 

JOHNSON: And it's not just material that Snowden leaked. It's also information the Obama administration is disclosing on its own under pressure from Congress and judges. But the mindset of agents and analysts⁶ deep inside the surveillance structure argues against any disclosures for fear that terrorists and criminals will change their behavior once they learn how the U.S. is snooping. That old way of thinking has been overruled from the top. Consider this from President Obama, who talked about the intelligence community, or IC, in August.

 

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: What I'm going to be pushing the IC to do is rather than have a trunk come out here and a leg come out there and a tail come out there, let's just put the whole elephant out there so people know exactly what they're looking at.

 

JOHNSON: And the government has declassified⁷ more than ever before, especially about a bulk phone collection that gathered billions of records of Americans. One revelation led to another, just like pulling a thread on a sweater and unraveling an entire sleeve. So after officials decided⁸ to release opinions from the Secret Surveillance Court, those opinions included footnotes about NSA missteps. And later on, court documents about those missteps ultimately became public too. Teams of administration lawyers continue to go over the still-secret documents. Current and former government officials, like Carrie Cordero, a Justice Department lawyer who now runs the national security program at Georgetown, say they worry about a slippery slope.

 

CARRIE CORDERO: If there's to be anything left of our foreign intelligence capabilities⁹, the intelligence community is going to have to draw some line to continue to keep some programs and some capabilities in the classified realm.

 

JOHNSON: The obvious problem: where to draw that line and who gets to draw it. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has alienated¹⁰ members of Congress with his testimony¹¹. And the head of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, has few fans in the civil liberties community. Secrecy expert Steve Aftergood says officials made too many statements that proved not to be true.

 

AFTERGOOD: That has created a profound crisis in credibility for the intelligence community and for the classification system as a whole. It makes people wonder, well, if that wasn't true, what else isn't true?

 

JOHNSON: Cordero, the former Justice Department lawyer, says the Obama administration needs to find a better messenger.

 

CORDERO: It would be helpful if the administration more clearly defended the activities. They need to figure out who the right person is to do that job. And part of it falls to at the end of an administration who sort of has the credibility to take on that role.

 

JOHNSON: Ultimately, Cordero says, Congress may need to weigh in to require the federal government to disclose information on a regular schedule to help restore public confidence. Other veterans in the intelligence community say only an independent arbiter¹², like Congress or the courts, can balance the need to protect legitimate¹³ secrets against the public's right to know. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

 

1 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

2 declassifying   

v.对（机密文件等）销密( declassify的现在分词 )

参考例句：

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 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

5 ramifications   

n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These changes are bound to have widespread social ramifications. 这些变化注定会造成许多难以预料的社会后果。
• What are the ramifications of our decision to join the union? 我们决定加入工会会引起哪些后果呢？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 declassified   

adj.解密的v.对（机密文件等）销密( declassify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Thousands of classified documents have now been declassified. 数以千计的保密文件现在被解密了。
• The software used for Siemens S7-300 encryption logic block declassified. 此软件用于对西门子S7-300加密逻辑块解密。

8 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。

9 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

10 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 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。

12 arbiter   

n.仲裁人，公断人

参考例句：

• Andrew was the arbiter of the disagreement.安德鲁是那场纠纷的仲裁人。
• Experiment is the final arbiter in science.实验是科学的最后仲裁者。

13 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。