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2006年VOA标准英语-Official: New Agency Has Improved US Intel

时间:2007-03-22 16:00:00

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By Gary Thomas
Washington
20 April 2006

 
John Negroponte
  
The director of national intelligence says he has moved aggressively over the past year to improve American intelligence collection and analysis.  The post of national intelligence chief was created one year ago to reform U.S. intelligence, following several glaring failures.  There has been criticism about whether creating that job has really had any impact on intelligence performance.

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In a rare public speech, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said his office has made substantial progress in improving U.S. intelligence.

Negroponte said information sharing among agencies has improved to ensure that the intelligence lapses1 of recent years - in particular the failure to uncover the September 11th, 2001, terrorist plot - are not repeated.

"Compared to the situation that existed on or before 9/11, we have come a long, long way, in terms of moving information from right to left, across the horizon of the intelligence community," he said.

The post of director of national intelligence (DNI) was created by Congress one year ago, following the 9/11 intelligence failure and the faulty intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which have never been found.  Negroponte is the first person to hold the job.

The key requirement of the job is to coordinate2 the 15 different, and often competing, agencies that collectively make up the U.S. intelligence community.  Negroponte says critical information can now get to people who need to take action on it.

"I'm satisfied that, if we, for example, that, if we obtain, say, a critical piece of intelligence in Waziristan on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that relates to some threat that might be developing somewhere in the United States, or in Western Europe, you can be sure that that information is getting to the people who need to know it right away," he added.

Negroponte says intelligence collection and analysis have both markedly improved to respond to what he says are the two key threats to the United States, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.

But critics say creating the job does not address the real problems of the intelligence community.  Larry Wilkerson, who was Colin Powell's chief of staff when Powell was secretary of state, tells VOA, all it did was create another layer of government bureaucracy.

"What we've seen, of course, is not major changes," he said.  "We've seen just another layer added, in the National Director of Intelligence, now occupied by Ambassador Negroponte, and the staff that he has accumulated. And, frankly3, I don't see that that affords us the kind of change we need, dramatic change, in order to repair what is a broken intelligence apparatus4, particularly at the CIA."

Officials say Negroponte has asked for some 1,500 job slots and the money to fill them.  Negroponte, who has previously5 served as a U.S. ambassador, most recently in Iraq, defended the size of his staff, saying he needs them to carry out his mission.

"Intelligence reform has not been a theory-based experiment, or exercise, in bureaucratic6 bloat. Government programs require government officials to implement7 them," explained Mr. Negroponte.  "My last three overseas embassies were larger than the office of the director of national intelligence."

Mr. Negroponte pointed8 out that his office also manages two new intelligence enterprises, the National Counter-Terrorism Center and the National Counter-Proliferation Center.


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1 lapses 43ecf1ab71734d38301e2287a6e458dc     
n.失误,过失( lapse的名词复数 );小毛病;行为失检;偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 );陷入;倒退;丧失
参考例句:
  • He sometimes lapses from good behavior. 他有时行为失检。 来自辞典例句
  • He could forgive attacks of nerves, panic, bad unexplainable actions, all sorts of lapses. 他可以宽恕突然发作的歇斯底里,惊慌失措,恶劣的莫名其妙的动作,各种各样的失误。 来自辞典例句
2 coordinate oohzt     
adj.同等的,协调的;n.同等者;vt.协作,协调
参考例句:
  • You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
  • Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。
3 frankly fsXzcf     
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说
参考例句:
  • To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说,我一点也不赞成这个主意。
  • Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说,我不反对改革。
4 apparatus ivTzx     
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。
5 previously bkzzzC     
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。
6 bureaucratic OSFyE     
adj.官僚的,繁文缛节的
参考例句:
  • The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
  • In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔,也必须通过繁琐的手续。
7 implement WcdzG     
n.(pl.)工具,器具;vt.实行,实施,执行
参考例句:
  • Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划,除非你能完成这项计划。
  • The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。
8 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

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