2016年经济学人 中情局之用刑 公诸于世（在线收听）

The CIA and torture

中情局之用刑

Into the light

公诸于世

A pull-no-punches report is to be released

一份毫不客气的报告即将公布

THOSE who do not publish history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them. That, in essence, is the concern that lies behind plans by the Senate Intelligence Committee, with support from the White House, to declassify and release hundreds of pages from a scathing report into CIA detention, rendition and interrogation methods used after the September 11th 2001 attacks, which accuses the agency of misleading Congress and the White House about the value of intelligence extracted from more than 100 terror suspects in a worldwide network of secret “black sites”.

有了白宫的支持，参议院情报委员会正计划解密并发布多达数百页的报告。这些报告直指中情局在“911”恐怖袭击后在执行拘留、引渡和审问时的办事方法。中情局在遍布全世界的秘密“黑色监狱”中审判了超过100名恐怖分子嫌疑人。这份报告指控中情局夸大了此项行动的价值，对国会和白宫进行了误导。“不愿公布历史的人只会不断重复自己的所作所为，”而这正是参议院情报委员会在公布报告时的真实想法。

The CIA has promised to work “expeditiously” to scrub the nearly 500-page summary of information that could imperil national security. Veterans of the spy agency, backed by many Republicans, have challenged the report—prepared by Democratic staffers of the Senate Intelligence Committee and drawing on millions of internal CIA records—as a flawed and partisan bid to smear the CIA and the administration of George W. Bush.

这份报告会危害国家安全，中情局放出话来，要迅速解决这份长达500页的报告。 这份报告是由参议院情报委员会中的民主党籍写手在查阅了数百万条中情局内部资料后撰写的，而共和党人所支持的退伍老兵和情报机构对此发起了挑战，他们称这份报告是对中情局和布什政府的诽谤中伤，是充满瑕疵和党派意味的。

The attorney-general, Eric Holder, said on April 8th that President Barack Obama believes that bringing the programme “into the light” “will help the American people understand what happened in the past and can help guide us as we move forward” so that no government would contemplate such actions in the future.

司法部长埃里克霍尔德在四月八日表示，奥巴马总统认为将一切公诸于世能够让美国人民更好地理解过去所发生的事情，对未来的行动也可以起到指导作用。在未来的日子里政府不会阻挠这样的行动。

Officials who have seen the report have briefed reporters that it describes previously undisclosed horrors, among them the “Salt Pit”, a site nearKabul, at which one terror suspect had his head repeatedly held under iced water and was repeatedly beaten. The report examines 20 case studies, arguing that, each time, the same intelligence could have been obtained without torture.

看过这份报告的官员向记者们简单介绍了一些情况。这份报告描述了一些以前并未解密的惊人内幕， 在喀布尔附近有一个叫做“盐坑”的地方，中情局的情报人员在审问时的多次将一位恐怖分子嫌疑人的头按在冰水里面，并不断殴打这位嫌犯。经过了对20个案件的研究之后，该报告得出结论，如果不采取私刑，其实也是可以获得同样的情报。

The CIA insists that it is impossible to know what milder methods might have achieved, and may release its own response to the report. The agency is already locked in a remarkable public fight with the Democratic chairman of the intelligence committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein ofCalifornia, traditionally a doughty defender ofAmerica's spooks. Trust is at such a low ebb that Mrs Feinstein wants the White House to take the lead on editing the public report. On April 6th Michael Hayden, the CIA's director from 2006 to 2009, had suggested that the senator was taking an “emotional” approach to the report. “An old male fall-back,” retorted Mrs Feinstein.

中情局则坚称根本不知道想要达成目的还有什么更加温和的方法，并表示会对这份报告作出回应。中情局和传统美国间谍的拥护者之间的争斗已然吸引了公众的目光，这位拥护者就是情报委员会的民主党籍主席、来自加利福尼亚州的议员黛安·范士丹。曾在2006到2009年间担任中情局主任的迈克尔·海登四月六日表示，该议员是在对待这份报告时非常“情绪化”，而范士丹则反驳道