VOA慢速英语2014 Americans Debate Over Payments to Terrorrists

 

AS IT IS 2014-08-08 Americans Debate Over Payments to Terrorrists

The militant¹ group known as the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for killing² American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Americans are now debating whether the United States should have paid money to the group in exchange for their release.

Reports say that Islamic State militants³ asked for millions of dollars before the execution of newsman James Foley. The U.S. government bars ransom⁴ payments to kidnappers⁵. However, the head of the online news agency where James Foley worked says that the reporter’s parents were hoping to raise money to pay for his release. Philip Balboni is president of the GlobalPost news agency. He says the U.S. government knew what Mr. Foley’s parents were doing but did not stop them.

Mr. Balboni said that the militants did not say exactly how much money they wanted. He said the parents began to raise money because they hoped the kidnappers would let them pay for their son’s release.

Deborah Pearlstein is a professor at the Yeshiva University Cardozo School of Law in New York City. She says that there is no law that stops the U.S. government from paying money to or negotiating with terrorist groups. She says Congress could pass a law to keep the president from doing that but it has not. She believes that the government is talking about U.S. policy, not law, when officials say they do not negotiate with terrorists.

But another law professor, John O. McGinnis, says that it would be against the law to give money to some groups. He teaches at the Northwestern University School of Law in Illinois. Under U.S. law, people cannot give money or provide other support to terrorist groups.

Daniel Benjamin is director of the John Sloan Dickey International Exchange Center at Dartmouth College. He says that in the case of ransom payments to kidnappers, the laws have never been enforced by the U.S. government.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 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。

5 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》