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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
By Sonja Pace
London
10 November 2006
Britain's top domestic intelligence chief says authorities are investigating dozens of terror plots and warns of future attacks, which she says could involve chemical or even nuclear devices.
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Eliza Manningham-Buller
The head of Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5 rarely speaks out publicly, but Eliza Manningham-Buller told a select invited audience that the authorities are currently tracking some 30 active terror plots and 200 extremist cells involving some 16,00 individuals.
She said some of the plots have clear links to al Qaida in Pakistan.
Manningham-Buller also said that many of the suspects are British and she warned that young British Muslims are being recruited to extremist causes and ideologies1 at an alarming rate.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday he fully2 agrees with the assessment3 of his spy chief.
Tony Blair
He said, "This is a threat that has grown up over a generation. I think she [Manningham-Buller] is absolutely right in saying it will last a generation."
Britons became painfully aware of the threat of home grown terrorism in July 2005 when four young local Islamic radicals4 blew themselves up in London's subway system and on a bus, killing5 52 commuters and injuring hundreds more.
In August of this year, police said they had foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners6. Earlier this week a British Muslim convert, Dhiren Barot, was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up major public sites and transport links in the United States and in London.
Mr. Blair says the terror threat persists.
"And, it can only be combated in the end, not just by proper measures on security. … but in addition to that, that we take on and combat the poisonous propaganda of those people that warp7 and pervert8 the minds, particularly of younger people," he said.
Mr. Blair has repeatedly rejected any link between Islamic terrorism and British foreign policy in the Middle East and Afghanistan. However, in her speech MI5 director Manningham-Buller said extremists are driven by what she termed, "a sense of grievance9 and injustice10."
The intelligence chief said police had foiled five major plots since last year's bus and subway bombings. She said plots currently include the use of homemade improvised11 explosives, but she warned future threats would include chemical and even nuclear materials.
1 ideologies | |
n.思想(体系)( ideology的名词复数 );思想意识;意识形态;观念形态 | |
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2 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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3 assessment | |
n.评价;评估;对财产的估价,被估定的金额 | |
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4 radicals | |
n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 );根基;基本原理;[数学]根数 | |
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5 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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6 airliners | |
n.客机,班机( airliner的名词复数 ) | |
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7 warp | |
vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见 | |
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8 pervert | |
n.堕落者,反常者;vt.误用,滥用;使人堕落,使入邪路 | |
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9 grievance | |
n.怨愤,气恼,委屈 | |
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10 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
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11 improvised | |
a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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