VOA标准英语2013--NSA Leaks Could Be Significant

 

NSA Leaks Could Be Significant

 

The man who says he was behind the NSA leaks, contractor¹ Edward Snowden, has inspired some and angered others, including U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on ABC News.

“He is a traitor².  The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk.  It shows our adversaries³ what our capabilities⁴ are and it is a giant violation⁵ of the law," said Boehner.

Disclosures about the NSA programs that combed through phone records and scanned Internet communications linked to suspected foreign terrorists worries security experts like Steve Bucci of the Heritage Foundation.

“We have now revealed to our enemies, terrorists that are out there, the way we try and monitor and anticipate their actions and that is going to be damaging to our anti-terrorism activities," said Bucci.

Bucci predicts terrorists will alter their communication methods as a result of the disclosures.

“I think the bad guys will start taking steps to dive deeper to cloak their communications and there are ways to do that on line.  And as they do that the result, potentially, is that we fail to anticipate an operation and Americans or friends of ours inevitably⁶ die because these bad gays managed to pull their operation off and we were not able to anticipate it sufficiently," he said.

But many civil liberties activists⁷ have spoken out in defense⁸ of Snowden, including international security expert Jim Walsh from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“In the balance between national security and privacy, which of course there always is, the burden is on national security to show that this is important and necessary, and no one has done that," Walsh told Alhurra television.

Snowden is also seen as a hero by perhaps the most famous leaker of all time, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who disclosed the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War in 1971.

“As for being called a traitor that is part of the price of telling the truth that the president does not want told.  I paid that price myself," said Ellsberg.

But conservative analyst⁹ Steve Bucci fears that a backlash against the NSA programs by those concerned about civil liberties could weaken national security.

“The change in confidence or the drop in confidence of the American people in our government will cause us to try and reel back these systems.  So right when the bad guys are going deeper, we are going to use less scrutiny¹⁰ and the next thing we are going to have is some more terrorist events," he said.

Experts say a full assessment¹¹ of the damage caused by the leaks could take months.

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 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

3 adversaries   

n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• That would cause potential adversaries to recoil from a challenge. 这会迫使潜在的敌人在挑战面前退缩。 来自辞典例句
• Every adversaries are more comfortable with a predictable, coherent America. 就连敌人也会因有可以预料的，始终一致的美国而感到舒服得多。 来自辞典例句

4 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

5 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

6 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

10 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

11 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？