【英语语言学习】注射类的武器

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

 

This time last week an alleged¹ terrorist known as Abu Anas al-Libi was on a Navy ship being interrogated² after being snatched from his home in Libya by U.S. Special Forces. Yesterday, al-Libi was arraigned³ in a federal court in New York accused in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa that left 224 dead.

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

 

Now, on the same day that Special Forces were seizing al-Libi in Libya, Navy SEALs in Somalia met heavy resistance in a failed attempt to storm a terrorist stronghold. Those two operations offer vivid examples of how Special Ops are being deployed⁴ around the world to go after terrorists.

 

MONTAGNE: Many military experts, in fact, believe that Special Forces, highly trained and mostly invisible, are the future of American warfare⁵. Jeremy Scahill wrote the bestselling "Blackwater" and he's now out with "Dirty Wars," which documents the rise of America's Special Ops forces. Thank you for joining us.

 

JEREMY SCAHILL: My pleasure.

 

MONTAGNE: Now, from what you know about these two recent raids in Somalia and Libya, just simply how do they fit into the increasing reach and use of American Special Forces?

 

SCAHILL: Well, you know, since 9/11 the role of Special Operations forces, particularly the most elite⁶ units that comprise the Joint⁷ Special Operations Command or JSOC, have been given a very wide mandate⁸ to strike in countries across the world where the president of the United States determines there are plots against America or there are terror leaders that the United States has intelligence on, particularly with their whereabouts.

 

And they can go in and snatch someone or kill them. President Obama has been very willing to give them the authorization⁹ to do that and these operations are called F-cubed operations - find, fix, finish. You find the target, you fix their location, and then you finish them off. And that could come in the form of a night raid, a missile strike, a drone strike, or in the case of Libya, actually sending Delta¹⁰ Force in to snatch someone off the streets of another nation.

 

MONTAGNE: The fact is, though, Special Operations, they date back. They go as far back as the Green Berets of Vietnam. But where do you date the rise of Special Forces to become such a dominant¹¹ part of military operations?

 

SCAHILL: Well, you know, I think there's very little new in warfare, except technology, and you know, a lot of the strategies that we see being employed by President Obama and President Bush before him have been tested before on the battlefields of Korea or Vietnam. But really, after 9/11 the Special Operations world was injected with steroids of sorts and a lot of money was poured into the operations.

 

And I think because of technology, because of the ability of the U.S. to monitor communications around the world, there are just more operations.

 

MONTAGNE: Name a few of the countries that would seem to have the most concentration or the most important operations of Special Operations forces.

 

SCAHILL: Well, there's no doubt that right now, the center of activity is based out of Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. You have a growing presence of U.S. Special Operations forces in East Africa and the Horn of Africa targeting Somalia, as we saw recently, certainly on the Arabian Peninsula targeting Yemen. But also it's not just kinetic¹² operations that they're doing, in other words kill or capture.

 

In many cases, JSOC forces, they embed¹³ with militaries of other nations to either fight terrorists or to train their military. So for instance, we have Special Operations forces in the Philippines right now working with Philippine Special Forces to go after Islamic militant¹⁴ organizations. You have U.S. Special Operations forces in Mexico and Columbia working alongside the counter-narcotics units of those governments.

 

They really do have a global mandate, and in some cases it's to train other militaries. In other cases it's to conduct lethal¹⁵ operations against terrorists.

 

MONTAGNE: And of course, we're there to help train and in many countries we're there to target terrorists. They are there with the permission and even welcomed by host countries, but Libya, for instance, came out after this recent raid and said that they had not been invited into Libya. How much of it is in the shadows in the sense that the countries do not even know what's going on?

 

SCAHILL: Well, I think you have sort of dueling¹⁶ realities here. In the case of Yemen, the Yemeni regime, under Ali Abdullah Saleh, at times used the United States by feeding it bad intelligence to kill domestic political opponents of the dictatorship. Also there have been incidents where U.S. forces are deployed as trainers and then have sort of gone off the ranch¹⁷ and done unilateral activities that have angered the host government.

 

But, you know, in the case of Libya and Yemen in particular, those governments really don't have much of a leg to stand on in confronting the United States because they're too dependent on U.S. aid and, quite frankly¹⁸, U.S. military support.

 

MONTAGNE: Couldn't it be said that they need this?

 

SCAHILL: Well, I mean, that gets into a very complicated area or arena¹⁹. In the case of Yemen, the drone program that the U.S. has been engaged in has caused very serious political problems for the Yemeni government because there's a perception that Yemen is allowing another nation to come in and drop bombs in tribal²⁰ areas throughout the South.

 

And you know, I think a reasonable argument could be made that in some areas of both Yemen and Pakistan, U.S. operations have contributed to the propaganda efforts of Islamist movements or, quite frankly, al-Qaida in some cases. I heard in several language in different countries the same basic sentiment, which is that the United States says al-Qaida is terrorism, but we view your operations against us as terrorism.

 

MONTAGNE: Okay. But in this recent raid in Libya, the aim was to capture a militant alleged to have been connected to the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The idea is to bring him to trial. So is that a good thing?

 

SCAHILL: Well, I mean I've long advocated that we back away from this idea that we're in a war against terrorism and go back to viewing it as the crime that it is and trying to bring these people to justice, not by simply saying, well, we're going to zap them from the sky with drones or we're going to do a night raid and put a bullet in their head, but actually try to take custody²¹ of them so that they can stand trial for the crimes that they've been involved with.

 

I still have problems with the way that these operations are conducted, where people are flown out to ships in the Indian Ocean or elsewhere and are held at times for weeks incommunicado without access to lawyers. But I think it's a step in the right direction to actually say we're going to prosecute²² them in civilian²³ courts and not just simply assassinate²⁴ them.

 

MONTAGNE: You've characterized Special Operations as conducting a perpetual war - that is, a worldwide battlefield going on and on and on. What exactly do you mean by that?

 

SCAHILL: Well, the phrase the world is a battlefield is not my own. It's a play on something that Donald Rumsfeld said very early on after 9/11, and that was that he believed that the U.S. military should be able to go into any country where the U.S. perceived that there could be future hostilities²⁵ and that mentality²⁶ has sort of endured over the years and from one administration to the next.

 

President Obama, in his second inaugural²⁷ address, said that he didn't want the United States to exist in a state of perpetual war, and that in fact it couldn't exist in a state of perpetual war. And yet my sense from investigating this story is that his administration has systematized the very program implemented²⁸ by Bush and Cheney early on after 9/11 and has virtually insured that whoever is president after Obama is going to continue to use these forces in a way that guarantees we're going to be in a perpetual state of war.

 

MONTAGNE: Well, thank you very much for talking with us.

 

SCAHILL: Thank you, Renee.

 

MONTAGNE: Jeremy Scahill is out with a book and documentary about the rise of Special Forces called "Dirty Wars." This is NPR News.

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 arraigned   

v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责

参考例句：

• He was arraigned for murder. 他因谋杀罪而被提讯。
• She was arraigned for high treason. 她被控叛国罪。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

5 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

6 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

7 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

8 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

9 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

10 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

11 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

12 kinetic   

adj.运动的；动力学的

参考例句：

• There exist many sources of energy both potential and kinetic.存在着许多势能和动能的能源。
• The kinetic theory of gases is the best known example.气体动力学理论就是最有名的例子。

13 embed   

vt.把…嵌(埋、插)入，扎牢；使深留脑中

参考例句：

• The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
• This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。

14 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。

15 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

16 dueling   

n. 决斗, 抗争(=duelling) 动词duel的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• More light-hearted But somewhat puzzled, Vladimir prepared to meet Eugene on the dueling ground. 弗拉基米尔心里轻松了一些，但仍感到有些困惑，在这种心情下，他准备去决斗场地迎战叶甫盖尼。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• They had been dueling for hours and finally called a draw. 他们一直决斗了数小时，最后打成平局。

17 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

18 frankly   

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。

19 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

20 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

21 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

22 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

23 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

24 assassinate   

vt.暗杀，行刺，中伤

参考例句：

• The police exposed a criminal plot to assassinate the president.警方侦破了一个行刺总统的阴谋。
• A plot to assassinate the banker has been uncovered by the police.暗杀银行家的密谋被警方侦破了。

25 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

26 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

27 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

28 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句