国会批准国家安全局间谍程序

 　　The US House of Representatives narrowly approved continuing the National Security Agency's secret collection of hundreds of millions of citizens' phone records after a fierce debate pitting privacy rights against the government's efforts to thwart¹ terrorism.

　　Wednesday night's 217-205 vote was unlikely to be the final word on government intrusion to defend the United States and its nationals' civil liberties.

　　The vote marked the first chance for lawmakers to take a stand on the secret surveillance program since former National Security Agency systems analyst² Edward Snowden leaked classified documents last month that spelled out the monumental scope of the government's activities.

　　Snowden awaits go-ahead to leave Moscow airport

　　Fugitive³ US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday awaited permission to leave the Moscow airport where he has been stuck for over a month as the United States stepped up pressure on Russia to send him back home.

　　Reports on Wednesday indicated that Russian authorities were preparing to let Snowden leave the transit⁴ zone of Sheremetyevo Airport but then - in mysterious circumstances - he failed to emerge.

　　Snowden has applied⁵ for asylum⁶ in Russia and is now awaiting a document that would allow him to formally cross the border and move freely in Russia while his application is being considered - a prospect⁷ the United States has said would be "deeply disappointing".

　　Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke⁸ with US Secretary of State John Kerry about Snowden's case on Wednesday, but it was not clear if their discussion had an impact on the fugitive's fate.

　　The US ambassador in Russia on Thursday reiterated⁹ that Washington wants Moscow to hand over Snowden, despite the absence of an extradition¹⁰ agreement between the two countries.

　　"The US is not asking for 'extradition', but simply the return of Mr Snowden. We have sent many people back to Russia," Ambassador Michael McFaul said on Thursday morning. - AFP

　　Republican Representative Justin Amash had challenged the program as an indiscriminate collection of phone records, saying his effort was to defend the US Constitution and "defend the privacy of every US citizen". On Twitter, he vowed¹¹: "We fight on".

　　His measure, offered as an addition to a $598.3 billion defense¹²-spending bill for 2014, would have canceled the statutory authority for the NSA program, ending the agency's ability to collect phone records and metadata under the USA Patriot¹³ Act unless it identified an individual under investigation¹⁴.

　　The House later voted to pass the overall defense bill, 315-109.

　　The issue created unusual political coalitions¹⁵ in Washington, with the Barack Obama administration, national security leaders in Congress and the Republican establishment facing off against libertarian-leaning conservatives and some liberal Democrats¹⁶.

　　The measure challenging the surveillance program faces strong opposition¹⁷ in the Senate and from the White House and is unlikely to survive in a final spending bill.

　　"Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly that we forgot what happened on Sept 11?" Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the intelligence committee, said in pleading with his colleagues to back the program.

　　With a flurry of letters, statements and tweets, both sides lobbied furiously in the hours prior to the vote in the Republican-controlled House. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, warned against dismantling¹⁸ a critical intelligence tool.

　　Since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, US Congress has authorized¹⁹ - and a Republican and a Democratic president have signed - an extension of the powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists.

　　Since the disclosures this year, however, lawmakers have said they were shocked by the scope of the two programs - one to collect records of hundreds of millions of calls and the other allowing the NSA to sweep up Internet usage data from around the world that goes through nine major US-based providers.

　　An earlier report from Foreign Policy magazine revealed the CIA's off-net operation in the digital age, known as the "black bag job", in which CIA operators were trained to physically²⁰ bug²¹, tap or steal information when the NSA cannot gain access to certain computers.

　　According to the magazine, sources within the US intelligence community confirmed that, since Sept 11, 2001, the operations have given the NSA access to a number of new and critically important targets around the world, especially in China and elsewhere in East Asia, as well as the Middle East and South Asia.

　　Ministry²² of National Defense spokesman Geng Yansheng said on Thursday that Beijing has noticed such reports. "A series of incidents recently reminded us that we should pay more attention to protecting the Internet and information security and firmly safeguard national cybersecurity."

1 thwart   

v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的)

参考例句：

• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。
• I don't think that will thwart our purposes.我认为那不会使我们的目的受到挫折。

2 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。

3 fugitive   

adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者

参考例句：

• The police were able to deduce where the fugitive was hiding.警方成功地推断出那逃亡者躲藏的地方。
• The fugitive is believed to be headed for the border.逃犯被认为在向国境线逃窜。

4 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

5 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

6 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

7 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

10 extradition   

n.引渡（逃犯）

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。

11 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

12 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。

13 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

14 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

15 coalitions   

结合体，同盟( coalition的名词复数 )； （两党或多党）联合政府

参考例句：

• History testifies to the ineptitude of coalitions in waging war. 历史昭示我们，多数国家联合作战，其进行甚为困难。
• All the coalitions in history have disintegrated sooner or later. 历史上任何联盟迟早都垮台了。

16 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

18 dismantling   

（枪支）分解

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。
• The dismantling of a nuclear reprocessing plant caused a leak of radioactivity yesterday. 昨天拆除核后处理工厂引起了放射物泄漏。

19 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

20 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

21 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

22 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。