美国国家公共电台 NPR--Mar-a-Lago documents reveal nuclear capabilities of foreign powers

Mar-a-Lago documents reveal nuclear capabilities¹ of foreign powers

Transcript²

Rachel Martin speaks with Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig about the documents seized at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home that reveal the nuclear capabilities of foreign powers.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There are some intelligence documents so closely guarded that only the president and a handful of top aides ever see them. They detail U.S. operations classified at levels above top secret. Even senior national security officials are denied clearance³. FBI agents found such documents in their search of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago property last month. And according to new reporting by The Washington Post, some of those documents included information about one foreign country's nuclear capabilities. Carol Leonnig is one of the reporters who broke the story, and she joins us now on the line.

Carol, thanks for being here.

CAROL LEONNIG: Glad to be here, Rachel.

MARTIN: Tell us more about what these documents contained.

LEONNIG: So, you know, one of the quests we've had as reporters is to understand what was - what's the most serious stuff that was seized at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Beach Club? And, you know, what we found, at least - I'm sure we'll learn more. But what we've found so far is that there were two buckets of extraordinarily⁴ sensitive records, government secrets that are held very, very close.

One set involves details about a foreign government's nuclear capabilities. Nuclear capabilities is a pretty vague term on purpose because we don't know whether this involved a foreign adversary⁵ that is a nuclear power. We don't know if it's a foreign government that's an ally that's trying to develop a nuclear program. We don't know if it's just any foreign government that the U.S. is gathering⁶ intel about and its, I guess, ambitions to become a nuclear power. We don't know. All we know is that it detailed⁷ this extremely sensitive material. Why is that sensitive? The obvious reasons - nuclear power and how the U.S. gathers information about a company - a country's nuclear readiness is very serious.

MARTIN: And there would be implications for how countries view the U.S. I mean, if that's an ally, then they're going to be distrustful about how their sensitive information is handled.

LEONNIG: That's absolutely right. An ally is going to be very suspicious of us. And if it's an adversary or another country, they're going to be learning how well or how attuned⁸ our intelligence-gathering methods - how well they work and might learn the way we obtain information from inside their country. And that could put our gathering methods, including, you know, human covert⁹ spies, in danger.

MARTIN: Is there any...

LEONNIG: So...

MARTIN: Yeah, go ahead.

LEONNIG: So the second bucket - forgive me, Rachel.

MARTIN: Yeah.

LEONNIG: The second bucket involves records that involve special access programs. Some of the top-secret material that was so serious, so closely guarded that...

MARTIN: Just a few seconds, Carol.

LEONNIG: ...Some of the most senior national security and intel officials in the current government are not authorized¹⁰ to view it. Why is that shocking? You know, the government said in one of its filings, public filings, that some of the investigators¹¹ couldn't see this material. But now we know that actually some of the most senior people in the government didn't have clearance for this. If it's sitting around in Mar-a-Lago for 18 months, you can be darn sure there's no one there that has clearance to review any of these records.

MARTIN: We will see the implications of the revelation. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig broke this story.

Thank you so much. We appreciate it, Carol.

LEONNIG: Of course.

1 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

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

4 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

5 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

8 attuned   

v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音

参考例句：

• She wasn't yet attuned to her baby's needs. 她还没有熟悉她宝宝的需要。
• Women attuned to sensitive men found Vincent Lord attractive. 偏爱敏感男子的女人，觉得文森特·洛德具有魅力。 来自辞典例句

9 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

10 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。

11 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》