华盛顿邮报 数百名美国退役军人为外国政府工作(1)

In 2013, Keith Alexander was at the height of his career in military power.

2013年，基思·亚历山大正处于军事权力生涯的巅峰。

At that point, the four-star Army general was the longest-serving director of the NSA.

当时，这位四星陆军上将是任职时间最长的国家安全局局长。

You know, the most important thing that we can do is train our people.

你知道，我们能做的最重要的事就是培训我们的员工。

The best in the world.

成为世界上最好的。

But this isn't a story about what American generals do at the height of their military careers.

但这并不是一个关于美国将军在军事生涯巅峰时所作所为的故事。

It's about what they do after.

而是关于他们巅峰之后做了什么的故事。

In the case of General Alexander, he runs a firm that worked closely with the Saudi government, even after the killing¹ of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

就亚历山大将军而言，他经营着一家与沙特政府密切合作的公司，甚至在记者贾马尔·哈苏吉被杀害之后也是如此。

It's common knowledge in United States that many retired² military officials, particularly senior officers, go to work for defense³ contractors⁴ when they're retired.

在美国，很多退休的军事官员，尤其是高级军官，退休后会去为国防承包商工作，这是众所周知的。

They call it a revolving⁵ door. You work at the Pentagon.

他们称之为旋转门。你在五角大楼工作。

You retire.Then you have really good contacts with arms manufacturers and defense contractors.

等你退休了。你会和武器制造商和国防承包商有很好的联系。

So you go to work for them.

你会去为他们工作。

What we found is that there's sort of a new revolving door that's taken place over the last 10 years where you have retired military officials going to work for foreign governments.

我们发现，在过去的10年里出现了一种新的旋转门，退休的军事官员会为外国政府工作。

Craig Whitlock is an investigative reporter for The Post.

克雷格·惠特洛克是《华盛顿邮报》的调查记者。

He spent the last two years uncovering this new revolving door from U.S. military service to serving foreign governments.

在过去的两年里，他发现了从美国军队服役到为外国政府服务的新的旋转门。

You may be wondering if this is legal, but the U.S. military has actually approved a lot of this work.

你可能想知道这是否合法，但实际上美国军方已经批准了很多这样的工作。

Today, the hundreds of retired U.S. military personnel who have taken jobs working for foreign governments, including some with terrible human-rights records.

今天，数百名美国退役军人为外国政府工作，包括一些人权记录劣迹斑斑的人。

Craig has been reporting for years on the role of money in the military and how that affects national security.

克雷格多年来一直在报道金钱在军队中的作用，以及金钱如何影响国家安全。

And when President Trump⁶ was in office, something happened that caught Craig's attention and kick-started his investigation⁷.

当特朗普总统执政时，发生了一件事引起了克雷格的注意，并启动了他的调查。

You'll recall Michael Flynn, the retired Army general who served as Trump's first national security adviser⁸, he got into trouble with the FBI for a number of things for his dealings with Russia.

你应该还记得迈克尔·弗林，他是特朗普的第一任国家安全顾问，退役陆军上将，他因为与俄罗斯打交道的一些事情陷入了联邦调查局制造的麻烦中。

Newly released documents show Flynn received more than $67,000 in fees and expenses.

最新公布的文件显示，弗林收取了超过6.7万美元的费用。

Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat⁹ on the House Oversight¹⁰ Committee, believes Flynn may have broken U.S. and military law.

众议院监督委员会资深民主党人伊利亚·卡明斯认为，弗林可能违反了美国和军事法律。

But one side aspect of his case was that he also had failed to obtain clearance¹¹ from the U.S. Army and the State Department before he made a trip to Moscow back in 2016 to attend a dinner with Vladimir Putin.

但这起案件的一个次要方面是，在2016年前往莫斯科与弗拉基米尔·普京共进晚餐之前，他也没有获得美国陆军和国务院的许可。

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 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。

4 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 revolving   

adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The theatre has a revolving stage. 剧院有一个旋转舞台。
• The company became a revolving-door workplace. 这家公司成了工作的中转站。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 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。

8 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

9 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

10 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

11 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。