美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Officials Tried To Rush Nuclear Technology To Saudis, House Panel Finds

Trump¹ Officials Tried To Rush Nuclear Technology To Saudis, House Panel Finds

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Democrats² on the House Oversight³ Committee are raising red flags about the Trump administration and a potentially illegal effort to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. The committee released a report today based on federal whistleblower allegations. NPR's Tim Mak has read through the report. He joins us now. Welcome to the studio.

TIM MAK, BYLINE⁴: Thank you.

CORNISH: What made the whistleblowers so concerned?

MAK: You know, the whistleblowers had ethical⁵ and legal concerns. But they thought they weren't being taken seriously enough. For example, the law states Congress must approve any transfer of nuclear technology to a foreign country. But the committee's report says that a senior director at the National Security Council, Derek Harvey, ignored warnings and insisted that the decision to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia had already been made.

There were also concerns about conflicts of interest among top White House advisers⁷, which could have been against federal law. At one point, the National Security Council's lawyers asked White House staff to stop working on this project. But somehow the project continued.

CORNISH: The report also names names - right? - Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser⁶, as one of the people behind this project. What is he alleged⁸ to have done?

MAK: So the report says that even before Trump was sworn in, the transition team began discussing a plan to push for a Saudi nuclear project. The report notes for about seven months in 2016, including during the presidential transition, Flynn also served as an adviser to IP3 International. That's a private company seeking to build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia.

The whistleblowers we've been talking about said that Flynn continued to press for this company, advocate for this idea after he joined the White House, which presents a pretty substantial conflict of interest if that's true. Flynn, as you might recall, was fired in February 2017 for lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

But even after Flynn left the White House, the nuclear project appears to have continued with Thomas Barrack, President Trump's longtime friend and inaugural⁹ committee chairman, taking a leading role. Barrack also has business ties with Saudi Arabia, which could pose additional conflict of interest problems.

CORNISH: All right, let's take a step back here. How does this fit into the larger picture of U.S.-Saudi relations, especially coming this time after the killing¹⁰ of Virginia resident and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi?

MAK: So there's a close relationship between Jared Kushner, who's the president's son-in-law, and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin¹¹ Salman. And you might remember that Trump's first foreign trip was to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. And that was meant to signal ambitions for a close relationship between the two countries.

But a lot has changed since Khashoggi's death in October. And that relationship has really been strained. In particular, the House and Senate have expressed their dissatisfaction with Saudi Arabia in different ways.

CORNISH: All right, the committee - what are they planning to do now, and what happens next? What's the order of business here?

MAK: So the House committee - the House Oversight Committee says it continues to investigate this matter and is demanding that the White House provide documents related to this issue by March 5. The House Intelligence Committee also thinks that it has a role to play. The chairman of that committee, Adam Schiff, has said he hopes to open an inquiry¹² into the matter and will be cooperating with House Oversight.

Now, the report drops at a sensitive time for the White House. Not only is it still dealing¹³ with the fallout over Khashoggi's killing, but as the report written by the House Oversight Committee notes, Jared Kushner is planning to visit the Middle East next week. And he's stopping in Saudi Arabia.

CORNISH: All right, that's NPR's Tim Mak. Thank you for your reporting.

MAK: Thanks so much for your time.

1 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。

2 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》

3 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。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

6 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。

7 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

8 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

9 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。

10 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。

11 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

12 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

13 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。