PBS高端访谈:我们从希拉里出席班加西听证会中可以获知什么?

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Hillary Clinton returned to Capitol Hill today to defend her actions as secretary of state during the 2012 attack on a diplomatic outpost in Libya.

　　The Republican-led Select Committee on Benghazi is investigating the attack on a U.S. Consulate¹, which left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

　　Political director Lisa Desjardins reports on the contentious² hearing.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: It was a full-blown Capitol Hill spectacle, with one of the longest lines in recent years, and reporters crushing forward to try to get inside.

　　Republican Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy began by defending the Benghazi investigation³.

　　REP. TREY GOWDY (R), South Carolina: Madam Secretary, not a single member of this committee signed up to investigate you or your e-mail. We signed up to investigate, and therefore honor, the lives of four people that we sent into a dangerous country to represent us, and to do everything we can to prevent it from happening to others.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in turn started with a slow, deliberate tone.

　　HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, Democratic Presidential Candidate: As secretary of state, I had the honor to lead and the responsibility to support nearly 70,000 diplomats⁵ and development experts across the globe.

　　Losing any one of them, as we did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, Haiti, and Libya, during my tenure⁶ was deeply painful for our entire State Department and USAID family and for me personally. I traveled to 112 countries as secretary of state. Every time I did, I felt great pride and honor representing the country that I love.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Soon, though, Republican Susan Brooks⁷ of Indiana launched what would become a theme: Was Clinton paying enough attention to Benghazi? Brooks pointed⁸ to a small stack of Clinton's Benghazi e-mails the year of the attack, 2012, and a larger one from the year before.

　　REP. SUSAN BROOKS (R), Indiana: There are 795 e-mails in this pile. We have counted them. There's 67 e-mails in this pile in 2012.

　　And I'm troubled by what I see here. In this pile in 2011, I see daily updates, sometimes hourly updates from your staff about Benghazi and Chris Stevens.

　　When I look at this pile in 2012, I only see a handful of e-mails to you from your senior staff about Benghazi. And let me just share for you in your records that we have reviewed, there is not one e-mail to you or from you in 2012 when an explosive device went off at our compound in April.

　　HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Well, Congresswoman, I didn't conduct most of the business that I did on behalf of our country on e-mail. I conducted it in meetings.

　　I read massive amounts of memos⁹, a great deal of classified information. I made a lot of secure phone calls. I was in and out of the White House all the time. There were a lot of things that happened that I was aware of and that I was reacting to.

　　If you were to be in my office in the State Department, I didn't have a computer. I didn't do the vast majority of my work on e-mail.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: But another Republican, Georgia's Lynn Westmoreland, wasn't satisfied with Clinton's defense¹⁰.

　　REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND (R), Georgia: You knew about these two incidents that have been mentioned previously¹¹. It's not a matter if you knew about them. It's a matter of what you did about them. And, to us, the answer to that is nothing.

　　HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: The experts, who I have the greatest confidence in, and who have been through so many difficult positions, because practically all of them had rotated through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, other places, they were the ones making the assessment¹². No one ever came to me and said, we should shut down our compound in Benghazi.

　　REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND: I'm not saying I'm not saying shut it down. I'm just saying protect it.

　　HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Right.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio pushed on whether Clinton knew the attack was planned by terrorists, but still allowed official U.S. statements to claim it was a spontaneous anti-American mob.

　　REP. JIM JORDAN (R), Ohio: Why didn't you just speak plain to the American people?

　　HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I did state clearly and I said it again in more detail the next morning, as did the president. I'm sorry that it doesn't fit your narrative¹³, Congressman¹⁴. I can only tell you what the facts were.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Clinton's fellow Democrats¹⁵ sounded their own theme, arguing that she's the victim of a partisan¹⁶ political witch-hunt.

　　REP. ADAM SMITH (D), Washington: Even today's hearing, not a single solitary¹⁷ thing that hasn't already been discussed repeatedly. So we have learned absolutely nothing. The question is, have we found anything substantively¹⁸ that tells us something different about what happened in Benghazi? And the answer to that question is no.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: The partisan tension bubbled over, as Republicans repeatedly asked about e-mails about Libya from longtime Clinton friend and previous committee witness Sidney Blumenthal.

　　REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), Maryland: Will the gentleman yield? Will the gentleman yield?

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Ranking Democrat⁴ Elijah Cummings broke in to accuse Chairman Gowdy of distorting information.

　　REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS: These facts directly contradict the statements you made on national television this past Sunday.

　　REP. TREY GOWDY: No, that's — no, sir, with all due respect, they do not. With that, we're adjourned¹⁹.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: In the end, this longest hearing yet on the Benghazi attacks may not have done much to satisfy either party. The committee aims to finish its investigation by January.

　　For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Lisa Desjardins.

 

1 consulate   

n.领事馆

参考例句：

• The Spanish consulate is the large white building opposite the bank.西班牙领事馆是银行对面的那栋高大的白色建筑物。
• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。

2 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

3 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。

4 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。

5 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

7 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

10 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。

11 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

12 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

13 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

14 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

15 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》

16 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

17 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

18 substantively   

adv.真实地；实质上

参考例句：

• WTO-consistency had to be secured substantively as well. 与WTO的一致性还必须获得实质性的保证。 来自互联网
• What is called quantum information science is substantively to research information science encoding with quantum states. 量子信息学是近几年迅速发展起来的一门新兴交叉学科，它是量子力学和信息科学相结合的产物。 来自互联网

19 adjourned   

（使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The court adjourned for lunch. 午餐时间法庭休庭。
• The trial was adjourned following the presentation of new evidence to the court. 新证据呈到庭上后，审讯就宣告暂停。