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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Washington
15 February 2008
The assassination1 of a top operative for the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah was both a surprise and a puzzle for many people. Imad Mugniyeh was a wanted man for some of the most spectacular terrorist attacks of the 1980s and 1990s, but remained little known outside intelligence and counterterrorism circles. As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, his low profile is what kept him alive this long.
Imad Mugniyeh was a superstar of the terrorism world in the 1980s.
Based in Beirut, he is believed by counterterrorism experts to be the chief planner of numerous attacks over the past quarter of a century, including the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and the U.S. Marine3 barracks in Beirut. He is credited with pioneering the widespread use of suicide bombers4, which has since become the favored tactic5 of Islamic extremists.
But he was gradually eclipsed by a new generation of violent Islamic radicals6 led by a young Saudi named Osama bin2 Laden7.
Andrew Cochran, editor of the Counterterrorism Blog website, says bin Laden drew both inspiration and terrorist tactical knowledge from Mugniyeh.
"Bin Laden definitely took inspiration, and told him so," he said. "And there definitely were ties between Mugniyeh and bin Laden and al-Qaida stretching back years. It's just that Mugniyeh did not do the kind of media that bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and the rest of al-Qaida do online."
Counterterrorism analysts9 say Mugniyeh spent much of the time trying to stay out of sight. Although based in Lebanon, analysts say he took refuge in Iran for long periods, attempting to stay under the radar10 of the world's terrorist hunters, and he seemed to have become dormant11. There were even reports that he had retired12 from active duty as Hezbollah evolved from a small terrorist organization into more of a political and military force.
But Douglas Farah, an author and counterterrorism consultant13, does not think that Mugniyeh had retired.
"He was fairly young when he died," he said. "He was not an old man who needed to get out of the field. His operational thinking was still highly valued. And I would think that it would have been highly unlikely that he had simply gone into retirement14."
Reva Bhalla, an analyst8 with the private intelligence firm Stratfor, says that just before his death, reports began surfacing that Mugniyeh was back in the terrorist game.
"We started getting these reports from some of our sources that he had become active again," Bhalla said. "And that really made us sit upright, and we're like 'wow' because Mugniyeh, this is the guy who is a real creative thinker. He really knows how to get all the tactical details down to pull off a really successful attack outside of the region especially."
As police often say, a murderer must have both motive15 and opportunity. Given Mugniyeh's past history, there is no shortage of suspects with a motive - the United States, France, Britain, and Israel.
But analysts say there are far fewer suspects with opportunity. He was killed in Syria, which is one of Hezbollah's sponsors and where security is supposed to be tight.
Hezbollah and its other sponsor, Iran, have blamed Israel. Israel has denied responsibility for Mugniyeh's death.
But Stratfor's Reva Bhalla says Israel is the most logical suspect because the bombing has the hallmarks of precision planning and extraordinary intelligence work.
"He was obsessed16 with operational security. He was very, very good at moving around," Bhalla said. "But once you start becoming operational again, once we started hearing these reports, the risk went up that he would be vulnerable to some kind of leak. And it looks like that's what was the case in this. This was a very brilliant attack the way it was pulled off. You had to have incredibly good intel [intelligence] to be waiting there, have the bomb set up, and pull it off that well."
Some analysts say the assassins also had a high sense of irony17 or a macabre18 sense of humor. Imad Mugniyeh was killed by a car bomb, a tactic that he himself had used so often in the past to deadly effect.
![收听单词发音](/images/play.gif)
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assassination
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n.暗杀;暗杀事件 | |
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bin
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n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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marine
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adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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bombers
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n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 );投弹手;安非他明胶囊;大麻叶香烟 | |
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tactic
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n.战略,策略;adj.战术的,有策略的 | |
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radicals
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n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 );根基;基本原理;[数学]根数 | |
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laden
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adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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analyst
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n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家 | |
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analysts
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分析家,化验员( analyst的名词复数 ) | |
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radar
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n.雷达,无线电探测器 | |
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dormant
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adj.暂停活动的;休眠的;潜伏的 | |
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retired
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adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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consultant
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n.顾问;会诊医师,专科医生 | |
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14
retirement
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n.退休,退职 | |
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motive
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n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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16
obsessed
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adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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irony
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n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
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macabre
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adj.骇人的,可怖的 | |
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