美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Unmasking' 101: The Next Chapter In The Trump-Russia Imbroglio

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Members of Congress return to Washington next week, and that means we can expect to hear again soon about what's known as unmasking. Republicans on the committees investigating Russia's role in the U.S. presidential election have made unmasking a central theme of their inquiries¹. NPR's David Welna has more.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE²: There is one rule all U.S. intelligence agencies have to follow. If they spy on Americans, they have to get a warrant to do so. But what happens if they're spying on a foreigner who just happens to talk with or mention an American?

National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers was asked about that last month at the House Intelligence Committee's only public hearing on Russian meddling³. Rogers told the panel that when an American's name pops up in so-called incidental collection, the data is often discarded. But there are times, he added, when such names do have intelligence value.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIKE ROGERS: In our reporting then, we will mask the identity of the individual. We'll use a phrase like U.S. person one or U.S. person two. And those redacted intercepts⁴ often get passed on to U.S. officials. Raj De was general counsel at the NSA during the Obama administration. The Americans' names in those reports, he says, remain masked.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RAJ DE: But it's not uncommon⁵ for an intelligence recipient⁶ in given circumstances to request for a name to be unredacted if it's necessary, one, to understand the intelligence - is the standard - or, two, if there's potential evidence of a crime.

WELNA: Just how many Americans have had their identities unmasked is still not clear. Republicans suspect one who did and who then lost his job is Trump⁷'s first national security adviser⁸, Michael Flynn. Just days before Trump took office, The Washington Post reported several phone calls made by Flynn to the Russian ambassador. The Post's source was a senior government official whom Republicans suspect was Flynn's predecessor⁹, Susan Rice. At that same house hearing, South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy pressed FBI Director James Comey about what Rice might have known.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TREY GOWDY: Would National Security Adviser Susan Rice have access to an unmasked U.S. citizen's name?

JAMES COMEY: I think any - yes, in general, and any other national security adviser would I think as a matter of their ordinary course of their business.

WELNA: A couple of weeks later, The New York Times' Glenn Thrush asked President Trump, who'd already tweeted that President Obama had had him wiretapped, about Rice's alleged¹⁰ actions.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GLENN THRUSH: Do you think she might have committed a crime?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Do I think?

THRUSH: Yeah.

TRUMP: Yes, I think

WELNA: A day earlier, Rice had declared on MSNBC that there indeed were times when she needed the identities of Americans unmasked in order to understand intelligence reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SUSAN RICE: What I would do or what any official would do is to ask their briefer whether the intelligence committee would go through its process - and there is a longstanding, established process - to decide whether that information, as to who the identity of the U.S. person was, could be provided to me.

WELNA: Rice, whom Republicans would like to haul before the House Intelligence Panel, denies having leaked any classified information. Still, Elizabeth Goitein, a privacy advocate at the Brennan Center for Justice, says it's worrisome that the standard for unmasking Americans' identities is understanding the importance of foreign intelligence.

ELIZABETH GOITEIN: That may not sound like a major loophole, but the definition of foreign intelligence information in the statute¹¹ is so broad, it would encompass¹² casual conversations about current events. So it's actually quite a significant loophole.

WELNA: Ironically, the only official who's in trouble over unmasking is the House Intelligence Panel's Republican chairman, Devin Nunes, who stepped aside from leading its Russia probe. Nunes is now facing an ethics¹³ inquiry¹⁴ after citing classified intelligence intercepts to suggest the identities of Trump and some of his associates may have been unmasked during the post-election transition.

But the issue isn't being dropped. If and when another hearing's held, Republicans will likely be asking more questions about the unmasking of Americans by U.S. intelligence agencies than about alleged meddling in American elections by Russian agents. David Welna, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF FAT JON THE AMPLE SOUL PHYSICIAN SONG, "SOUNDGIRL PERSONAL")

1 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 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。

3 meddling   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denounced all "meddling" attempts to promote a negotiation. 他斥责了一切“干预”促成谈判的企图。 来自辞典例句
• They liked this field because it was never visited by meddling strangers. 她们喜欢这块田野，因为好事的陌生人从来不到那里去。 来自辞典例句

4 intercepts   

（数学）截距( intercept的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It intercepts a portion of the light impinging on the photocell. 它遮住一部分照射在光电管上的光。
• The pelletfilter intercepts the particulate matter. 颗粒过滤器将颗粒物进行拦截。

5 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

6 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

7 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。

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 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

10 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

11 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

12 encompass   

vt.围绕，包围；包含，包括；完成

参考例句：

• The course will encompass physics,chemistry and biology.课程将包括物理、化学和生物学。
• The project will encompass rural and underdeveloped areas in China.这项工程将覆盖中国的农村和不发达地区。

13 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

14 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。