PBS高端访谈:NSA改革下一步计划是什么?

 　　GWEN IFILL: In a vote on the Senate floor last night, lawmakers blocked a bill that would have drastically changed the way the National Security Agency currently monitors American citizens.

　　MAN: On this vote, the yeas are 58, the nays¹ are 42.

　　GWEN IFILL: With that, the USA Freedom Act effectively died on the Senate floor last night, failing to garner² the 60 votes needed to move to full debate.

　　The legislation would have ended the National Security Agency's bulk collection of domestic phone call records, so-called metadata.

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) Vermont, Chair, Judiciary Committee: Our bill protects Americans.

　　GWEN IFILL: The lead sponsor, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, spoke³ for most of his fellow Democrats⁴.

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: The USA Freedom Act provides for commonsense⁵ reforms to government surveillance. It promotes greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs.

　　GWEN IFILL: Former NSA employee Edward Snowden revealed the secret bulk collection program last year. It was authorized⁶ under Section 215 of the Patriot⁷ Act. This new bill would have forced the agency to get court orders for specific data from telecom companies. Most Republicans opposed the measure.

　　Georgia's Saxby Chambliss, ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called it totally flawed.

　　SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS, (R) Georgia: But the fact is, there cannot be one single case pointed⁸ to by anybody who can show that as a result of the collection of metadata under 215, any American has had their privacy rights breached¹⁰. It simply has not happened. It will not happen if we keep this program in place.

　　GWEN IFILL: President Obama had proposed curbing¹¹ the NSA's data gathering¹², and the House approved its own weaker version of the bill in may. The White House supported the Senate version, in part because the law authorizing¹³ the entire program expires next June.

　　Joining me now to discuss what comes next for NSA reform in Congress is Democratic Senator from Vermont Patrick Leahy. Leahy, who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, co-sponsored the legislation that failed last night.

　　We reached out to several Republicans who opposed the bill who were not available to us tonight.

　　Senator, part of the debate last night was whether your solution to this issue went too far or didn't go far enough. Where did it land?

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Well, we got 58 votes out of 100 senators. Normally, that would be enough to pass a bill, but the Republican leader wanted it filibustered¹⁴ and wanted it blocked, didn't want to have amendments¹⁵, didn't want to go forward.

　　And he was able to keep most of the members of his caucus¹⁶ with him to do it. I think that's a mistake. We all know there's got to be changes in the NSA program. We all know there's going to have to be changes in these intelligence programs. We had a good compromise, one the House of Representatives would have accepted.

　　Let's go forward with it. Let's do it, because, next year, everything expires anyway.

　　GWEN IFILL: Well, I definitely want to ask you about that, but let's talk about what your bill would have done first.

　　How would it have — how would have ending — how would ending bulk collection have protected American citizens?

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Because, right now, we collect everything and we actually get nothing, except that we go into everybody's life, yours, mine, everybody else's.

　　That's not what we believe in as Americans. We should have something that is very specific, that actually relates to threats, and then has some very clear understandings of who can be looked at. For one thing, we had somebody who could raise an issue in the secret courts and say, wait a minute. You're going too far. Let's take this up on appeal.

　　We had a lot more checks and balances. That doesn't make us less safe, but it does make the average American a lot more secure in their privacy.

　　GWEN IFILL: How would — how would streamlining or in other ways changing the federal surveillance court, the secret court you referenced, how would that have changed things?

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Right now, there's no appeal. If the court says, OK, another the government's right, even though they may be basically by their actions ruining someone's business or reputation or closing down their business, nobody can say anything. Nobody can even talk about it.

　　What we would do is have somebody in there as a public advocate who could say, you're going too far. You have got the wrong person. We're going to take this up on appeal. A lot of people, a lot of people say we ought to at least have that.

　　There's no other court in this country where you don't have at least an ability to have some kind of an adversary¹⁷ or have another voice heard. There's no other court in this country that does that. And I think a lot of people who have spent a lot of time in courtrooms, as I have, are concerned about that.

　　GWEN IFILL: Well, as you alluded¹⁸ to a moment ago, the legal authority for this program is going to expire in June unless something else happens. what happens if that occurs?

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Well, if that occurs, then just about everything NSA does and everything that they do in these secret courts are going to end, because everything in the Patriot Act will end.

　　I think that there are some things that we should be allowed to do, that we need to do for our security, but not at the cost of individual liberties. If this was a — you know, we have a case where you have Mike Lee and Ted⁹ Cruz, me, Chuck Schumer. We're going across the political spectrum¹⁹.

　　We came together on this. And I think that many people, certainly our high-tech²⁰ companies who are being battered²¹ about around the world because of our laws, they would have loved to have seen this pass. And I think there's a lot of disappointment today that the Republican leader stopped a good bipartisan bill from going forward.

　　GWEN IFILL: And, yet, privacy advocates say that even if your — what you describe as a good bipartisan bill had gone forward, it still would have left the most damaging, the most troubling parts of the law untouched.

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: No, actually, we had a lot of privacy experts who were very strongly in favor of it.

　　We had the ACLU, for example, in favor of it. We also had the NRA in favor of it. We had quite a coalition²². We had almost every one of the high-tech companies that deal in sharing information, they were in favor of it. It was much — it was far more protective of privacy than what we have now.

　　And I think that unless we pass a bill similarly to what I have or even more protective of privacy than what I had proposed, we could very well end up in this country not having any law one way or the other.

　　GWEN IFILL: Well, how will the — how can that happen if the Republicans take over with their 60-vote majority in January?

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Well, they're not going to have a 60-vote majority.

　　And they have to pass something by June 1. There are a lot of people, both on the Republican side and on the Democratic side, who are very upset that the Republican leader refused to allow votes up or down, refused to allow amendments to come forward. And they're not going to be very eager to cooperate in getting that 60 votes that they will need in June.

　　GWEN IFILL: You're right. Best-case scenario²³, they will have 54 votes.

　　Senator Patrick Leahy, thank you very much.

　　SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Good to be with you.

1 nays   

n.反对票，投反对票者( nay的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tally was two ayes and three nays. 投票结果是两票赞成，三票反对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The tally was three yeas and two nays, so the yeas have it. 投票结果是三票赞成两票反对，投赞成票者胜利。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 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》

5 commonsense   

adj.有常识的；明白事理的；注重实际的

参考例句：

• It is commonsense to carry an umbrella in this weather.这种天气带把伞是很自然的。
• These results are no more than a vindication of commonsense analysis.这些结果只不过是按常理分析得出的事实。

6 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

7 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

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 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

10 breached   

攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
• Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。

11 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。

12 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

13 authorizing   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Letters of Marque: Take letters from a warning friendly power authorizing privateering. 私掠许可证：从某一个国家获得合法抢劫的证书。
• Formal phavee completion does not include authorizing the subsequent phavee. 阶段的正式完成不包括核准随后的阶段。

14 filibustered   

v.阻碍或延宕国会或其他立法机构通过提案( filibuster的过去式和过去分词 )；掠夺

参考例句：

15 amendments   

（法律、文件的）改动( amendment的名词复数 )； 修正案； 修改； （美国宪法的）修正案

参考例句：

• The committee does not adequately consult others when drafting amendments. 委员会在起草修正案时没有充分征求他人的意见。
• Please propose amendments and addenda to the first draft of the document. 请对这个文件的初稿提出修改和补充意见。

16 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

17 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

18 alluded   

提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In your remarks you alluded to a certain sinister design. 在你的谈话中，你提到了某个阴谋。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles. 她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

19 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

20 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

21 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

22 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

23 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。