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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Thirteen killed, scores more hurt, two arrests, grim results of today's attack in Barcelona, where a speeding vehicle vaulted1 a sidewalk and drove down its victims.
It follows similar attacks across Europe, and, last weekend, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
For more, we turn to Lorenzo Vidino, who leads the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
Spain hasn't been the -- hasn't been the site of these attacks. We have seen a lot of focus on London and also in France.
Yes. I think the last time Spain was hit was in 2004, when we had the Madrid bombings.
But since the mobilization in Europe has been ISIS-linked,
Spain has not been touched by the same levels of radicalization and mobilization and by attacks as some of the Central, Northern European countries have. Why is that?
It's for a variety of reasons, but mostly mobilization in Europe for ISIS has been a second-generation phenomenon.
And the Southern European countries, like Spain, like Italy, do not have a large number of second-generation Muslims, people who are born and raised in those countries.
So, I'm not saying that Spain has not been touched by the phenomenon of radicalization.
We have problems. If you are looking at the two enclaves, Spanish enclaves in Moroccan territory, south of Melilla,
where apparently2 at least one of the attackers came from, those areas have had a lot of problems,
but mainland Spain has not been hit with the same intensity3 in terms of numbers of people radicalized,
in terms of foreign fighters, as, let's say, France, or U.K., or Germany or Belgium.
How good are the security systems in place in Spain where the individuals that might have been behind this, were they on the radar4?
Do they have a radar keeping track?
Since 2004, Spain has increased its counterterrorism capabilities5.
Let's also remember this is a country that has been hit by another form of terrorism, the Basque national terrorism, ETA, for a long, long time.
Obviously, as any other law enforcement or intelligence throughout Europe or in the United States as well, they can't intercept7 everything, they can't monitor everything.
They have disrupted quite a few plots over the last few years.
There have been hundreds of people been arrested, this, again, in a country that has not seen the levels of mobilization of other European countries.
Having said that, obviously, it's the experience of everybody from Europe to the United States that something always falls through the cracks.
I think we will see over the next few hours whether those individuals who carried out the attack are known to law enforcement,
as it is often the case, or not known, what happened, and I think that's something we will pull have to see.
This particular area is very popular with tourists. But the method of attack now, using a car, using a van, using anything, it's almost unstoppable.
It is. I think you have seen a lot of European countries have put barriers in pedestrian areas.
To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that the city of Barcelona or Spanish authorities have not done that in an area that is hugely popular with tourists.
I think Barcelona is one of the top three destinations for tourists.
And Las Ramblas is really the main pedestrian area. So, any time of the day or night, it is flooded with tourists.
And the fact that a van could go in, I think it's probably something that will need to be discussed in the aftermath of the attack.
But, obviously, you can't stop everything. You can't block city centers. You can't close down places like arenas9. We had an attack in Manchester. Or any kind of social life.
So, obviously, as any country, and I think we have seen that in the States as well, certain precautions have been taken, but you cannot stop life. You cannot militarize our cities.
What about the coordination10 between Interpol, other European countries? Are they sharing information fast enough between countries to say,
you might have a threat here, here are three or four people that just crossed our border into yours?
It has gotten much better compared to a few years back. It is not perfect.
Interpol does a good job. But there are a lot of limitations in what can be done.
And I think you still have political jealousies11, diffidence, even in some cases within individual countries. I think, to some degree, that would apply to Spain.
I'm not saying this is the case right now, but there are political tensions between Catalonia,
which wants to be an independent country, and it's an autonomous12 region inside Spain, and the Spanish central government.
And, sometimes, that's has repercussions13 also on counterintelligence and intelligence-sharing.
Sharing information in real time is problematic at the European level, at the international level.
All right, Lorenzo Vidino, who leads the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, thanks so much. Thank you.
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1 vaulted | |
adj.拱状的 | |
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2 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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3 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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4 radar | |
n.雷达,无线电探测器 | |
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5 capabilities | |
n.能力( capability的名词复数 );可能;容量;[复数]潜在能力 | |
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6 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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7 intercept | |
vt.拦截,截住,截击 | |
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8 thwarted | |
阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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9 arenas | |
表演场地( arena的名词复数 ); 竞技场; 活动或斗争的场所或场面; 圆形运动场 | |
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10 coordination | |
n.协调,协作 | |
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11 jealousies | |
n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 );妒羡 | |
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12 autonomous | |
adj.自治的;独立的 | |
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13 repercussions | |
n.后果,反响( repercussion的名词复数 );余波 | |
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14 trump | |
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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15 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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16 quell | |
v.压制,平息,减轻 | |
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17 debunked | |
v.揭穿真相,暴露( debunk的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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