VOA常速英语2014--Mounting Threats Against Sochi Olympics Worry Terrorism Experts 索契冬奥会恐怖威胁增加令专家担忧(在线收听

 

Mounting Threats Against Sochi Olympics Worry Terrorism Experts 索契冬奥会恐怖威胁增加令专家担忧

WASHINGTON — The Olympic Games in Sochi are just weeks away, but the terror threats keep coming. The biggest concern: The Northern Caucasus, Sochi’s neighbors to the East. The region is home to separatists who for years have waged a war of independence against Russia. Recent bombings in Volgograd, north of Sochi, have experts on high alert. Some question holding the Winter Games in close proximity to those who have vowed to fight Russia to the death.

华盛顿 — 再过几个星期,冬奥会就要在索契举行了,而恐怖威胁持续不断。最大的担忧是索契东部的邻近地区--北高加索。这个地区是分离分子的基地,他们多年来不断为争取独立对俄罗斯发动战争。最近在索契北部伏尔加格勒发生的爆炸令专家高度警戒,有些人质疑,为何在这么接近那些誓言拼死都要与俄罗斯战斗者的地方举办冬奥会。

One month ago, despite promises of heightened security at the Olympic Games, two suicide attacks killed 34 people in Volgograd, some 700 kilometers north of Sochi. A militant Islamist group in Russia's North Caucasus claimed responsibility in a video posted on an Islamist website.

一个月前,尽管有加强冬奥会安全的保证,仍然有2个自杀袭击发生在距离索契北部700公里的伏尔加格勒,导致34人丧生。俄罗斯北高加索的一个伊斯兰组织,在一个伊斯兰网站的视频为袭击承担责任。

Ian von Gordon, who is Director of Operations at the Diplomatic Protection Training Institute in Youngstown, Ohio, said, “Chechen rebels have already shown that they’re targeting trains, airplanes, transport, highways.” The institute provides security to civilians in high threat environments. He's an expert on terror groups in the Northern Caucasus.  

俄亥俄州杨斯敦的外交保护培训学院主任的伊恩.范.戈登说: “车臣反政府武装已经显示,他们以火车、飞机、运输和高速公路为目标。”

“Since Sochi was announced as a venue, there’s no doubt that they sent cells in immediately to embed themselves and, to that end, it’s very likely that there’s people on the staff at the Winter Olympics who are possibly part of a cell,” said von Gordon.

这个培训学院为那些处于高威胁环境下的平民提供安全服务。戈登是北高加索恐怖组织问题的专家。戈登说: “自索契被宣布为冬奥会地点后,毫无疑问,他们立即派人到潜伏到那里,因此,极有可能在冬奥会的职员里就可能有潜伏分子。”

Including those who have been building the games' venues, said Glen Howard at the Jamestown Foundation, a research institute in Washington, D.C. “You’ve had over 100,000 laborers come from all over Russia to work there, and Central Asia. It is impossible to verify whether all these people that have worked in Sochi as laborers… whether they were a security risk.”

华盛顿研究机构詹姆斯敦基金会的葛伦.霍华德说,这也包括那些正在建筑奥运场地的人。霍华德说: “有超过10万名来自全俄罗斯和中亚的劳工在那里,根本不可能去查核所有这些在索契工作的人是否真的是劳工,他们是否是一种安全威胁。”

Motive, opportunity

Von Gordon said terrorists may not match the pictures many of us are used to seeing. “We’re looking for the tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed woman. Traditionally, Chechen rebels have used young women, usually widows of soldiers, but that’s not necessarily always the case.”

戈登说,恐怖分子的长相可能和我们通常在照片中看到的不一样。

霍华德说:“我们在找的是长得很高、金发、蓝眼珠的女人。传统上,车臣反叛分子会利用年轻女人,她们通常是军人的寡妇,不过那也不一定经常如此。”

He’s referring to the so-called “black widows," widows of slain rebel fighters.  

他指的是所谓的“黑寡妇”,那些被打死的反叛战斗人员的寡妇。

Militants also carry out more conventional attacks, however, like the 2004 takeover of a school in Beslan, where 334 hostages died, more than half of them children.

不过分离分子的战斗人员也运用较传统的方式,例如在2004年占据别斯兰一所学校,导致334名人质死亡,其中有超过一半是孩童。

“Putin has strategically located the Games very close to the Caucasus, where he’s basically daring those people," said von Gordon. "That creates a very dangerous situation, because now you have opportunity. You have motive. You have an unprecedented situation where you have people from all over the world - civilians - participating in a highly publicized event.”

外交保护培训学院的主任戈登说:“普京战略性地将奥运会选在非常接近高加索的地方,他基本上是在向对那些人挑衅。那制造了一个非常危险的情况,因为现在你有机会,你有动机,你有一个前所未有的情况,有来自全世界的人,也就是一般平民,来参加一个被高度宣传的活动。”

Juan Zarate, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he expected to see cooperation with the international community. But the opposite is happening.

“The Russians have grown more and more concerned over the threat, and are concerned over the perception of insecurity, and therefore have not wanted to allow the United States and other, security services in on the ground to assist,” said Zarate.

战略与国际研究中心的胡安.萨拉特说,他估计可以看到国际社会合作,不过相反的情况正在发生。萨拉特说:“俄罗斯人已经对这个威胁越来越担心,也担忧给人不安全的印象,因此他们一直不愿意让美国和其他国家的安全人员进驻来提高协助。”

 

While Russia battles a bloody insurgency not far from next month's Winter Olympics, it’s likely the world will be watching to see what happens in the streets of Sochi.

在距离下个月冬奥不远的地方,俄罗斯正在和反政府力量进行血腥战斗,全世界很可能都在观望索契的街道上将会发生什么事。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/voastandard/2014/1/245258.html