VOA慢速英语20060819a

IN THE NEWS - U.S. Seeks to Continue Intelligence Program After a Judge Finds It IllegalBy Brianna Blake and online at voaspecialenglish

Broadcast: Saturday, August 19, 2006

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.


Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says the administration will appeal the ruling by Judge Diggs Taylor.

A federal judge in the United States says the Terrorist Surveillance Program violates the Constitution. This is the first such ruling against the secret program approved by President Bush. The National Security Agency established the program after the attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one.

The program lets the agency monitor the international calls and e-mail of individuals in the United States without the need for a court order.

The Justice Department is moving quickly to appeal the ruling by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, Michigan. Her order Thursday to stop the program will not be enforced at least until she hears arguments on September seventh.

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case in January for a group including reporters, researchers and criminal defense¹ lawyers. They say the program interferes² with their work and violates free speech and privacy rights.

Judge Taylor agreed. She suggested that the president acted like a king and violated the separation of powers in the Constitution. The judge is a former civil rights worker. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the court in nineteen seventy-nine.

Administration officials say the surveillance program is carefully administered and has helped stop terrorist attacks. On Friday President Bush condemned³ the ruling. He said those who praise it do not understand the nature of the world in which we now live.

The ruling came as anti-terrorism officials continued to investigate a reported plot to bomb flights from Britain to the United States. British police said last week that they had prevented a plan to carry liquid explosives onto airplanes.

More than twenty suspects have been arrested in Britain. Pakistan holds several others.

A British judge this week gave police several more days to question twenty-three suspects without criminal charges. The judge said two suspects could be held until Monday and the others until Wednesday. Police could ask to keep the suspects longer.

A new anti-terrorism law in Britain gives police more time to hold people without charges, up to twenty-eight days.

Britain strengthened its laws after the bombings last year in the London transport system. Some people say Muslim communities are being unfairly targeted under the new measures. For others, the arrests last week only added to fears about so-called homegrown terrorists.

Airports in Britain and the United States increased security measures. Officials banned travelers from carrying liquids onto flights in almost all cases.

Pakistani officials say they have information to suspect al-Qaida involvement behind the plot. They have suggested that it was timed to mark the fifth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks.

And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake and online at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 interferes   

vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉

参考例句：

• The noise interferes with my work. 这噪音妨碍我的工作。
• That interferes with my plan. 那干扰了我的计划。

3 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。