VOA标准英语2013--欧洲各国要求美国就监听事件作出解释

 

Europeans Seek Answers from US on NSA Spying 欧洲各国要求美国就监听事件作出解释

WASHINGTON, D.C. — European officials are in Washington seeking more information about charges that the United States has been spying on Europeans and their leaders.

Claims that the National Security Agency tapped German Chancellor¹ Angela Merkel's mobile phone prompted her intelligence team to visit the White House on Wednesday. The meeting was closed to reporters.

U.S. officials say the NSA is not currently gathering² information on Merkel and that it will not do so in the future, but Washington has not said if the intelligence agency has spied on her in the past.

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and other security officials met with Germany's national security adviser³ and intelligence coordinator⁴ to discuss the matter.

European Parliament members are also in Washington seeking answers.

Britain's Claude Moraes said they want to know if the NSA is spying on Europeans, and whether European agencies are helping⁵ with that. 

"Spying has always existed.  But we have said repeatedly that friend-on-friend spying is not something that is easily tolerable if it doesn't have a clear purpose," said Moraes.

German MP Elmar Brok said spying on allies cannot be tolerated.

"We want to get rid of espionage⁶ between friends.  Not symbolic⁷, really get rid of it," said Brok.

Army General Keith Alexander, director of the NSA, defended his agency during congressional testimony⁸ on Tuesday.

He denied allegations that the NSA had collected telephone records of million of European citizens, as leaks by former NSA contractor⁹ Edward Snowden indicate.

"Those screenshots that show, or at least lead people to believe that we, NSA, or the United States, collected that information is false. And it's false that it was collected on European citizens. It was neither," said Alexander.

Alexander said the agency has received targeted information from phone calls by some Europeans, through NATO allies.

"The sources of the metadata include data legally collected by NSA under its various authorities, as well as data provided to NSA by foreign partners. To be perfectly¹⁰ clear, this is not information that we collected on European citizens," continued Alexander.

Because of the allegations, some European officials want to suspend the "Safe Harbor" data-sharing agreement, which helps more than 4,200 American companies that do business in Europe.

Meanwhile, there are allegations that the NSA has broken into the main links that connect data centers for the search engines Yahoo and Google around the world.  Reports in the Washington Post regarding documents provided by Edward Snowden indicate as much.

Meanwhile, the United Nations says it has received assurances that U.N. communications networks "are not and will not be monitored" by U.S. intelligence agencies. A U.N. spokesman would not comment on whether the world body's communications had been tapped in the past. 

1 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

2 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。

3 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。

4 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

7 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

8 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

9 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

10 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。