美国国家公共电台 NPR Florida Killings: Radical Islam And The Far Right, Under One Roof

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's listen to a story now about young men and extremism. This is a murder case in Florida that involves both radical¹ Islam and the far right, two extremist threats that pose an ongoing² challenge to law enforcement nationwide. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre reports from Tampa.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE³: The Hamptons apartment complex is lush and modern. Stucco homes are painted in a soft rainbow of pastels. All around are palm trees, Spanish moss⁴ and lily pads.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)

MICHAEL COLON⁵: It is a very quiet place. You have a lot of children that live here. You know, a lot of professionals live here, retirees.

MYRE: Michael Colon and his wife, Shirley, live here. They're sitting poolside describing how that tranquility was shattered on May 19.

SHIRLEY COLON: We were here, actually.

M. COLON: I was sitting right here, and I heard a lot of hubbub⁶ going on.

S. COLON: Just noticed a car going fast, the car coming back out again.

M. COLON: Cop cars coming in, and firemen followed them.

(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: We are following some breaking news right now out of Tampa tonight, where two people were found shot dead in...

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: A Florida man is in police custody⁷ after allegedly...

MYRE: Tampa police captain, Ruben Delgado, describes what the officers found.

RUBEN DELGADO: It's a pretty graphic⁸ scene. We discovered the two deceased inside the apartment.

MYRE: The dead men were roommates. A third roommate, 18-year-old Devon Arthurs, told police that he shot them. Arthurs claims they all had neo-Nazi beliefs, though there's some dispute on this point. But here's the twist. Arthurs says he converted to Islam and killed his roommates because they disrespected his new faith.

Police found Arthurs across the street, holding three hostages at a strip mall. He says he was angry about U.S. attacks on Muslim countries. Police Captain Delgado.

DELGADO: The two officers spent about 15 minutes talking to Devon, getting him to drop the gun.

MYRE: After Arthurs surrendered, the story kept getting stranger. As Arthurs led police back to his apartment, a man in military camouflage⁹ was sitting outside - a fourth roommate, Private Brandon Russell, who's in the National Guard. Captain Delgado explains.

DELGADO: He was visibly shaken by what he saw. I believe he had seen the two roommates inside already.

MYRE: Russell wasn't involved in the shooting. But in his bedroom, police found, on a dresser next to his bed, a framed photo of Timothy McVeigh, the far-right terrorist who blew up a government building in Oklahoma City in 1995. In the garage, police found chemicals for making explosives. One was ammonium nitrate, which Timothy McVeigh use to kill 168 people.

PETER BERGEN: We have a jihadist terrorist problem. But we also have a neo-Nazi, far-right-wing terrorism problem.

MYRE: Peter Bergen is a counterterrorism analyst¹⁰ at New America in Washington. The think tank documents deadly attacks by extremists in the United States. Since 9/11, the far right has carried out more individual attacks, though the overall death toll¹¹ is higher in the jihadist attacks.

BERGEN: Most Americans tend to frame terrorism as coming from Islamist, jihadist militants¹². And, you know, that's fair enough. But, of course, there are other forms of political violence.

MYRE: Now, as we said, Devon Arthurs was arrested at the scene. But his roommate, National Guardsman Brandon Russell, was not, in part because investigators¹³ were still testing those chemicals in his garage. So Russell drove to the Florida Keys and legally bought two rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition¹⁴. Devon Arthurs described Russell as the leader of a neo-Nazi group and also claimed, though it's unproven, that group members wanted to blow up synagogues and electric power lines. Police arrested Russell in Key Largo¹⁵ two days after the shooting.

This tangled¹⁶ investigation¹⁷ has come to involve police, the FBI, the ATF and the National Guard. But no one has been charged with terrorism. Devon Arthurs is charged with murder and kidnapping. Brandon Russell is accused of possessing explosive materials. Andrew Warren, the state prosecutor¹⁸ in Tampa, won't discuss these investigations¹⁹. But he did describe, in broad terms, the thinking on dealing²⁰ with extremists.

ANDREW WARREN: Since 9/11, there's been an ongoing discussion within the criminal justice community about how to best handle terrorism cases. And those cases are often best handled as criminal cases.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)

MYRE: Back at the apartment complex, Michael Colon says he wasn't expecting such drama when he and his wife retired²¹ a year ago and moved here from New York.

M. COLON: 9/11, to me, was one thing. That was definitely a terrorist attack.

MYRE: He concedes threats can come from anywhere and notes, correctly, that most attackers are homegrown.

M. COLON: If you look at the major things that have happened here lately, it's not been the outsiders, you know? And I think that what's happening here is that it has to do with extremists. They worry me more than the guys that ISIS supposedly are actually sending down.

MYRE: So where to draw the line between ordinary crime and terrorism? And which threats are the greatest? This is a challenge for law enforcement and national security officials trying to keep the country safe. Greg Myre, NPR News, Tampa.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE AMERICAN DOLLAR'S "ACROBATS")

1 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

5 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

6 hubbub   

n.嘈杂；骚乱

参考例句：

• The hubbub of voices drowned out the host's voice.嘈杂的声音淹没了主人的声音。
• He concentrated on the work in hand,and the hubbub outside the room simply flowed over him.他埋头于手头的工作，室外的吵闹声他简直象没有听见一般。

7 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

8 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

9 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

10 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

11 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

12 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

13 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

15 largo   

n.广板乐章；adj.缓慢的，宽广的；adv.缓慢地，宽广地

参考例句：

• The tempo marking in most cases is andante,adagio,or largo.大多数第一乐章的速度标记是行板、柔板或广板。
• The second movement is a largo.第二乐章是广板乐章。

16 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

17 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

18 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

19 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

20 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

21 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。