VOA常速英语2008年-Bush Will Veto House Intelligence Bill

By Scott Stearns
White House
13 March 2008

President Bush says he will veto a terrorist-surveillance bill that contains provisions added by opposition¹ Democrats² in the House of Representatives, because he says the bill as written would undermine national security.  VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

President Bush says he will veto the Democrats' House bill because it is seriously flawed and would make it harder to collect intelligence on foreign terrorists.

"Their partisan³ legislation would extend protections we enjoy as Americans to foreign terrorists overseas," the president said.  "It would cause us to lose vital intelligence on terrorist threats, and that is a risk that our country can not afford to take."

Mr. Bush says the bill would put in place what he says would be a cumbersome⁴ court-approval process for listening-in on telephone and computer communications between the United States and foreign terrorists.

He also complained the bill fails to grant retroactive protection from lawsuits⁶ for telecommunications companies that provided telephone and computer records to the government following the September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Many of those firms are facing civil lawsuits for cooperating with government eavesdropping⁷.  Mr. Bush says allowing those lawsuits to go forward will undermine the private sector's willingness to cooperate with the intelligence community, which he says is essential to protecting the nation from harm.

"This litigation would require the disclosure of state secrets that could lead to the public release of highly-classified information that our enemies could use against us," Mr. Bush said.  "And this litigation would be unfair because any companies that assisted us after 9/11 were assured by our government that their cooperation was legal and necessary."

Mr. Bush says companies that may have helped save lives after the 2001 attacks should be thanked for their patriotic⁸ service, not subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future. 

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted⁵ Kennedy says the president is trying to bully⁹ Congress and mislead the American people on intelligence gathering¹⁰.

In a written statement, Kennedy says President Bush wants Congress to pretend that his administration did not conduct what the Senator calls a "massive, illegal warrantless surveillance program that was one of the most outrageous¹¹ abuses of executive power in American history."

Kennedy says it is the president who is playing politics with national security as the Senator says neither the president nor telecommunications firms decide which laws to follow and which to ignore.

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

4 cumbersome   

adj.笨重的，不便携带的

参考例句：

• Although the machine looks cumbersome,it is actually easy to use.尽管这台机器看上去很笨重，操作起来却很容易。
• The furniture is too cumbersome to move.家具太笨，搬起来很不方便。

5 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

6 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

7 eavesdropping   

n. 偷听

参考例句：

• We caught him eavesdropping outside the window. 我们撞见他正在窗外偷听。
• Suddenly the kids,who had been eavesdropping,flew into the room. 突然间，一直在偷听的孩子们飞进屋来。

8 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

9 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

10 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。

11 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。