VOA标准英语2010年-Analysts: Times Square Plot May Signif

In this image taken from video, a police officer approaches the vehicle containing a car bomb, which stands with the door open and the police officer reaches down to lift one of the red canisters on the roadway at New York's Times Square, New York, 02 May 2010

The stunning¹ events of September 11, 2001, were a potential template for future terrorist attacks.  But since then, al-Qaida and its affiliates² have been unable to mount a similar encore in the United States.  The foiled Times Square attack may be a sign that these groups have been forced to shift tactics to smaller operations that are less spectacular, but are also harder to detect.

Former CIA counterterrorism chief Robert Grenier says the failed Times Square bombing last Saturday may indicate that al-Qaida and its allies have abandoned more grandiose³ plans for the United States and are emphasizing smaller but still deadly operations.

Shift in tactics

One of the things that a lot of observers have been concerned about is the fact that there could be a change in tactics away from the kind of spectacular and very difficult operations to conduct to operations that could be launched in far greater numbers and might have less individual impact but which in the aggregate⁴ could sow a great deal of terror.

Officials were initially⁵ reluctant to link the Times Square attempt to foreign terrorists.  Such assumptions of a foreign hand have sometimes proved false in the past, most notably⁶ in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which turned out to be a purely⁷ domestic plot.  But, according to court documents, Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad admitted to receiving bomb-making training in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.

But Jim Cavanaugh, a bomb expert who just retired⁸ after 33 years in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, says either the training was not very good or Shahzad was a poor student.

"Well, when you see the device, what comes to mind is that you have a whole lot of desire but not a whole lot of technical ability," he said.  "You've got some people involved who have a grandiose plot for some fanatical reason to put a bomb in the center of New York, but they're not very adept⁹ at explosives or bomb-making.

Professional imcompetence

Counterterrorism analyst¹⁰ Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation says the Times Square plot is an indication that al-Qaida is either not willing or not able to deploy¹¹ seasoned, well-trained operatives.  He says that instead of using professionals, al-Qaida is finding people who are ideologically¹² motivated and well-placed to attack, but who receive only rudimentary training. 

"But I do think that in general we have seen a shift from, for lack of a better term, professionalized terrorist operations to those that are conducted by not exactly amateurs, but folks with less training and less capability¹³ generally, technical capability," he said. "And so they've had to act in sort of a more ad hoc fashion.

One wrinkle in the Times Square plot is that the claim of responsibility came not from al-Qaida, but from the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban group.  Analysts¹⁴ have also been skeptical¹⁵ of this claim because the Pakistani Taliban have been targeting Pakistan, not the U.S.  It has long been assumed that the threat to the U.S. homeland was from al-Qaida.

Retaliation¹⁶

But former CIA officer Robert Grenier says the claim may well be true because of their threats of retaliation over U.S. drone aircraft attacks against the Taliban.

"We should take the Pakistani Taliban, and specifically the so-called TTP, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, at their word,  he said. "Their leaders have been saying for some time that they want to strike targets outside their own region, and they've talked about the United States, they've talked about the U.K.  So I don't think that we should dismiss those threats.

Brian Fishman says it is unlikely that Shahzad was a well-trained TTP operative.  But, he adds, although the TTP and al-Qaida have different goals, they have been growing closer, and that U.S. officials now believe there is a terrorist syndicate in Pakistan.

What al-Qaida's greatest strength and its most dangerous capability today is the ability to indoctrinate and infiltrate¹⁷ other established militant¹⁸ groups that have operational capacity," he said. "The TTP is one of those. So when al-Qaida is able to do that, they don't have to develop their own operation.  They simply have to infiltrate a group that has its own operational capacity and redirect some of that capacity towards the West.  There definitely does seem to be an indication that that is happening.

So far attacks in the U.S. - at least those that are publicly known -- have been thwarted¹⁹ by heightened security awareness²⁰ and increased counterterrorism measures from the U.S. side, as well as by both bad luck and professional incompetence²¹ on the terrorists' part.  As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his city was lucky this time.  But luck can change at any time.
 

1 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

2 affiliates   

附属企业( affiliate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She affiliates with an academic society. 她是某学术团体的成员。
• For example, these security affiliates participated in the floating of 19,000,000,000 of issues in 1927. 例如，这些证券发行机构在1927年的流通证券中，就提供了一百九十亿美元的证券。

3 grandiose   

adj.宏伟的，宏大的，堂皇的，铺张的

参考例句：

• His grandiose manner impressed those who met him for the first time.他那种夸大的举止给第一次遇见他的人留下了深刻的印象。
• As the fog vanished,a grandiose landscape unfolded before the tourists.雾气散去之后，一幅壮丽的景观展现在游客面前。

4 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

7 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

8 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。

9 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

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 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

12 ideologically   

adv. 意识形态上地，思想上地

参考例句：

• Ideologically, they have many differences. 在思想意识上，他们之间有许多不同之处。
• He has slipped back ideologically. 他思想退步了。

13 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

14 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

15 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

16 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 infiltrate   

vt./vi.渗入，透过；浸润

参考例句：

• The teacher tried to infiltrate her ideas into the children's minds.老师设法把她的思想渗透到孩子们的心中。
• It can infiltrate as much as 100 kilometers into enemy territory at night.可以在夜间深入敌领土100千米。

18 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

19 thwarted   

阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过

参考例句：

• The guards thwarted his attempt to escape from prison. 警卫阻扰了他越狱的企图。
• Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the rain. 我们的野餐计划因雨受挫。

20 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

21 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。