VOA标准英语2011--India Seeks to Counter Internal Terroris

India Seeks to Counter Internal Terrorist Threat

Top Indian officials say they need to prepare for terrorism threats that may arise both within and outside the country.
Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday described recent terror attacks on Indian soil as a "blot¹" on the government, and said more needs to be done to prevent them in the future.
"The challenge of terrorism is a formidable challenge, and requires a comprehensive strategy of counterterrorism," he said.
Fourteen people were killed in last week's bomb explosion outside a Delhi high court. In July, three back-to-back bomb blasts in busy sections of the financial capital, Mumbai, killed 20.
Chidambaram told a conference of senior law enforcers and security personnel that Pakistan and Afghanistan remain "the epicenter of terror," but that India must also take seriously threats from within.
"There are Indian modules² too," he said. "They seem to have the capacity attract radicalized youths to their folds... many of these modules have acquired the capacity to make bombs."
Chidambaram defended the record of Indian police, saying there were only 11 unsolved terror cases out of 48 since 2000. However, he said more must be done to charge and convict terrorists.
Experts say India's police force is understaffed and underequipped, and that hundreds of thousands more police personnel need to hired and trained.
Ajit Dhoval, former director of the Intelligence Bureau, India's domestic intelligence agency, describes terrorists inside India as an "invisible enemy."
"Today it is more of a surreptitious, secret actions like planting some improvised³ explosive devices somewhere," Dhoval said. "And for that, if you have got more precise ground intelligence and operational intelligence... it is not as much a game of numbers, as better intelligence, which is the most important thing."
Dhoval also said it is critical for India's counterterrorist forces to have people operating as closely as possible to the groups they are tracking.
"For human intelligence to be effective, the people who tell you should be more knowledgeable⁴, and if possible, they should be very close to them," Dhoval said.
India established its National Investigative Agency, or NIA, after the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, during which gunmen killed 164 people. It is working towards integrating more than a dozen databases into a single consolidated⁵ system called the National Intelligence Grid⁶ in order to track the movements of suspected terrorists more effectively.

1 blot   

vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍

参考例句：

• That new factory is a blot on the landscape.那新建的工厂破坏了此地的景色。
• The crime he committed is a blot on his record.他犯的罪是他的履历中的一个污点。

2 modules   

n.模块( module的名词复数 )；单元；（宇宙飞船上各个独立的）舱；组件

参考例句：

• The course consists of ten core modules and five optional modules. 这门课程包括十个必修单元和五个选修单元。
• Our English course is divided into modules on poetry, drama, and novels. 我们的英语课分为诗歌、戏剧和小说等单元。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

4 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

5 consolidated   

a.联合的

参考例句：

• With this new movie he has consolidated his position as the country's leading director. 他新执导的影片巩固了他作为全国最佳导演的地位。
• Those two banks have consolidated and formed a single large bank. 那两家银行已合并成一家大银行。

6 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。