纽约时报：叙利亚圣战者得益于援助自由军的武器

据信，叙利亚圣战者得益于援助自由军的武器
Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria
作者:翻译工兵
译文简介:
据美国官员与中东外交官表示，沙特与卡塔尔援助叙利亚反政府军的大部分武器正落入YSL圣战者之手，而非那些西方国家希望扶持的更为世俗化的反对团体。
译文来源:
原创翻译：龙腾网 h ttp://w ww.ltaaa.com
本贴论坛地址： ht tp://w ww.ltaaa.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=94180&extra=page%3D1%26filter%3Dauthor%26orderby%3Ddateline%26orderby%3Ddateline
纽约时报ht tp://ww w.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.h
正文翻译:



Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria

据信，叙利亚圣战者得益于援助自由军的武器

By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.

据美国官员与中东外交官表示，沙特与卡塔尔援助叙利亚反政府军的大部分武器正落入YSL圣战者之手，而非那些西方国家希望扶持的更为世俗化的反对团体。

That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.

这一结论令人怀疑白宫以最低限度间接干预叙利亚冲突的战略是否正达到帮助民主反对派推翻专制政府的预想目的，抑或是在撒播仇视美国的未来乱党的种子。奥巴马总统及其他高级官员已从关于叙利亚冲突的机密评估中获悉该结论，这场冲突目前已致2万5千人丧生。

“The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” said one American official familiar with the outlines of those findings, commenting on an operation that in American eyes has increasingly gone awry.

对于这场在美国眼里愈发失控的行动，一名知情美国官员作出如下评价：＂接获致命武器最多的反对派别，正是我们所不希望的＂。

The United States is not sending arms directly to the Syrian opposition. Instead, it is providing intelligence and other support for shipments of secondhand light weapons like rifles and grenades into Syria, mainly orchestrated from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The reports indicate that the shipments organized from Qatar, in particular, are largely going to hard-line Islamists.

美国并未直接向叙利亚反对派提供军火。但在向叙利亚境内运送步枪和手雷等二手轻武器的行动中，美方提供了情报及其它支持，沙特与卡塔尔则是主要的组织者。报告显示，尤其是源自卡塔尔的军火大部分由强硬的YSL极端分子接收。

The assessment of the arms flows comes at a crucial time for Mr. Obama, in the closing weeks of the election campaign with two debates looming that will focus on his foreign policy record. But it also calls into question the Syria strategy laid out by Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger.

这份有关武器去向的评估在奥巴马竞选最后几周的关键时刻出笼，两场聚焦于奥巴马外交记录的辩论将很快举行。但该评估也对共和党挑战者罗姆尼的叙利亚战略提出了质疑。

In a speech at the Virginia Military Institute last Monday, Mr. Romney said he would ensure that rebel groups “who share our values” would “obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.” That suggests he would approve the transfer of weapons like antiaircraft and antitank systems that are much more potent than any the United States has been willing to put into rebel hands so far, precisely because American officials cannot be certain who will ultimately be using them.

上周一，罗姆尼在弗吉尼亚军校演讲时表示，他将确保那些＂信奉我们的价值＂的反对派能够＂获得击败阿萨德的坦克、直升机和战斗机所需的武器＂。这意味着他将批准运送更为强大的武器，诸如防空系统和反坦克系统。正因为美国官员们难以确认谁将最终使用这些武器，所以美国目前不愿提供。

But Mr. Romney stopped short of saying that he would have the United States provide those arms directly, and his aides said he would instead rely on Arab allies to do it. That would leave him, like Mr. Obama, with little direct control over the distribution of the arms.

但罗姆尼未表示美国将直接提供这些武器，他的助理们则表示罗姆尼将依靠阿拉伯盟友供应武器。但这将使他难以直接控制武器的流向，正如同奥巴马那样。

American officials have been trying to understand why hard-line Islamists have received the lion’s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition through the shadowy pipeline with roots in Qatar, and, to a lesser degree, Saudi Arabia. The officials, voicing frustration, say there is no central clearinghouse for the shipments, and no effective way of vetting the groups that ultimately receive them.

美国官员曾试图理解为什么YSL极端分子能够通过源于卡塔尔及沙特的地下渠道获得大部分运往叙利亚反对派的武器。这些官员沮丧地表示，运输行动没有中央信息部门，缺乏审核武器最终接获者的有效方法。

Those problems were central concerns for the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H. Petraeus, when he traveled secretly to Turkey last month, officials said.

官员们表示，这些问题是中情局老板Petraeus在上个月秘密访问土尔其时的中心议题。

The C.I.A. has not commented on Mr. Petraeus’s trip, made to a region he knows well from his days as the Army general in charge of Central Command, which is responsible for all American military operations in the Middle East. Officials of countries in the region say that Mr. Petraeus has been deeply involved in trying to steer the supply effort, though American officials dispute that assertion.

中情局未对Petraeus的本次行程发表评论，他在担任陆军将军、总管美军中东军事行动时就对这一区域颇为熟悉。中东国家的数名官员称Petraeus已深入参与指挥军火运送，美国官员则否认这一说法。

One Middle Eastern diplomat who has dealt extensively with the C.I.A. on the issue said that Mr. Petraeus’s goal was to oversee the process of “vetting, and then shaping, an opposition that the U.S. thinks it can work with.” According to American and Arab officials, the C.I.A. has sent officers to Turkey to help direct the aid, but the agency has been hampered by a lack of good intelligence about many rebel figures and factions.

就这一问题与中情局往来甚密的一名中东外交官表示，Petraeus的目标是监管如下过程，即＂筛选并塑造一支能够与美国合作的反对派＂。据美国及阿拉伯官员表示，中情局已向土尔其派遣官员以指挥援助行动，但由于缺乏关于多个反叛人物与组织的有效情报，中情局举步维艰。

Another Middle Eastern diplomat whose government has supported the Syrian rebels said his country’s political leadership was discouraged by the lack of organization and the ineffectiveness of the disjointed Syrian opposition movement, and had raised its concerns with American officials. The diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing delicate intelligence issues, said the various rebel groups had failed to assemble a clear military plan, lacked a coherent blueprint for governing Syria afterward if the Assad government fell, and quarreled too often among themselves, undercutting their military and political effectiveness.

支持叙利亚反对派的某中东国家的一名外交官表示，叙利亚反对派运动无序、脱节、低效的状态令其本国的政治高层失望，他们已向美国官员提出了自己的担忧。这位因所谈事宜敏感而不愿具名的外交官称：各色反叛派別无法形成一个清晰的军事计划；缺乏在阿萨德政府倒台之后治理叙利亚的完整蓝图；内斗不休，损及军事与政治效能。

“We haven’t seen anyone step up to take a leadership role for what happens after Assad,” the diplomat said. “There’s not much of anything that’s encouraging. We should have lowered our expectations.”

该外交官表示：＂我们还没有看出谁能够在阿萨德之后登上领导位子的，没有什么令人鼓舞的东西，我们得降低期望。＂

The disorganization is strengthening the hand of Islamic extremist groups in Syria, some with ties or affiliations with Al Qaeda, he said: “The longer this goes on, the more likely those groups will gain strength.”
组织混乱的局面令叙利亚境内的YSL极端分子日益坐大，其中一些人与基地有牵连。上述外交官表示：＂这样的局面拖得越久，这些组织就越有机可乘。＂

American officials worry that, should Mr. Assad be ousted, Syria could erupt afterward into a new conflict over control of the country, in which the more hard-line Islamic groups would be the best armed. That depends on what happens in the arms bazaar that has been feeding the rebel groups. In several towns along the Turkey-Syria border, rebel commanders can be found seeking weapons and meeting with shadowy intermediaries, in a chaotic atmosphere where the true identities and affiliations of any party can be extremely difficult to ascertain.

美国官员们担心在阿萨德下台之后，叙利亚或许会爆发一场夺权大战，其中，YSL极端分子的武装或将最为强大。这将取决于向反对派供武的军火市场。在叙土边界的几座城镇里，反军指挥官们或寻求武器或与可疑的中介人士勾搭，在杂乱的气氛中，任何一方的真实身份与派别都极其难以确认。

Late last month in the Turkish border town of Antakya, at least two men who had recently been in Syria said they had seen Islamist rebels buying weapons in large quantities and then burying them in caches, to be used after the collapse of the Assad government. But it was impossible to verify these accounts, and other rebels derided the reports as wildly implausible.

上个月末，在土尔其边境城市Antakya，至少两名近期在叙利亚呆过的男性称其曾目睹YSL反军以现金大量购买武器，以备阿萨德倒台后之需。但这些说法实在难以求证，其他反对派则斥之为无稽之谈。

Moreover, the rebels often adapt their language and appearance in ways they hope will appeal to those distributing weapons. For instance, many rebels have grown the long, scraggly beards favored by hard-line Salafi Muslims after hearing that Qatar was more inclined to give weapons to Islamists.

更有甚者，反军们时常乔装打扮以接近分发武器的人员。比如，在听说卡塔尔倾向于给MSL供武之后，许多反军便蓄起Salafi MSL喜爱的瘦长胡须。

The Saudis and Qataris are themselves relying on intermediaries — some of them Lebanese — who have struggled to make sense of the complex affiliations of the rebels they deal with.

沙特和卡塔尔同样依赖于中介人士——其中一些为黎巴嫩人——这些人也在竭力辨认与其打交道的反军的复杂派属关系。

“We’re trying to improve the process,” said one Arab official involved in the effort to provide small arms to the rebels. “It is a very complex situation in Syria, but we are learning.”

一名与参与向反军提供小规模武器的阿拉伯官员说到：＂我们正试图改善流程，叙利亚的局势极其复杂，但我们在学习。＂

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 14, 2012据信，叙利亚圣战者得益于援助自由军的武器
Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria
作者:翻译工兵
译文简介:
据美国官员与中东外交官表示，沙特与卡塔尔援助叙利亚反政府军的大部分武器正落入YSL圣战者之手，而非那些西方国家希望扶持的更为世俗化的反对团体。
译文来源:
原创翻译：龙腾网 h ttp://w ww.ltaaa.com
本贴论坛地址： ht tp://w ww.ltaaa.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=94180&extra=page%3D1%26filter%3Dauthor%26orderby%3Ddateline%26orderby%3Ddateline
纽约时报ht tp://ww w.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.h
正文翻译:



Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria

据信，叙利亚圣战者得益于援助自由军的武器

By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.

据美国官员与中东外交官表示，沙特与卡塔尔援助叙利亚反政府军的大部分武器正落入YSL圣战者之手，而非那些西方国家希望扶持的更为世俗化的反对团体。

That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.

这一结论令人怀疑白宫以最低限度间接干预叙利亚冲突的战略是否正达到帮助民主反对派推翻专制政府的预想目的，抑或是在撒播仇视美国的未来乱党的种子。奥巴马总统及其他高级官员已从关于叙利亚冲突的机密评估中获悉该结论，这场冲突目前已致2万5千人丧生。

“The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” said one American official familiar with the outlines of those findings, commenting on an operation that in American eyes has increasingly gone awry.

对于这场在美国眼里愈发失控的行动，一名知情美国官员作出如下评价：＂接获致命武器最多的反对派别，正是我们所不希望的＂。

The United States is not sending arms directly to the Syrian opposition. Instead, it is providing intelligence and other support for shipments of secondhand light weapons like rifles and grenades into Syria, mainly orchestrated from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The reports indicate that the shipments organized from Qatar, in particular, are largely going to hard-line Islamists.

美国并未直接向叙利亚反对派提供军火。但在向叙利亚境内运送步枪和手雷等二手轻武器的行动中，美方提供了情报及其它支持，沙特与卡塔尔则是主要的组织者。报告显示，尤其是源自卡塔尔的军火大部分由强硬的YSL极端分子接收。

The assessment of the arms flows comes at a crucial time for Mr. Obama, in the closing weeks of the election campaign with two debates looming that will focus on his foreign policy record. But it also calls into question the Syria strategy laid out by Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger.

这份有关武器去向的评估在奥巴马竞选最后几周的关键时刻出笼，两场聚焦于奥巴马外交记录的辩论将很快举行。但该评估也对共和党挑战者罗姆尼的叙利亚战略提出了质疑。

In a speech at the Virginia Military Institute last Monday, Mr. Romney said he would ensure that rebel groups “who share our values” would “obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.” That suggests he would approve the transfer of weapons like antiaircraft and antitank systems that are much more potent than any the United States has been willing to put into rebel hands so far, precisely because American officials cannot be certain who will ultimately be using them.

上周一，罗姆尼在弗吉尼亚军校演讲时表示，他将确保那些＂信奉我们的价值＂的反对派能够＂获得击败阿萨德的坦克、直升机和战斗机所需的武器＂。这意味着他将批准运送更为强大的武器，诸如防空系统和反坦克系统。正因为美国官员们难以确认谁将最终使用这些武器，所以美国目前不愿提供。

But Mr. Romney stopped short of saying that he would have the United States provide those arms directly, and his aides said he would instead rely on Arab allies to do it. That would leave him, like Mr. Obama, with little direct control over the distribution of the arms.

但罗姆尼未表示美国将直接提供这些武器，他的助理们则表示罗姆尼将依靠阿拉伯盟友供应武器。但这将使他难以直接控制武器的流向，正如同奥巴马那样。

American officials have been trying to understand why hard-line Islamists have received the lion’s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition through the shadowy pipeline with roots in Qatar, and, to a lesser degree, Saudi Arabia. The officials, voicing frustration, say there is no central clearinghouse for the shipments, and no effective way of vetting the groups that ultimately receive them.

美国官员曾试图理解为什么YSL极端分子能够通过源于卡塔尔及沙特的地下渠道获得大部分运往叙利亚反对派的武器。这些官员沮丧地表示，运输行动没有中央信息部门，缺乏审核武器最终接获者的有效方法。

Those problems were central concerns for the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H. Petraeus, when he traveled secretly to Turkey last month, officials said.

官员们表示，这些问题是中情局老板Petraeus在上个月秘密访问土尔其时的中心议题。

The C.I.A. has not commented on Mr. Petraeus’s trip, made to a region he knows well from his days as the Army general in charge of Central Command, which is responsible for all American military operations in the Middle East. Officials of countries in the region say that Mr. Petraeus has been deeply involved in trying to steer the supply effort, though American officials dispute that assertion.

中情局未对Petraeus的本次行程发表评论，他在担任陆军将军、总管美军中东军事行动时就对这一区域颇为熟悉。中东国家的数名官员称Petraeus已深入参与指挥军火运送，美国官员则否认这一说法。

One Middle Eastern diplomat who has dealt extensively with the C.I.A. on the issue said that Mr. Petraeus’s goal was to oversee the process of “vetting, and then shaping, an opposition that the U.S. thinks it can work with.” According to American and Arab officials, the C.I.A. has sent officers to Turkey to help direct the aid, but the agency has been hampered by a lack of good intelligence about many rebel figures and factions.

就这一问题与中情局往来甚密的一名中东外交官表示，Petraeus的目标是监管如下过程，即＂筛选并塑造一支能够与美国合作的反对派＂。据美国及阿拉伯官员表示，中情局已向土尔其派遣官员以指挥援助行动，但由于缺乏关于多个反叛人物与组织的有效情报，中情局举步维艰。

Another Middle Eastern diplomat whose government has supported the Syrian rebels said his country’s political leadership was discouraged by the lack of organization and the ineffectiveness of the disjointed Syrian opposition movement, and had raised its concerns with American officials. The diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing delicate intelligence issues, said the various rebel groups had failed to assemble a clear military plan, lacked a coherent blueprint for governing Syria afterward if the Assad government fell, and quarreled too often among themselves, undercutting their military and political effectiveness.

支持叙利亚反对派的某中东国家的一名外交官表示，叙利亚反对派运动无序、脱节、低效的状态令其本国的政治高层失望，他们已向美国官员提出了自己的担忧。这位因所谈事宜敏感而不愿具名的外交官称：各色反叛派別无法形成一个清晰的军事计划；缺乏在阿萨德政府倒台之后治理叙利亚的完整蓝图；内斗不休，损及军事与政治效能。

“We haven’t seen anyone step up to take a leadership role for what happens after Assad,” the diplomat said. “There’s not much of anything that’s encouraging. We should have lowered our expectations.”

该外交官表示：＂我们还没有看出谁能够在阿萨德之后登上领导位子的，没有什么令人鼓舞的东西，我们得降低期望。＂

The disorganization is strengthening the hand of Islamic extremist groups in Syria, some with ties or affiliations with Al Qaeda, he said: “The longer this goes on, the more likely those groups will gain strength.”
组织混乱的局面令叙利亚境内的YSL极端分子日益坐大，其中一些人与基地有牵连。上述外交官表示：＂这样的局面拖得越久，这些组织就越有机可乘。＂

American officials worry that, should Mr. Assad be ousted, Syria could erupt afterward into a new conflict over control of the country, in which the more hard-line Islamic groups would be the best armed. That depends on what happens in the arms bazaar that has been feeding the rebel groups. In several towns along the Turkey-Syria border, rebel commanders can be found seeking weapons and meeting with shadowy intermediaries, in a chaotic atmosphere where the true identities and affiliations of any party can be extremely difficult to ascertain.

美国官员们担心在阿萨德下台之后，叙利亚或许会爆发一场夺权大战，其中，YSL极端分子的武装或将最为强大。这将取决于向反对派供武的军火市场。在叙土边界的几座城镇里，反军指挥官们或寻求武器或与可疑的中介人士勾搭，在杂乱的气氛中，任何一方的真实身份与派别都极其难以确认。

Late last month in the Turkish border town of Antakya, at least two men who had recently been in Syria said they had seen Islamist rebels buying weapons in large quantities and then burying them in caches, to be used after the collapse of the Assad government. But it was impossible to verify these accounts, and other rebels derided the reports as wildly implausible.

上个月末，在土尔其边境城市Antakya，至少两名近期在叙利亚呆过的男性称其曾目睹YSL反军以现金大量购买武器，以备阿萨德倒台后之需。但这些说法实在难以求证，其他反对派则斥之为无稽之谈。

Moreover, the rebels often adapt their language and appearance in ways they hope will appeal to those distributing weapons. For instance, many rebels have grown the long, scraggly beards favored by hard-line Salafi Muslims after hearing that Qatar was more inclined to give weapons to Islamists.

更有甚者，反军们时常乔装打扮以接近分发武器的人员。比如，在听说卡塔尔倾向于给MSL供武之后，许多反军便蓄起Salafi MSL喜爱的瘦长胡须。

The Saudis and Qataris are themselves relying on intermediaries — some of them Lebanese — who have struggled to make sense of the complex affiliations of the rebels they deal with.

沙特和卡塔尔同样依赖于中介人士——其中一些为黎巴嫩人——这些人也在竭力辨认与其打交道的反军的复杂派属关系。

“We’re trying to improve the process,” said one Arab official involved in the effort to provide small arms to the rebels. “It is a very complex situation in Syria, but we are learning.”

一名与参与向反军提供小规模武器的阿拉伯官员说到：＂我们正试图改善流程，叙利亚的局势极其复杂，但我们在学习。＂

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 14, 2012