In the beginning there was Fast and Furious, a botched operation carried by the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) between 2009 and 2010, where officials at the federal agency encouraged gun shops to sell up to 1,725 assault rifles and other weaponsdestined for Mexican drug cartels. In Mexico, some of the weapons were used in murders. The feds said they were using the gun runners to track down ranking members of the drug cartels and other criminal enterprises.
The revelation prompted, first, a wave of denials and bitter accusations within the government; then, a series of investigations and an admission of wrongdoing by Attorney General Eric Holder.
先是有“速度与激情”事件，即在2009到2010年期间，烟酒枪械管理署下的菲尼克斯办公室推行拙劣的管理，联邦机构官员鼓励枪支店销售支突击步枪还有其他武器，销量达1725支，运往墨西哥毒品贩卖网。在墨西哥，大量武器用于谋杀犯罪。联邦调查局表示他们曾通过军火走私者追捕毒品贩卖网中的高级成员和其他犯罪团伙。 这一丑闻被揭露后，首先引发公众对政府一股脑的否认和尖刻指责；紧接着，经过一系列调查，司法部长埃里克·霍尔德招认了对其的指控。
Now, it's happened again: the federal government, in its rush to help Mexico fight the drug cartels, toed the line separating legal and illegal. This time, according to an investigation by Ginger Thompson in the New York Times, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) members "laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds."
All this occurred, according to the paper, in the quest for the identity of the cartel leaders.
This is an ambition that, while certainly laudable, has proven irrelevant in the six-year war on drugs declared by Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.
现在，相同的事情又发生了：联邦政府在急于协助墨西哥政府打击毒品贩卖网之际，践踏合法与非法的分界线。这一次，据纽约时报基辛格·汤普森的调查表明，药物管理局成员“在贩毒得益中洗钱走私达百万美元”。据报道，这一切发生后，联邦政府正在努力查找组织头目的真实身份。
想要证明那些德高望重的人与墨西哥总统卡德龙发起的长达6年的打击毒品行动毫不相干，完全是痴心妄想。
Every few weeks, local news outlets announce dramatic drug seizures and the arrests of local, regional, and even national cartel leaders. The crime bosses are handcuffed and paraded for the news cameras, staring straight into the lens. Before them, mounds of drugs allegedly taken during their capture. Behind them, always masked and heavily armed, soldiers or police escort them.
Then, the suspects disappear. You seldom hear about judicial process or the charges filed. After the next raid, new reputed capos are paraded for the cameras.
And when those disappear, scores of new "leaders" take their places, sometimes peacefully, sometimes with bloodshed.
每隔几周，地方新闻电台就会报道戏剧性的毒品查封，或者是地方、地区，甚至全国性的团伙头目被捕新闻。新闻镜头前，犯罪头目双手铐住，被游街示众，直面镜头。摆在他们面前的是抓捕期间缴获的成堆涉嫌毒品。在他们身后则是看押他们的蒙住脸并全副武装的士兵和警察。
然后，嫌疑犯消失在公众面前。你很少听到关于他们的司法程序或起诉。在下一次毒品抄查后，新的有威望的头目出现在电视镜头前行走。
然后，当所有的这一切都消失后，大量新生“头目”取代了这些人的位置，有时这种取代采取和平方式，有时则以流血事件为代价。
While trying to achieve what years of military confrontation with the armed wings of drug cartels failed to do, the operation unveiled by the New York Times emphasizes the blurring of "the line between surveillance and facilitating crime" because "as it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests."
But what makes this story stand out is that fact that similar operations organized by American agencies occurred in other places. After all, people close to the DEA told the Times, the operation wasn't as dangerous as running guns.
当我们试图希望与毒品集团的武装羽翼成年累月的军事对抗失败后，纽约时报揭露的运作强调“监管和助长犯罪”的模糊化是因为此运作能洗钱，所以联邦机构经常在实行扣押逮捕前，允许团伙继续他们的毒品交易长达数月甚至几年。
但是使这一事件夺人眼球的则是因为，美国政机构组织的相同交易也发生在其他地方，毕竟，与药物管理局关系密切的人员告诉纽约时报，这种交易的风险较之出售枪支低。 In Mexico operation such as these were forbidden in 1998 after the government learned -- only after the fact -- that an American sting operation was illegally carried out on Mexican for three years, as Julia Preston reported in the New York Times:
"The three-year undercover operation, code-named Casablanca, was described by officials of the United States Customs Services as the largest and probably the most successful in American law enforcement history. According to indictments in Los Angeles stemming from the investigation, employees of 12 Mexican banks laundered at least $110 million for drug organizations based in Colombia and Mexico."
在墨西哥，1998年来这些交易被阻止了，在政府意识到——只有在事实之后，一场美国非法卧底行动在墨西哥开展了数年，正如纽约时报的茱莉亚·普雷斯同报道： 三年的代号为“卡萨布兰卡”卧底行动，，美国海关署官员称其为美国执法上规模最大可能也是最成功的行动。洛杉矶源自调查的起诉表明，12名墨西哥银行的职员，至少为总部位于哥伦比亚和墨西哥的毒品团伙洗钱11亿美元。
This time, though, the operation was apparently launched after an invitation from the highest echelons of the Mexican government. That is where President Felipe Calderon considers his legacy, with national elections to replace him next July, of success or failure in his war with the drug kingpins.
Critics claim that Calderon's stubborn assault on the cartels has unleashed an unnecessary bloodbath in which close to 50,000 were killed.
However, a measure of the urgency and importance of the latest operation is that it marks a frontal assault where it hurts most: in the deep pockets of the cartels, in their financial arm.
尽管在墨西哥政府最高层的邀请下，这一行动显著开展了。其实是因为，总统卡德龙将他与毒品头目的斗争成功与否看做是他的政绩，明年六月的全国大选中他将卸任。
批评家指出，卡德龙对贩毒集团的固执袭击已经导致了一场没必要的大屠杀，大约五万人已经死于此次屠杀。
然而，衡量最近的行动的紧迫和重要性是它标志着一场正面进攻戳到了团伙的要害：毒品团伙的金融业必将受到重创。
A recent article in theLos Angeles Times by Ken Ellingwood and Tracy Wilkinson, reported from Mexico, comments on a dirty little secret known to many there: drug money shines "in gleaming high-rises in beach resorts such as Cancun, in bustling casinos in Monterrey, in skyscrapers and restaurants in Mexico City that sit empty for months. It seeps into the construction sector, the night-life industry, even political campaigns."
洛杉矶时报最近的一篇文章，由从墨西哥报道的肯·爱林伍德和特雷西·威尔金森撰文，评论了广为人知的肮脏小秘密：“毒资照亮了墨西哥坎昆海滩度假村的高层建筑，蒙特雷喧闹的赌场，墨西哥城的长达数月空荡荡的摩天大楼和酒店。毒资更渗透了建筑行业、夜总会甚至政治选举活动。”
Actually, according to the L.A. Times, the amount of laundered money could reach $50 billion, or around 3 percent of the national economy. Last year, only 37 people were arrested for that crime.
(Other sources mention different amounts for laundered money; the "Informador" placed it at $25 billion, while the N.Y. Times story reported an "estimated $18 billion to $39 billion in drug money that flows between the countries each year."
事实上，据洛杉矶时报称，洗毒资的总数可能达到500亿美金，或者占到国家经济的百分之三。去年，只有37人因为洗毒资钱被捕。
其他消息来源提到的洗毒资钱数目，墨西哥媒体“Informador”估计有250亿，纽约时报故事报则报道“每年有大概180亿到390亿的毒资在全国流通”。
The Calderon administration has asked the congress for restrictions on dollar transactionsin an attempt to curb the money laundering.
The latest revelation, in the New York Times, didn't cause the stir that followed news last February of the Fast and Furious debacle.
Perhaps it is because, as two former DEA agents told the N.Y. Times' Thompson, there is a difference between the operations. While F&F had to do with dangerous weapons still at the hands of criminals and possibly related to the death of an American agent, their own actions dealt with "just" money. 卡德龙政府已经要求国会通过对美元业务的限制，企图遏制洗钱。 纽约时报最新的披露报道并没有引起去年二月份对速度与激情危机的跟踪报道那样的轰动。 可能是因为药物管理局两位前工作人员告诉纽约时报汤普森，两场行动有些不同。“速度与激情危机”要与仍旧在罪犯手中的军火打交道，还可能与一位美国特工的死因有关，而这次行动只是关于“钱”。
These operations are part of the regular work the U.S. conducts in several countries. According to the N.Y. Times, there are about 50 operations of this kind around the world at any given time.
Yesterday, it was announced that Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will investigate the operation.
Attorney General Eric Holder will appear before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives on Thursday.
这些交易是美国在若干国家经营的日常工作的一部分。据纽约时报称，全世界大约有50个在任何给定的时间进行类似交易。 昨日宣布，共和党议员、众议员监督和政府改革委员会主席达雷尔·埃萨将调查这次交易。 司法部长诶里克·霍德尔将出庭周二的众议院司法委员会。
The conservative blog Townhall, immediately unleashed a barrage on the Obama administration, accusing Washington of not only supplying the drug cartels with weapons but also money "to carry out their operations."
Other shots at the White House followed: "Breaking: Obama Administration Caught Laundering Money For Drug Cartels" in Godlike Productions.
In a popular right-wing blog, Freerepublic.com, the story prompted comments like this: " I am starting to wonder just how many elected officials and bureaucrats are on the cartel payrolls. My guess is, it is approaching 50 percent of that bunch in Washington. And even higher among officials along the border."
保守的市政厅博客旋即开始了奥巴马政府的攻击，指控华盛顿不仅为贩毒团伙提供武器还从财务上使的他们开展犯罪交易。 对白宫的其他抨击如下：震惊：奥巴马政府为毒品贩卖组织洗钱使之神圣合法化。 右翼政党的流行博客，freepublic.com，文章如此评论到：“我开始想知道究竟有多少民选官员和政府官员列在毒品组织的名单上。我的猜测是，华盛顿将近机构百分之五十的官员都在其中。沿着这条线甚至牵涉有更高级别的官员。”
|
狗仔卡
发表于 2011-12-8 17:50
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
发表于 2011-12-8 18:18
