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CIA战士、索马里炸弹大师和一场失败的影子战争

A C.I.A. Fighter, a Somali Bomb Maker, and a Faltering Shadow War
CIA战士、索马里炸弹大师和一场失败的影子战争

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The CIA convoy rolled out of Mogadishu in the dead of night, headed south along a crumbling ocean road that led deep into territory controlled by al-Shabab, one of Africa’s deadliest militant groups.

索马里摩加迪沙——中情局车队深夜驶出摩加迪沙,沿着一条破败的沿海公路向南行驶,深入由非洲最致命的武装组织之一青年党(al-Shabab)控制的领土。

The vehicles halted at a seaside village, where U.S. and Somali paramilitaries poured out, storming a house and killing several militants, Somali officials said. But one man escaped, sprinted to an explosives-filled vehicle primed for a suicide bombing and hit the detonator.

索马里官员说,这些车辆停在一个海滨村庄,美国和索马里准军事人员跳下车,冲入一所房子并杀死了几名武装分子。但一名男子逃脱了,冲向一辆装满炸药准备用于自杀式袭击的车,按下了引爆器。
 

4月在索马里摩加迪沙,一辆1990年代索马里内战留下的坦克。

The blast in November killed three Somalis and grievously wounded an American: Michael Goodboe, 54, a CIA paramilitary specialist and former Navy SEAL, who was airlifted to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. He died 17 days later.

去年11月的这场爆炸造成三名索马里人死亡,一名美国人受重伤:54岁的中央情报局准军事专家、前海军海豹突击队员迈克尔·古德博被空运到德国的一家美国军事医院。他于17天后去世。

His was a rare American fatality in the decade-old shadow war against al-Shabab, the world’s wealthiest and arguably most dangerous al-Qaida affiliate. But Goodboe was also a casualty of a U.S. way of war that has flourished since the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, now under greater scrutiny than ever.

美国与青年党这一世界上最富有也堪称最危险的基地组织分支进行了长达十年之久的影子战争,古德博成为这场战争中美方极少数伤亡之一。然而,他也是一种美国特有的战争方式的牺牲品,这种自2001年美国遭遇恐怖袭击以来全面展开的战争,如今正面临着前所未有的审视。

The United States’ most ambitious response to the 9/11 attacks was in Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of troops were dispatched to banish extremists and rebuild the country — a mission that recently ended in crushing failure with the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

美国对9·11袭击做出的最具雄心的回应是在阿富汗。美国向那里派遣了数万名士兵来驱逐极端分子并重新建国——这项使命最近以美国混乱的撤军惨败告终。

But in Somalia, as in countries like Yemen and Syria, the U.S. turned to a different playbook, eschewing major troop deployments in favor of spies, Special Operations raids and drone strikes. Private contractors and local fighters were recruited for risky tasks. The mission was narrow at first, a hunt for al-Qaida fugitives, only later expanding to include fighting al-Shabab and building up Somali security forces.

但在索马里——就像在也门和叙利亚等国那样——美国转向了不同的策略,没有选择大规模部署,而是使用间谍、特种作战突袭和无人机袭击。招募私人承包商和当地战士来执行危险的任务。最初的任务范围很窄,只是追捕基地组织的逃犯,后来才扩大到包括打击青年党和建立索马里安全部队。

Now that playbook is also failing. As in Afghanistan, the U.S. mission has been stymied by an alliance with a weak, notoriously corrupt local government, an intractable homegrown insurgency and the United States’ own errors, such as drone strikes that have killed civilians.

现在这一策略也失败了。与在阿富汗一样,美国的使命受到了阻碍——与软弱、以腐败而臭名昭著的地方政府结盟,难以解决的本土叛乱以及美国自己的失误,例如导致平民丧生的无人机袭击。

As a result, al-Shabab are at their strongest in years. They roam the countryside, bomb cities, and run an undercover state, complete with courts, extortion rackets and parallel taxes, that netted at least $120 million last year, by U.S. government estimates.

由此导致的结果是,青年党的势力已经达到近年来的鼎盛。他们游走在乡村,对城市实施炸弹袭击,并管理着一个有法院、勒索和平行税收的秘密国家,根据美国政府的估计,该组织去年至少净赚1.2亿美元。

Al-Shabab also appear to have designs on the United States, with the arrest in 2019 of a militant while taking flying lessons in the Philippines, allegedly to commit another 9/11-style attack on the U.S. But critics of the U.S. approach in Somalia, including some military officers, say the threat to the homeland has been exaggerated and that Washington’s own policies only boost the extremists they seek to defeat.

青年党似乎也对美国有所企图,2019年一名激进分子在菲律宾上飞行课时被逮捕,据称他计划对美国再次发动9·11式袭击。但包括一些军官在内的人批评了美国在索马里的做法,他们认为国土遭到的威胁被夸大了,并且,华盛顿自己的政策只会助长那些他们想要击败的极端分子。

Biden administration officials deny the mission in Somalia has failed, but they say they are cleareyed about its shortcomings. The administration could unveil a new Somalia policy in coming weeks, some officials said.

拜登政府官员否认在索马里的任务失败了,但他们表示很清楚该任务的不足。一些官员表示,政府可能会在未来几周内公布一项新的索马里政策。

The U.S. government has been reluctant to commit troops to Somalia since the “Black Hawk Down” episode of 1993, when Somali militia fighters killed 18 American service members in a blazing battle later depicted in books and Hollywood movies. After that fiasco, the U.S. withdrew from Somalia for more than a decade.

自1993年“黑鹰坠落”事件发生以来,美国政府一直不愿向索马里派兵。后来的书籍和好莱坞电影对此进行了描绘,当时索马里民兵在一场激烈战斗中杀死了18名美国军人。在那场惨败之后,美国从索马里撤军,十多年未返回。

Americans eventually returned in small numbers — covert operatives, soldiers and, lastly, diplomats who are bunkered into a windowless, penitentiary-style embassy at the Mogadishu airport that opened in 2018.

等到终于返回时,也只有一小部分人——秘密特工、士兵,最后还有外交官,他们不得不在一座没有窗户的监狱式大使馆里办公,这个大使馆在摩加迪沙机场内,于2018年启用。

Nearby lies the CIA compound, where the air crackles with gunfire at night as the Americans train a small Somali paramilitary force that spearheads anti-al-Shabab operations.

使馆附近是中央情报局的建筑群,夜晚的枪声震裂天空,那是美国人在训练一支小型索马里准军事部队,以带头开展反青年党行动。

There are now fewer than 100 U.S. troops in Somalia, mostly in intelligence and support roles. In January, former President Donald Trump moved most of the 700-member force across the borders to Kenya and Djibouti, though it continues to conduct strikes in Somalia and train troops.

现在在索马里只有不到100名美军人员,主要是负责情报和支援任务。今年1月,前总统特朗普将700人部队的大部分转移到肯尼亚和吉布提边境,但它继续在索马里进行袭击并训练部队。

The arc of the faltering U.S. mission in Somalia can be seen in the stories of two men, an American and a Somali, on opposite sides of the fight.

美国在索马里的使命举步维艰,其历程可以通过两个人的故事呈现,他们分别来自对战双方——一个美国人和一个索马里人。

A Forever Warrior in a Forgotten War

永远的战士,在一场被遗忘的战争中阵亡


Michael Goodboe was the archetypal elite fighter of the post-9/11 era.

迈克尔·古德博是后9·11时代典型的精锐战士。

A member of the elite SEAL Team Six, he deployed to Afghanistan within weeks of the Sept. 11 attacks. He worked from the CIA’s temporary station at the Ariana Hotel in Kabul and joined the first “Omega team” — a highly classified unit combining Special Forces operators and CIA paramilitaries that led the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other fugitives.

作为精锐部队海豹突击队六队的成员,他在9·11袭击事件发生后的几周内被部署到阿富汗。他在中央情报局位于喀布尔阿丽亚娜酒店的临时站点工作,并加入了第一个“欧米伽小组”——一个高度机密的单位,由领导追捕奥萨马·本·拉登和其他逃犯的特种部队队员和中央情报局准军事人员组成。

Colleagues admired Goodboe, known as “Goody,” for his easy manner, steady temperament and keen sense of purpose — qualities that stood out in the SEALs’ swaggering subculture and helped him forge close relationships with the Afghan, and later Somali, troops he helped to train, they said.

人们称呼古德博为“古迪”,他受到同事们的钦佩,因为他随和、稳重的气质且有强烈的使命感——这些品质与趾高气昂的海豹突击队亚文化形成鲜明对比,同事们说,这些品质帮助他与阿富汗部队以及后来的索马里部队建立了密切的关系。

Many SEALs “do the minimum time, get their trident” — the SEAL symbol, worn on Naval uniforms — “and write a book,” said Capt. Christopher Rohrbach, a 24-year SEAL who has served in East Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq.

在东非、阿富汗和伊拉克服役24年的海豹突击队上尉克里斯托弗·罗尔巴赫说,许多海豹突击队员“在最短的时间内服役并拿到他们的三叉戟,然后写一本书”。三叉戟是海豹突击队佩戴在海军制服上的标志。

But Goodboe “was a team guy,” he said. “He was there for the greater good.”

但古德博“注重团队合作”,他说。“他是为了更广大的利益待在那里的。”

After retiring from the Navy in 2009 with a clutch of medals, Goodboe joined the CIA’s paramilitary wing, now called the Special Activities Center — a clandestine group of about 200 fighters, the vanguard of the agency’s far-flung wars. The job eventually took him to Somalia.

在2009年获得一系列嘉奖后,古德博从海军退役,加入了中央情报局的准军事部门,现在称为特别活动中心(Special Activities Center)——一个由大约200名战士组成的秘密组织,是该机构在海外偏远地区的作战先锋。这份工作最终把他带到了索马里。

The CIA had a checkered history there.

中央情报局在那里有一段曲折的历史。

In 2011, Somali security forces killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an al-Qaida leader behind the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and seized a trove of valuable intelligence, including plots to bomb the elite British school Eton and London’s Ritz Hotel.

2011年,索马里安全部队杀死了1998年美国驻肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚大使馆爆炸案背后的基地组织领导人法祖尔·阿卜杜拉·穆罕默德,并缴获了大量宝贵的情报,包括计划炸毁英国精英学校伊顿公学和伦敦丽兹酒店的阴谋。

The Somalis handed everything to the CIA, including a memento — the dead militant’s unusual model of rifle, said Hussein Sheikh-Ali, then a senior Somali intelligence official and later Somalia’s national security adviser. “It was a turning point” in the relationship between the Americans and Somalis, he said.

时任索马里高级情报官员、后来担任索马里国家安全顾问的侯赛因·谢赫-阿里说,索马里人将所有东西都交给了中央情报局,其中包括一份纪念品——这名被击毙的激进分子所使用的一支特制步枪。他说,这是美国人和索马里人关系的“转折点”。

But as the fruits of cooperation became clear, so did the costs. Human rights groups and U.N. investigators accused Somalia’s spy agency of torturing detainees and using children as spies. Some detainees recently accused the CIA of complicity in torture.

但随着合作开始得到成果,代价也随之显现。人权组织和联合国调查人员指责索马里的间谍机构折磨被拘押人员,并使用儿童作为间谍。一些被拘留者最近指责中央情报局参与实施酷刑。

In 2015, the CIA station chief in Mogadishu pressed for the removal of Gen. Abdirahman Turyare, the Somali intelligence chief, accusing him of corruption and mismanagement. Turyare said he was the victim of American highhandedness and arrogance.

2015年,中央情报局驻摩加迪沙站站长要求罢免索马里情报局局长阿卜迪拉赫曼·图里亚雷将军,指责他腐败和管理不善。图里亚雷说他是美国强权和傲慢的受害者。

The dispute dragged on for a year as State Department leaders appealed to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who comes from then same clan, to take action against Turyare. Only after Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, told Somali leaders that their relationship was also endangered by the dispute was Turyare removed.

争端持续了一年,国务院领导人呼吁来自当时同一部族的总统哈桑·谢赫·马哈茂德对图里亚雷采取行动。最后在英国外交大臣菲利普·哈蒙德告诉索马里领导人,英索两国的关系也将因争端而受到威胁之后,图里亚雷才被撤职。

At the heart of that dispute, several Somali officials said, was control of Gaashaan, a paramilitary force officially part of the Somali spy agency but in reality led by the CIA.

几名索马里官员表示,这场争端的核心是争夺对一支名为盾牌军(Gaashaan)的部队的控制,这是一支名义上隶属于索马里间谍机构但实际上由中央情报局领导的准军事部队。

Since 2009, the CIA has been training Gaashaan, which means “shield,” and it has grown into an elite force of 300 troops. Among the trainers was Goodboe.

自2009年以来,CIA一直在训练这支已经发展到300名士兵的精锐部队。古德博便是教官之一。

By late last year, when Goodboe arrived in Somalia for another monthslong tour, the CIA and Gaashaan had turned their focus to one al-Shabab leader in particular — a bomb maker with a background in television.

去年年底,当古德博抵达索马里又一次进行为期数月的驻扎时,中央情报局和盾牌军已经将注意力特别转向了一名青年党领导人——一位有电视行业背景的炸弹制造者。

The Master Bomb Maker

炸弹制造师


Somalis who once knew him say that Abdullahi Osman Mohamed was an unlikely jihadi kingpin.

认识阿卜杜拉希·奥斯曼·莫哈迈德的索马里人说,他不太像是个圣战组织的头目。

“A friendly, energetic guy with a baby face,” recalled Mahmood, a former colleague who gave part of his name to speak freely about one of Somalia’s most dangerous men. “Very smart, very handsome. I often wonder how he became terrorist number one.”

“他是一个友好、精力充沛、长着娃娃脸的家伙,”前同事马哈茂德回忆说。为了无需顾忌地谈论索马里最危险的人之一,马哈茂德只透露了自己的部分名字。“非常聪明,非常帅。我常常想知道他是怎么成为恐怖分子头号人物的。”

In September 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed an order designating Mohamed, also known as “Engineer Ismail,” as a “global terrorist.” According to the United States, he is al-Shabab’s senior explosives expert; head of their al-Kataib propaganda wing; and a special adviser to the supreme leader, Ahmed Diriye.

2020年9月,国务卿迈克·庞皮欧签署了一项命令,将莫哈迈德——也被称为“工程师伊斯梅尔”——指定为“全球恐怖分子”。据美国称,他是青年党的高级炸药专家;其宣传部门卡塔布(al-Kataib)的负责人;以及最高领袖艾哈迈德·迪里耶的特别顾问。

Some Somalis go further, saying that Mohamed is one of two deputy al-Shabab leaders.

一些索马里人更进一步,称莫哈迈德是青年党的两名副领导人之一。

He was the intended target of the ill-fated November raid in which Goodboe was fatally injured, according to a retired Somali official and a senior U.S. official who refused to be identified to discuss sensitive intelligence.

据一位退休的索马里官员和一位拒绝透露姓名以讨论敏感情报的美国高级官员说,去年11月导致古德博受致命伤的那次不幸的突袭,目标正是莫哈迈德。

The CIA declined to comment. A U.S. official would not say who the target was.

CIA拒绝置评。一位美国官员拒绝透露目标的身份。

In many ways, Mohamed typifies the mix of resourcefulness and ruthlessness that has made al-Shabab such a formidable enemy.

从许多方面来看,莫哈迈德代表着一种善于应变和残忍的综合体,正是这种特质让青年党如此令人生畏。

He came from a conservative, middle-class Mogadishu family. His father worked for al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Saudi charity the U.S. accused of links to al-Qaida in 2002.

他出身于一个保守的中产阶级摩加迪沙家庭。他的父亲曾在哈拉曼伊斯兰基金会工作,也就是在2002年被美国指控跟基地组织有关联的那家沙特慈善机构。

Mohamed, then in his early 20s, graduated from university in Sudan in 2006 and began working as a studio technician for Al-Jazeera in Mogadishu. His boss, the station’s Mogadishu bureau chief, Fahad Yasin, later went into politics and became Somalia’s spy chief — a striking illustration of the Somali conflict’s complex layers. Mohamed later spent time at Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar for training.

2006年,20岁出头的莫哈迈德从苏丹一所大学毕业,开始在摩加迪沙的半岛电视台做演播室技术人员。他的上司——半岛电视台摩加迪沙分社长法哈·雅辛后来涉身政治,成为索马里间谍负责人——这一惊人的事实也呈现了索马里冲突的错综复杂。莫哈迈德后来曾在半岛的卡塔尔总部受训。

It was an especially tumultuous time in Somalia. Ethiopia, backed by the United States, invaded in 2006 to oust the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist group. U.S. warplanes bombed Islamic forces.

当时索马里正处于一个格外动荡的时期。为了驱赶伊斯兰激进组织伊斯兰法庭联盟(Islamic Courts Union),埃塞俄比亚在美国支持下于2006年入侵索马里。美国的军机轰炸了伊斯兰武装。

Like many Somalis, Mohamed was enraged, said a family friend who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. Ethiopia and Somalia had fought a major war in 1977 and 1978, and remained bitter rivals.

一位为免遭报复而要求匿名的家族朋友说,和许多索马里人一样,莫哈迈德被激怒了。埃塞俄比亚和索马里在1977和1978年进行了一场大规模战争,双方恨意至今未消。

Mohamed began moonlighting for al-Shabab.

莫哈迈德开始利用闲余时间为青年党做事。

Al-Shabab, or “the youth,” were a faction of the defeated Islamic Courts Union. Ousted from Mogadishu, they fled to southern Somalia and launched a guerrilla war, including bombings and assassinations, against Ethiopian soldiers.

青年党是从被击溃的伊斯兰法庭联盟分离出来的组织。在被逐出摩加迪沙后,他们逃往索马里南部展开游击战,包括针对埃塞俄比亚士兵的爆炸和暗杀。

By 2008, al-Shabab had become the most radical and powerful armed faction in Somalia, with thousands of recruits.

2008年,青年党成为索马里最为激进和强悍的武装组织,招募了成千上万的人马。

Al-Shabab’s broad goal is to establish their vision of an Islamic state in Somalia. In areas they control they have banned music and movies, and impose harsh punishments like stoning accused adulterers and amputating the limbs of accused thieves.

青年党的总体目标是在索马里实现他们的伊斯兰政权构想。他们在控制区内禁止音乐和电影,实施严酷的刑罚,比如被指控通奸的人会处石刑,偷窃会被斩断四肢。

Mohamed first helped al-Shabab with propaganda, the friend said. Later, as U.S. airstrikes killed successive al-Shabab explosives experts, the young militant, whose degree was in electrical engineering, was promoted to take their place.

据朋友说,莫哈迈德起初是帮青年党做宣传。后来美国的空袭接连杀死青年党的一些炸药专家,于是这位学电气工程出身的年轻激进分子得到提拔,接替他们的工作。

Al-Shabab went on to perpetrate a series of horrific attacks, including, in 2017, a truck bombing in central Mogadishu that killed at least 587 people — one of the deadliest terrorist acts in modern world history.

接下来青年党发起了一系列恐怖袭击,包括2017年在摩加迪沙中部的一起卡车炸弹袭击,杀死至少587人——这是全世界近代史上死伤最严重的恐怖袭击之一。

Somalia’s national army officially has 24,000 troops, but in reality is one-fifth that size, a senior U.S. official said.

索马里官方公布的政府军规模为2.4万人,但据一位美国高级官员说,实际数字是这个的五分之一。

American analysts estimate that al-Shabab command anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 fighters. Under Mohamed, their bombs have grown more sophisticated and powerful.

美国分析人士估计接受青年党调遣的武装人员在5000到10000之间。在莫哈迈德接手后,他们的炸弹的精密性和威力与日俱增。

Mohamed’s growing reputation for chaos and bloodshed has made him a highly respected leader inside al-Shabab ranks, Somali and Western officials said.

据索马里和西方官员说,善于制造混乱和流血让莫哈迈德的名气越来越大,成了青年党内部一个受敬仰的领导人物。

To those pursuing him, he is an elusive figure, always out of reach.

而对那些负责追捕他的人来说,他行踪隐秘,永远在视线之外。

A memorial wall at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, honors agency employees killed in the line of duty. It has 137 stars — four of them added in May. Though the identity of those four officers remains classified, one was Goodboe — a final, anonymous tribute.

在弗吉尼亚州兰利的CIA总部有一面悼念墙,纪念殉职的情报局雇员。墙上一共有137颗星——其中四颗是5月新添的。这四位官员的身份尚属机密,不过其中一位正是古德博——这是一次最后的、匿名的纪念。

“Engineer Ismail” is believed to be still at large. In the latest al-Shabab bomb attack, on Sept 25, a suicide bomber hit a checkpoint in downtown Mogadishu, a few hundred yards from the presidential villa. Eight people were killed, including a woman and two children.

“工程师伊斯梅尔”据信仍然在逃。最近的一次青年党炸弹袭击发生在9月25日,摩加迪沙市中心一个检查站成为一名自杀式炸弹袭击者的目标,那里距离总统官邸只有几百米。八人丧生,其中有一名女性和两名儿童。
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