军情六处前局长 恐怖威胁堪比冷战

Turmoil and terrorism in the Middle East are as grave a security threat to Europe as that posed by the Soviet Union during the cold war, the former head of MI6, the British secret intelligence service, has warned.

英国秘密情报局(SIS)——亦称军情6处(MI6)——前局长约翰•索厄斯爵士(Sir John Sawers)警告称，中东的动荡和恐怖主义对欧洲构成的安全威胁与冷战时期的苏联所构成的威胁一样严重。

Violent attacks on European soil are both more difficult to interrupt than ever before and more likely to occur, Sir John Sawers told the Financial Times in his first interview since leaving office in November.

索厄斯在去年11月离任后接受的首次采访中告诉英国《金融时报》，针对欧洲本土的暴力袭击比以往任何时候都更难挫败，而且发生几率更大。

The Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris and the spate of terror warnings and clampdown on Islamist extremists around Europe were a wake-up call to the “heightened threat”, the 59-year- old former spy chief said.

这位59岁的前情报局长表示，巴黎《查理周刊》(Charlie Hebdo)遇袭，欧洲各地大量恐怖袭击警告和针对伊斯兰主义极端分子的打击都提醒人们，“威胁有所加大”。

“The rigidity we had on Europe’s doorstep for two or three decades posed a set of problems and now the turbulence we have got on Europe’s doorstep is posing another set of problems, in a sense more acute ones because the ­disorder in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen creates a whole series of challenges for us,” Sir John said.

索厄斯表示：“在（冷战的）二、三十年期间，我们在欧洲家门口的刚性态度曾带来一系列问题，如今我们在欧洲家门口所遭遇的动荡正带来另一系列问题，在某种意义上这一次更为严峻，因为叙利亚、伊拉克、利比亚和也门的无序给我们带来了种种挑战。”

Thousands of Europeans fighting with extremist organisations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and al-Qaeda were “the vector for the transmission of that terrorist threat to Europe”, he added.

他补充称，为“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国”(Isis)和基地组织(al-Qaeda)等极端组织作战的数千名欧洲人是“向欧洲传递恐怖主义威胁的工具”。

They represent a more serious terrorist threat than ever before because they are “a thousand miles closer to Europe than they were in Afghanistan [and because] they are learning from their own experience and adopting cruder tactics — mass casualty attacks rather than dramatic 9/11-style attacks”.

这些人代表着空前严重的恐怖主义威胁，因为他们“与欧洲的距离比他们在阿富汗时近了1000英里，（而且）他们正从自己的经验中学习，并采用更粗放的战术——大规模杀伤性袭击，而非9/11那种戏剧性的袭击”。

While he described Syria as the “centrepiece” of the problem, he added that the entire Middle East was at a critical juncture.

尽管他形容叙利亚是这个问题的“核心”，但他补充称，整个中东正处于危急关头。

“We should be worried about the entirety of the region,” he said, citing the collapse of stable governments in many countries, the dramatic fall in the oil price, the policy uncertainty posed by the Saudi king’s failing health and the fraught international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme.

他表示：“我们应担心整个地区，”他列出了很多例子，包括很多国家稳定政府的倒台、油价大幅下跌、沙特阿拉伯国王健康状况恶化所带来的政策不确定性，以及围绕伊朗核计划的棘手的国际谈判。