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  3. Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad. By Peter

Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad. By Peter

游客2023-12-15  15
问题     Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad. By Peter Bergen. Crown; 384 pages; $26. Bodley Head; Pounds 20
    A compelling account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden requires two things: captivating detail about how the mission was carried out and answers to difficult questions that linger over the affair. Peter Bergen, a former television journalist who once met the al-Qaeda leader, has an eye for memorable close-ups. His narrative has authority, though at times it seems overly influenced by the American officials who granted the author close access.
    "Manhunt" is packed with satisfying observations. Mr Bergen got into bin Laden’s last home, a compound in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan, before it was demolished in February. He describes the hideaway’s dark rooms and gives a good sense of how the most-wanted man spent his final years.
    Much of bin Laden’s life seems to have been tediously suburban. He was a meticulous note-taker and, says Mr Bergen, had only once told a joke. His many wives were often jealous and sometimes miserable. A notoriously stingy leader, in the end he was so hard up he could hardly pay his staff. The household of 11 adults plus children subsisted on two goats a week, honey from a hive in the garden and Quaker Oats from a local shop. Investigators also found Avena syrup, "a sort of natural Viagra made from wild oats".
    Mr Bergen’s account of bin Laden’s pursuers is also highly readable. Having tracked a suspected al-Qaeda courier known as "the Kuwaiti" to Abbottabad late in 2010, American spies sat for six months and watched. Using drones, they studied the occupants and counted laundry on the washing line to guess how many adults lived in the house. Their suspicions were raised by rubbish that was burned in the yard, not thrown out; the lack of an internet connection in an expensive home; residents who shunned local contact. Of most interest was a mysterious figure, "the pacer", who took morning walks in his garden, beneath a large tarpaulin.
    Barack Obama is now making much of his brave decision to send soldiers to get their quarry, rather than the easier choice of dropping a bomb. Mr Bergen paints a very positive picture of the president, his staff and all involved in the hunt. Even a helicopter crash on the night of the raid did not upset the American Navy Seals’ efficient attack. They killed bin Laden (arrest and trial were hardly considered) and all the other adult males in the building, entering and leaving Pakistani territory without warning or resistance.
    All this, and some crisp writing, keep the pages turning briskly. But Mr Bergen’s book at times falls short. A more critical writer would have paid more attention not only to the hunt, but also to the question of why bin Laden could evade capture for so many years. Crucially, did any Pakistani official, perhaps a rogue agent in the notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, protect him? This matters: if bin Laden was in effect in an ISI safe house, it would help explain why Pakistan-America relations have grown so dangerously confrontational over the past 18 months.
    Much circumstantial evidence hints at Pakistan’s complicity. Bin Laden and his extended family spent more than five years in a military town packed with retired generals. Relatively slack personal security (he had no guards and his family used mobile phones) suggests he felt at ease, perhaps protected by others. His house was less than a mile from Pakistan’s most prestigious military academy, and neighbours tell of regular checks of their homes by security men. American leaders, such as Hillary Clinton, had previously said that Pakistanis might be sheltering him, just as they protect leaders of the Afghan Taliban. Mr Obama refused to warn the Pakistani authorities of the raid.
    Yet Mr Bergen firmly rejects the idea of official Pakistani complicity, and adds that analysis of material found in the hideout offers no evidence otherwise. He does not pause to describe how Pakistan’s military insiders have often collaborated with extremists. Nor does he mention a humiliating al-Qaeda attack on a naval base in Karachi weeks after bin Laden’s assassination—the suspicion is that this too was helped by Pakistani insiders. Mr Bergen’s book is full of detail, but it skips too fast over the tricky, Pakistani side of the story. The full version has yet to be written.
                                                 From The Economist, May 5, 2012 [br] Which of the following objects raised the suspicious of American Spies most?
选项 A、rubbish that burned in the yard
B、the lack of an internet connection
C、residents who shunned local contact
D、a mysterious figure appeared in the garden
答案 D
解析 本题为推断题。要求根据义章推断出最让美国间谍怀疑的细节。从第五段可以看出A、B、C、D四个选项都是值得让人怀疑的。但是最可疑之处…of most interest was…还是选项D。
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