奥巴马严厉谴责ISIS斩首美国人质

Obama Condemns Islamic State’s Killing of Peter Kassig

奥巴马严厉谴责ISIS斩首美国人质

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — President Obama on Sunday confirmed the death of the American aid worker Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger who disappeared over a year ago at a checkpoint in northeastern Syria while delivering medical supplies.

土耳其加齐安泰普——周日，奥巴马总统确认美国援助工作者、前陆军游骑兵彼得·卡西格(Peter Kassig)已经身亡。一年多以前，他在运送医疗用品时，在叙利亚东北部的一个检查站失踪。

The president’s midafternoon statement came hours after the Islamic State released a video showing a black-clad executioner standing over the severed head of a man it identified as Mr. Kassig.

奥巴马是在下午三点左右发布的这项声明。几小时之前，伊斯兰国(Islamic State)公布了一段视频显示，一名身穿黑衣的刽子手两脚分开站在一个砍下的人头旁，伊斯兰国称此人正是卡西格。

Mr. Kassig “was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group,” Mr. Obama said in a statement from aboard Air force One that was read to the news media in Washington.

卡西格“被一个恐怖组织，以极端罪恶的行径，从我们身边带走了”，奥巴马在空军一号(Air Force One)上宣读的一份声明中写道。在场的听众是华盛顿的新闻媒体。

In recent days, American intelligence agencies received strong indications that the Islamic State had killed Mr. Kassig. The president’s announcement was the first official confirmation of his death.

近日，美国情况机构得到了具有说服力的线索，表明伊斯兰国已经杀害了卡西格。总统的声明首次正式确定了他的死亡。

“Today we offer our prayers and condolences to the parents and family of Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known to us as Peter,” Mr. Obama’s statement said. The president used the Muslim name Mr. Kassig had adopted, making the point that the Islamic State had killed one of its own. He acknowledged the “anguish at this painful time” felt by Mr. Kassig’s family.

奥巴马在声明中称，“现在，我们为阿卜杜勒-拉赫曼·卡西格(Abdul-Rahman Kassig)，也就是我们所知的彼得的父母和亲属祈祷，并向他们表示慰问。”总统使用了卡西格起的穆斯林名字，说明伊斯兰国杀害了自己的一名成员。他表示理解卡西格家人“在这个痛苦时刻的悲痛之情”。

The video footage circulated by the Islamic State, the violent jihadist group also known as ISIS or ISIL, was significantly different from the execution videos of four other Western hostages, whose televised deaths were carefully choreographed.

伊斯兰国是一个残暴的圣战组织，又称ISIS或ISIL。它这次发布的视频与此前其他四名西方人质被处决的视频明显不同，后者通过视频呈现的死亡场景都经过了精心安排。

Those videos were shot with several cameras from different vantage points to give the appearance of a professional production. By contrast, the footage of Mr. Kassig’s death is shot with a single camera and appears amateurish, with the harsh lighting obscuring the executioners’ visage.

那些视频是通过几台放置在不同位置的摄像机拍摄的，所以看起来像是专业制作。然而，记录卡西格之死时，只用了一台摄像机，而且似乎很业余，在强烈的光照下，刽子手的面容显得模糊不清。

While in the earlier videos the hostages are seen kneeling in orange jumpsuits and are forced to make speeches before the executioner lifts the knife to their throats, in the one released Sunday, the moments leading up to Mr. Kassig’s death are not shown. The change in format — combined with the lower production quality of the clip — may suggest that the Islamic State is on the run and unable to pull off the same cinematic production as before.

在早前的视频当中，可以看到人质穿着橙色连体服，被迫在刽子手把刀刺向他们的脖子之前发表讲话，而周日发布的视频没有表现卡西格临死前的最后场景。形式的变化，以及视频质量降低或许表明，伊斯兰国正在逃亡，无法制作出像以往那样具有电影效果的视频。

The camera pans across the boots of the hooded killer. Between his feet, a decapitated head is seen, blood smearing the cheek.

摄像机从蒙面杀手的一只靴子摇到另一只靴子。在他的两脚之间，能看到一个砍下来的人头，脸颊上沾满了血。

“This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country. Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the American Army doesn’t have much to say. His previous cellmates have already spoken on his behalf,” says the fighter who speaks with a British accent, appeared in the previous beheading videos and has been nicknamed Jihadi John by the British news media. “You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. We said to you then that you are liars.”

“这是彼得·爱德华·卡西格，你们美国的公民。彼得曾服役于美国陆军，在伊拉克与穆斯林作战，他没有什么好说的。他以前的狱友已经替他求过情了，” 一名带英国口音的武装分子说。此人也曾出现在以前的斩首录像中，英国媒体给他起的绰号是“圣战约翰”(Jihadi John)。“你们声称四年前就已从伊拉克撤军。我们那时就对你们说过，你们是骗子。”

An Indianapolis native, Mr. Kassig turned to humanitarian work after a tour in Iraq in 2007, where he served as an Army Ranger. He was certified as an emergency medical technician, and in 2012, he returned to the battlefield — this time helping bandage the wounded in Tripoli, Lebanon. Later that year he moved to Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, where he founded a small aid group and initially used his savings to buy supplies, like diapers, which he distributed to the Syrian refugees who were flooding into Lebanon.

卡西格来自印第安纳波利斯，他2007年作为陆军游骑兵在伊拉克服役后，开始从事人道主义工作。他获得了急救医务人员的资格，并于2012年返回战场，这次是在黎巴嫩的黎波里为伤员包扎伤口。当年晚些时候，他搬到了黎巴嫩首都贝鲁特，并在那里组建了一个小型援助团队，最初还用自己的积蓄购买尿布等物资，然后将物资分发给大量涌入黎巴嫩的叙利亚难民。

In the summer of 2013, he relocated to Gaziantep, this city in southern Turkey roughly one hour from the Syrian border, and began making regular trips into Syria to offer medical care to the wounded. His friend Emma Beals, a freelance journalist, described in an article how Mr. Kassig helped care for a government sniper, despite the fact that the fighter had been taking shots at anyone who passed over the single bridge into the town.

2013年夏天，他搬到加齐安泰普，这个位于土耳其南部的城市距离叙利亚边境大概一小时车程。他开始定期前往叙利亚，为伤者提供医护。他的朋友、自由撰稿记者艾玛·比尔斯(Emma Beals)在一篇文章中讲述了卡西格照料一名政府军狙击手的过程，尽管此前不论谁经过唯一的一座桥进出城镇，这名枪手都会开枪。

When the sniper was himself injured, he was taken to the hospital where Mr. Kassig worked in the city of Deir al-Zour. The medical team worked silently to amputate the man’s leg, even though some of the doctors had lost family members to the sniper.

后来，这名狙击手自己受了伤，被送到卡西格在代尔祖尔(Deir al-Zour)工作的医院。医疗队安静地对这名男子进行了截肢，虽然有些医生的家人就死在这名狙击手枪下。

It was to this same town that Mr. Kassig was headed in an ambulance loaded with medical supplies when he was abducted on Oct. 1, 2013. He was transferred late last year to a prison beneath the basement of the Children’s Hospital in Aleppo, and then to a network of jails in Raqqa, the capital of the extremist group’s self-declared caliphate, where he became one of at least 23 Western hostages held by the group.

2013年10月1日，卡西格乘坐满载医疗物资的救护车前往这座城镇时，但却遭到了绑架。去年年底，他被转移到了阿勒颇儿童医院 (Children’s Hospital in Aleppo)的地下室改造成的监狱中，之后又被关押在拉卡市几个不同的监狱中，拉卡是该极端组织自行宣告成立的哈里发国的首都。他是被该极端组织绑架的至少23名西方人质之一。

His cellmates included two American journalists James Foley andSteven J. Sotloff, as well as the British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, who were beheaded in roughly two-week increments starting this August.

他的狱友包括两名美国记者詹姆斯·弗利(James Foley)和史蒂芬·J·索托洛夫(Steven J. Sotloff)，以及英国援助工作者戴维·海恩斯(David Haines)和艾伦·亨宁(Alan Henning)，他们从今年8月开始相继被斩首，时间大约相隔两周。

Each video appeared to be filmed in the same location, identified by analysts using geo-mapping as a hill outside the city of Raqqa. Each video was relatively short — under five minutes on average — and included a speech by the hostage, in which he is forced to accuse his government for alleged crimes against Muslims as the masked killer stands by holding the knife.

视频似乎都是在同一地点拍摄的，分析人士通过地理制图技术确认出，拍摄地点位于拉卡城外的一座山丘。视频都相对较短，平均不到五分钟，内容包括人质的讲话。蒙面的刽子手持刀站在人质身边，人质被迫谴责他所在国家的政府对穆斯林犯下的所谓罪行。

In contrast, Mr. Kassig’s death appears in the final two minutes of a nearly 16-minute video, which traces the history of the Islamic Statefrom its origins in Iraq as a unit under the control of Osama bin Laden to its modern-day incarnation in the region straddling Iraq and Syria.

相比之下，卡西格被杀的片段出现在视频的最后两分钟里。视频全长16分钟，大部分是追溯伊斯兰国的历史，从它一开始作为奥萨马·本·拉登(Osama bin Laden)控制下的一个伊拉克小组，到今日成为横跨伊拉克和叙利亚的实体组织的历程。

In one extended sequence, a mass beheading of captured Syrian soldiers is shown. Over the sound of Quranic chants, the handcuffed victims are shown being led out in a line, held by the scruffs of their necks. Each fighter is seen grabbing a knife from a bowl. Then the victims are forced to kneel. They are beheaded at the same moment.

有一段很长的镜头还显示了，大批被俘叙利亚士兵遭斩首的场面。视频显示，在念诵《古兰经》的声音中，带着手铐的受害者被揪着脖领拉过来排成一行。每一名作战人员都从一个大容器里抽出一把刀。然后，受害者被迫跪下。他们在同一时刻遭到斩首。

In the middle is Jihadi John. Just after killing his victim, he looks up. Through the slits in his black mask, the viewer can see his eyes. Defiantly, he stares at the camera.

站在中间的是那个被称为“圣战约翰”的男子。就在杀死面前的受害者之后，他把头抬了起来。通过他黑色面罩上的缝隙，观众可以看到他的眼睛。他用挑衅的目光直视着摄像机。

The footage of Mr. Kassig’s head is markedly less professional and comes at the tail end of this footage, as if to force viewers to watch thescenes that come before, said a terrorism expert, Jean-Charles Brisard, whose study on Bin Laden was published by the French National Assembly.

反恐专家让-夏尔·布里萨尔(Jean-Charles Brisard)表示，卡西格被斩首的镜头明显不怎么专业，出现在视频最后部分，仿佛是要迫使观众看完此前的场景。法国国民议会(National Assembly)出版了布里萨尔有关本·拉登的研究报告。

“This is why I am pretty sure that the real focus is not on Peter Kassig,” Mr. Brisard said, but on the mass killing of Syrian soldiers and the statements on the genesis of the group.

布里萨尔说，“因此，我十分确定真正的重点不是彼得·卡西格，”而是为了展示大批叙利亚士兵被杀的场面，以及讲述该组织的发展历程。

“Obviously there was something that happened during the filming” of the Kassig execution, Mr. Brisard said, adding, “We know that the past executions were filmed from multiple perspectives, so perhaps something happened here that prevented them from doing so.”

布里萨尔说，“在拍摄卡西格被斩首的过程中，明显发生了一些事情。”他还表示，“我们知道以前的斩首视频都是从多个角度拍摄的，或许当时发生了一些事情，使得他们没办法这样做。”

Mr. Brisard said that it is possible that Mr. Kassig resisted, and tried to oppose his executioner, which would have made the filming impossible. It could also suggest that the group is on the move and unable to carry out the same open-air scenario as it did in Raqqa.

布里萨尔表示，卡西格可能进行了反抗，试图与刽子手对抗，使得他们无法拍摄视频。这也可能说明，该组织正在逃亡，无法像在拉卡一样，在同样的露天场所实施斩首。

The executioner states that the killing is taking place in Dabiq, a village in Aleppo Province, which has symbolic significance because it is mentioned in Islamic scripture as the place where an epic battle occurred between Muslims and infidels.

刽子手称，斩首地点是阿勒颇省的达比克(Dabiq)。这个村庄具有象征意义，因为伊斯兰教经文中提到了这个地方，称穆斯林与异教徒曾在这里开展了史诗般的战斗。

The killer ends by saying, “Here we are burying the first American Crusader in Dabiq – eagerly waiting for the rest of your armies to arrive.”

刽子手最后说道，“我们要在达比克埋葬第一名美国十字军士兵，我们急切地等待其他美国士兵的到来。”

Former hostages held alongside Mr. Kassig described how he worried that his past as an Iraq war veteran might doom him. His record of service was quickly discovered by their extremist captors, who forced the hostages to hand over the passwords to their email and social media accounts, then scanned their emails, Facebook timelines and private chats for evidence of collusion with foreign governments.

与卡西格曾一同被关押的前人质表示，卡西格说过，担心自己参加伊拉克战争的经历会招致灾祸。该极端组织的绑匪很快发现了他服役的记录。他们迫使人质交出邮箱和社交网站账号的密码，然后查阅人质的电子邮件、Facebook时间轴，以及私人聊天记录，从而寻找他们与外国政府勾结的证据。

“One day, the guards burst in, and they said: ‘Peter?'◡ ◡" recalled one of Mr. Kassig’s cellmates, who was released for ransom this year. “He said, ‘Yes, sir.’ And then the guard said, ‘Are you a soldier?'◡ ◡“

“有一天，看守破门而入，他们喊道：‘彼得?’”一名因为缴纳了赎金于今年获释的前人质回忆道，“他回答说，‘是，先生。’然后看守问道，‘你是军人?’”

There was a pause. And then Mr. Kassig answered, “Yes, sir,” said the former hostage, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss a sensitive matter.

那位前人质透露，片刻的沉默后，卡西格回答说，“是的，先生。”由于讨论的是敏感事件，这名人质跟其他人一样，要求匿名。

In the months leading up to his death, Mr. Kassig seemed to know the end was near.

在死前的几个月，卡西格似乎感觉到末日即将来临。