Leaked emails suggest UK's Boris Johnson may have lied about evacuating animals before people from Afghanistan

泄露的电子邮件显示,英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊可能在优先从阿富汗撤离动物而不是人员一事上撒了谎



新闻:

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's credibility was once again thrown into doubt on Wednesday, after leaked emails appeared to contradict his claim of having no involvement in the evacuation of animals from a British charity in Afghanistan as the country fell to the Taliban and people were scrambling to find a way out.

在周三泄露的电子邮件似乎与自己“在阿富汗被塔利班占领、人们争相寻找撤离途径时,他本人没有参与英国慈善机构在阿富汗的动物撤离行动”的说法相矛盾之后,英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊的可信度又一次陷入疑问。

The release of emails by a cross-party parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs prompted claims that Britain's embattled leader had lied, at a time when he is already facing accusations of misleading Parliament over Covid-19 possibly rule-busting parties at Downing Street, which are now the subject of a police investigation.

英国议会一个跨党派外交事务委员会公布的电子邮件,引发了有关这位陷入困境的英国领导人撒谎的说法。目前,他已经面临关于唐宁街可能违反抗疫规定举办派对“误导议会”的指控——现在警方正在调查此事。。
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Suggestions that vital resources were used to rescue animals instead of people at Johnson's request have been circulating for months, after tweets on the issue from the UK Defense Secretary in August and then in written testimony from an ex-UK Foreign Office staffer, who detailed the UK's "dysfunctional" and "chaotic" evacuation effort. In December, the Prime Minister dismissed the allegation as "complete nonsense."

在今年8月,英国国防大臣就该问题发了推文,英国外交部一名前工作人员也发表了书面证词——他详细描述了英国“功能失调”和“混乱”的疏散工作之后,约翰逊要求“重要资源被用来拯救动物而不是人”的说法已经流传了好几个月。去年12月,首相驳斥了这一指控,称其“完全是无稽之谈”。

But emails published by Parliament on Wednesday, supplied by the whistleblower Raphael Marshall as evidence in an ongoing inquiry into the UK's messy Afghanistan exit, paint a different picture.

但英国议会周三公布的电子邮件却描绘了一幅不同的画面。这些邮件由举报人拉斐尔·马歇尔提供,作为正在进行的针对英国混乱的阿富汗撤军行动的调查的证据。

One email, sent by a Foreign Office official on August 25 at 12:20 p.m. local time, states that "The PM" had just "authorized" the evacuation of staff and animals from Nowzad, a charity run by former British Royal Marines Cmdr. Pen Farthing, while lobbying a colleague to help with evacuations for another animal charity.

一名外交部官员于当地时间8月25日下午12点20分发出的一封邮件称,“首相”刚刚“授权”从瑙扎德(一个由前英国皇家海军中校潘·法辛运营的慈善机构)撤离工作人员和动物,同时游说一位同事帮助另一家动物慈善机构进行疏散。
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"Equivalent charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated, are hoping to be treated in the same capacity," the email reads, referring to permission to leave outside the rules of immigration.

“由前皇家海军运营的相当于慈善机构的瑙扎德,已经得到了大量的宣传,首相刚刚授权他们的工作人员和动物被疏散,希望以同样的身份被对待,” 这封电子邮件提到了超越移民规则范围的离开许可。

A second email, sent between Foreign Office officials later that day, references the "PM's decision" to evacuate Nowzad staff, but doesn't mention animals.

当天晚些时候,外交部官员之间发送的第二封电子邮件提到了“首相的决定”,即撤离瑙扎德员工,但没有提到动物。

"In light of the PM's decision earlier today to evacuate the staff of the Nowzad animal charity, the [animal charity -- name redacted] (another animal rights NGO) is asking for agreement to the entry of [details redacted] staff, all Afghan nationals," it reads.

“鉴于首相今天早些时候决定撤离瑙扎德动物慈善机构的工作人员,另一个动物权利非政府组织(名称隐去)正在请求同意工作人员(细节隐去)入境,他们都是阿富汗人,”邮件中写道。

On its website, Nowzad confirms that its founder, Farthing, was rescued from Afghanistan with the organization's staff and their immediate families, along with 94 dogs and 68 cats. In a statement responding to the leaked emails, Nowzad said it had no insight into how the decision was made to evacuate their animals and it is "appalled to find ourselves at the centre of a political media debate on who did what and when" in relation to the evacuation. It said Farthing had also submitted evidence to the sext committee.

瑙扎德在其网站上证实,其创始人法辛与该组织的工作人员及其直系亲属以及94只狗和68只猫从阿富汗获救。在回应泄露邮件的一份声明中,瑙扎德表示,他们不清楚疏散动物的决定是如何做出的,而且“发现自己处于对谁在什么时候做了什么感到震惊的政治媒体辩论的中心”。它表示,法辛也向特别委员会提交了证据。

Downing Street has continued to deny that Johnson had any involvement in evacuating more than 150 animals, while evacuation requests from thousands of desperate Afghans went unfilled.

唐宁街继续否认约翰逊参与了150多只动物的撤离,而与此同时数千名绝望的阿富汗人的撤离请求没有得到满足。

"It remains the case that the PM didn't instruct officials on this case," a Downing Street press officer said Wednesday.

唐宁街一位新闻官员周三表示:“首相在这件事上没有指示官员,这一声明未变。”

The revelations mark the latest blow to Johnson, who is clinging to power despite drowning in scandals -- among them, being accused of lying to Parliament over his knowledge of gatherings held at Downing Street during lockdown.

这一爆料是对约翰逊的最新打击。尽管深陷丑闻,但约翰逊仍紧紧抓住权力不撒手——其中之一是,他被指控对议会撒谎,谎称自己对唐宁街封锁期间举行的派对不知情。

Opposition lawmaker John Healey tweeted Wednesday: "Once again, the PM has been caught out lying. He should never have given priority to flying animals out of Afghanistan while Afghans who worked for our forces were left behind."

反对党议员约翰·希利周三在推特上说:“首相再一次被发现在撒谎。他不应该优先将动物空运离开阿富汗,而把为我们军队工作的阿富汗人抛在身后。”

"We need to know why the PM overruled the Defense Secretary with this decision," Healey said.

希利说:“我们需要知道为什么首相否决了国防大臣的决定。”

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace had publicly said people must be prioritized when the military was in the midst of evacuating thousands at risk. But that changed suddenly on August 25, when Wallace announced on Twitter that they had been given the green light.

英国国防大臣本·华莱士曾公开表示,当军队正在疏散数千名处于危险中的人员与动物时,必须优先考虑人员。但这一切在8月25日突然发生了变化,华莱士在推特上宣布,他们获得了授权。

Once authorization was given, he tweeted "those most at risk" would continue to be processed first, adding, "no one has the right in this humanitarian crisis to jump the queue."

他在推特上说,一旦获得授权,“那些最危险的人”将继续首先被撤离,并补充说,“在这场人道主义危机中,没有谁有权利插队。”