The saga of Clinton scandals still has twists and turns to take
希拉里电邮门丑闻并未画上句号
广州邮件翻译公司：夏皮罗：电邮门丑闻并未结束，因为丑闻细节并不重要，重要的是它被不断炒热以强化希拉里不值得信任的说法。
The announcement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and James Comey, its director, that Hillary Clinton will not face prosecution over her use of email represents an important inflection point in this Clinton scandal. But it is not the end.
美国联邦调查局(FBI)及其局长詹姆斯•科米(James Comey)宣布，希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)不会因电子邮件的使用问题面临起诉。这是希拉里邮件门丑闻的重要转折点，但并不是终点。广州邮件翻译公司。
How do we know that? Because Clinton scandals never end. They continue long after their purported original sin is forgotten and multiple investigations prove that there was nothing much there to begin with. We are still talking about the Vince Foster scandal, the allegation that the Clintons murdered their aide in 1993. That scandal is now into a third decade of groundless innuendo.
为什么这么说？原因是希拉里的丑闻永远不会结束。即使是最初导致丑闻的所谓过错被遗忘，多起调查证明原本就不存在什么过错，丑闻也会在很久之后继续流传。我们现在还在谈论文斯•福斯特(Vince Foster)丑闻，谈论所谓克林顿夫妇在1993年谋杀了这名助手的说法——这一缺乏根据的丑闻如今已经流传了二十多年。广州邮件翻译公司。
The email inquiry is a perfect example of this scandal-industrial complex and its capacity for perpetual motion. It began with investigations into the 2012 terrorist attack on the
有关电邮门的调查，是这种丑闻制造机及其永动能力的完美例证。该调查始于对2012年班加西(Benghazi)美国领馆遭恐怖袭击的调查。这些调查并未发现希拉里的任何不当行为，然而在调查过程中却发现了一个广为人知的秘密：希拉里用个人邮件服务器处理公事。
So the investigation pivoted to that. But the idea that Mrs Clinton was evading the Federal Records Act proved too unsexy for mass consumption. So the investigation pivoted again.
于是，调查就转向了这个问题。然而，事实证明，认为希拉里违反了《联邦档案法》(Federal Records Act)的想法，对普罗大众来说太无聊了。因此，调查的重心又转变了。广州邮件翻译公司。
The next phase focused on the idea that information that should have been classified (but was not) was found in some of the emails. This is a different issue than the personal email server. Classified information is just as problematic on an unclassified government system as on a personal server. Indeed, given the security problems of the State Department’s unclassified system, external servers may be more secure.
调查的下一阶段关注的是，部分邮件中发现了本应保密（却没有保密）的情报。这是个完全不同于个人邮件服务器的问题。无论是在未保密的政府系统上，还是在个人服务器上，保密情报都同样成问题。事实上，考虑到美国国务院(State Department)未保密系统的安全问题，外部服务器也许反倒更安全一些。
That pivot also did not pan out. The offence proved unworthy of prosecution, as nearly everyone expected. The reason is simple: practically every government official with a security clearance has committed it. The rampant over-classification of information, the fast pace of high-level government work and the inadequacy of government information systems mean that nearly everyone is guilty of accidentally putting classified information into unclassified systems.
这次调查重心的转移同样没什么结果。正如差不多所有人预料的那样，相关过错被证明不值得提起诉讼。原因很简单：每位具备相应安全级别的政府官员实际上都犯过这种错。对情报密级的大肆高标、高层政府工作的快节奏、以及政府情报体制的不足，意味着几乎每个人都曾犯过偶尔将保密情报放到非保密系统上的错误。广州邮件翻译公司。
Basically, any trove of thousands of emails from a senior official would probably contain classified information. It turns out that, to federal government, classified information is classified by its very nature whether or not anybody recognises or labels it as such. This requirement is not relaxed even if the information has appeared in a newspaper, as is reportedly the case for some Clinton emails. In practice, this means it is hard for officials to understand what is classified and what is not. As a former official told the New York Times: “If you’re assistant secretary or above, it’s hard to burp without someone thinking it’s classified.”
基本上，任何来自高级别官员的海量电子邮件存档中，或许都会包含保密情报。事实证明，对联邦政府来说，保密情报的保密属性是由是否有什么人将其认定或标记为保密情报决定的。即使该情报已经出现在报纸上（据报道希拉里的一些邮件就属于这种情况），这种要求也不会放宽。实际上，这意味着官员们很难理解哪些情报是保密的，哪些不是。正如一位前官员告诉《纽约时报》(New York Times)的：“如果你的官衔达到或超过助理国务卿的级别，你就是打个嗝，也总会有人认为这事该保密。”
This type of negligence is technically illegal but so is speeding. If we jailed everyone for it, prisons would be very full and government would be very empty.
这种疏忽严格说来是违法的，不过它和超速是类似的问题。如果我们把每一个触犯了这一条的人关进监狱，监狱将人满为患，政府里将空空荡荡。广州邮件翻译公司。
None of this matters, however, and the Clinton scandal complex will pivot again. Based on Mr Comey’s press conference, it will probably focus on the idea Mrs Clinton was reckless with the security of the US, even if no harm can be demonstrated.
不过，所有这一切都无关紧要，希拉里丑闻制造机将再次转移重心。根据科米的新闻发布会，新的重心也许将是希拉里对美国国家安全疏忽大意——尽管无法证明这造成了任何损失。
Details do not matter. What does is that the constant drumbeat of scandal continues to feed the broader narrative that Mrs Clinton is untrustworthy.
细节不重要。重要的是持续不断地炒热丑闻，从而不断强化一个泛泛的说法，即希拉里不值得信任。
After more than 25 years of this, it has had an effect: people do associate Mrs Clinton with corruption. Clearly, she has made mistakes and committed some transgressions. But given her long public career and the scandal-industrial complex that has dogged her, what is remarkable is how little has turned up.
上述做法在逾25年的坚持后收到了成效：人们的确将希拉里与腐败联系到了一起。很明显，她犯了错，有过某些越界行为。然而，考虑到她公务生涯之漫长和一直对她紧追不舍的丑闻制造机，真正令人吃惊的是被挖掘出来的丑闻材料之少。广州邮件翻译公司。
The email scandal is a good example: she made mistakes but did nothing scandalous enough to concern voters. It will be hard to hear that message amid the din of meaningless accusations.
电邮门丑闻就是个很好的例子：她犯了错，但没有犯任何值得让选民担忧的错——这一讯息很容易被淹没在莫名指控的嘈杂声响中。
The writer is research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former official in the US state department。
本文作者是欧洲对外关系委员会(European Council on Foreign Relations)研究主任，曾在美国国务院任职。
