Pakistani President Downplays Threats Against His Life

Stephanie Ho

Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, is downplaying concerns about his safety, saying he is not losing any sleep over recent terrorist threats against his life.

President Musharraf says he is not worried about threats against him, which were made last week in a tape said to be the voice of al Qaida's number-two leader, Ayman al Zawahiri. The Pakistani leader's comments were featured in an interview broadcast by ABC television. "For heaven's sake, just one tape. Let us not be excited. Just one tape, which we can - even if he is alone, with Osama [bin 1 Laden 2], somewhere in the mountain, he can make that tape and issue it, and we get excited and worried. What is the worry? They can never take over," he said.

He added that he is confident he, personally, has nothing to fear. "I do not have any sleepless 3 nights, by the way. I am very comfortable. We will handle the situation, and I am very sure nothing will happen," he said.

President Musharraf survived two assassination 4 attempts in December. He says there are still al Qaida remnants in the South Waziristan tribal 5 region, but that he would like to eliminate all of them. Pakistani government troops launched a military offensive there nearly two weeks ago. More than 50 suspected terrorists and a significant number of Pakistan troops have died in the clashes.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani leader added that, as a Muslim, he is offended that al Qaida terrorism network leader Osama bin Laden would invoke 6 Islam.

"We are all Muslims here. And he is just, for nothing, misusing 7 the name of Islam, bringing a bad name to the religion," he said.

President Musharraf also repeated denials that the Pakistani government or military were involved in a recently-discovered nuclear proliferation network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan. Before the network was broken up earlier this year, it sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

注释:
Pakistan [7pB:kis5tB:n] n. 巴基斯坦，亚洲南部的一个国家，，伊斯兰马巴德是首都，卡拉奇是最大的城市。
downplay [`daJnpleI] vt. 不予重视
al Qaida  基地组织
feature [5fi:tFE] vt. 放映
ABC [5eibi:5si:] abbr. 全称为American Broadcasting Company，美国广播公司
for one's sake 看在……的份上
tape [teip] n. 录音带
assassination [E7sAsi5neiFEn] n. 暗杀
Waziristan [wE9zIErI5stB:n] 瓦齐里斯坦，巴基斯坦西北部山区，靠阿富汗边界，被分成北瓦齐里斯坦和南瓦齐里斯坦。
tribal [5traibEl] adj. 部落的，种族的
Pakistani [7pB:kis5tB:ni] adj. 巴基斯坦的
Muslim [5muzlim] n. 伊斯兰教徒
invoke [in5vEuk] v. 调用
Islam [5izlB:m] n. <总称> 伊斯兰信徒
nuclear proliferation  核扩散
Libya [5libiE] n. 利比亚，北非的一个国家，位于地中海沿岸。
Iran [i5rB:n] n. 伊朗，斯亚洲西南部国家，德黑兰是首都和最大的城市。
North Korea 朝鲜，朝鲜半岛上的东北亚国家，平壤为其首都和最大城市。