经济学人24:美国的一位财富追求者,诈骗犯“杰克”艾德马

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　　讣告；乔纳森·凯因斯·“杰克”艾德马

　　Jonathan Keith “Jack” Idema, American fortune hunter and confidence trickster, died on January 21st, aged³ 55；

　　乔纳森·凯因斯·“杰克”艾德马，美国的一位财富追求者、诈骗犯，1月21日去世，终年55岁。

　　Nobody who met Jonathan Keith “Jack” Idema could doubt his self- belief. It hit you as forcefully as his rocky good looks, his patriotism⁴ and his prickliness. But who was the self he believed in?

　　见过乔纳森·凯因斯·“杰克”艾德马的人都会对他的自我信仰表示怀疑，这种怀疑与他粗犷的外形、爱国的激情、桀骜不驯的性格一样，都给人留下深刻印象。但他信仰的这个“自我”会是谁呢？

　　Was it Jonathan, the rather spoilt single child from Poughkeepsie, fond of fast cars and prone⁵ to collecting speeding tickets, who was inspired by John Wayne in “The Green Berets” to join the American special forces? Was it Keith, the ex-soldier who went into business selling paintball equipment and then military clothing, before being convicted of defrauding⁶ 59 companies and sentenced to six years in prison? Was it Jack, the tough guy who rocked out to Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11th attacks to do humanitarian⁷ stuff, capture Osama bin⁸ Laden⁹ and work undercover, he said, for the Pentagon? Or was it Black Jack, the swashbuckling captain of a tour boat in Mexico who, before he succumbed¹⁰ to AIDS, saw himself as Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean”, flew a pirate flag from a minaret¹¹, held constant orgies and liked to play the score of “Apocalypse Now” and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”?

　　是乔纳森吗？他出生于纽约的波基普西，是家中独子，自幼得到父母娇宠。他喜欢飙车，常常收到超速罚单，受约翰·韦恩主演的《绿色贝蕾帽》的启发参加了美国特种部队。是凯因斯吗？这位退役士兵，销售过彩弹设备，倒卖过军用服装，后因诈骗59家公司被判六年监禁。是杰克吗？这个残暴的家伙2001年9·11之后惊现阿富汗，从事人道主义工作，自称为俘获本拉登，并为五角大楼从事间谍活动。或者是布莱克·杰克，墨西哥一条游船上那位神气活现的船长，被艾滋病击倒之前，自诩自己是《加勒比海盗》中的杰克·斯派罗，常在塔尖上悬挂一面海盗旗帜，生活放荡不羁，喜欢演奏《现代启示录》以及路易斯·阿姆斯特朗的《世界无限美好》。

　　No doubt it was all these selves, and others too, for Mr Idema was a man of many parts, and his lack of self-doubt helped him both to ignore setbacks and to gain the confidence of those who should have seen through him. The real and the imaginary were as one to him, just as right and wrong were. And he moved in a world peopled by others with as many fantasies, as few scruples¹² and plenty of motives¹³ for inventing tall stories.

　　无疑，他的这个“自我”囊括了所有这些人，当然还有其他人，艾德马先生具有多面人格，他缺乏自我怀疑的能力，这使他无法反省，却使他能从那些不愿点破他的人那里获得自信。他分不清真实与想像，他将正确与错误混为一潭。他带着无限幻想进入到一个由他人组成的光怪陆离的世界，他百无禁忌，一心想着惊天动地。

　　Some of the stories made Mr Idema seem almost lovably heroic. He preserved genetic¹⁴ material from his dog, for example, so that he could later be cloned. Sarge was, after all, no ordinary dog but a Tibetan shepherd that would jump out of aircraft with his soldier master and help sniff¹⁵ out bombs (when not scuba¹⁶ diving). Other tales cast Mr Idema in a more Bond-like guise¹⁷. Thus in 1991 he told the FBI that among the detritus¹⁸ of the Soviet¹⁹ Union he had discovered a Russian mafia gang bent²⁰ on smuggling²¹ suitcase-sized nuclear weapons out of Lithuania; no details could be revealed, though, because the FBI was riddled²² with KGB agents.

　　他的一些故事“英雄”得可爱，比如，他把他的狗的基因物质保存下来，为的是以后要克隆它，毕竟“沙吉”不是普通的狗，而是一只可与它的兵主人一起跳伞的西藏牧羊犬，并能嗅出炸弹（当不要水肺潜水时）。其他故事为艾德马蒙上一个更加Bond式的假相。因此，1991年，他告诉FBI在苏联的加盟共和国中，他发现一个俄罗斯黑社会组织决定把一个文件箱大小的核武器带出立陶宛。但细节不可能披露，因为FBI满是克格勃特工。

　　He could be a victim, too. Was he not the object of a vendetta²³ by the FBI? And had his story not been stolen by Steven Spielberg for George Clooney in “The Peacemaker”? He sued Mr Spielberg, and others who had crossed him: journalists, an aid worker, a colonel, even his father.

　　他也许还是一个受害者。他不是FBI仇视的对象吗？他的故事不是被斯皮尔博格窃取并塑造成为《和平制造者》中的乔治·克鲁尼吗？他起诉斯皮尔博格以及其他反对他的人：多名记者，一位救援人员，一位上校，甚至他的父亲。

　　Then there was his discovery of an al-Qaeda plot to kill Bill Clinton at a summit in Malaysia (the president wisely stayed away) and two other planned assassinations²⁴ in Afghanistan. He claimed, too, to have fought with the Northern Alliance, America’s anti-Taliban allies in Operation Enduring Freedom. He had also secured a video of al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists undergoing training, which he sold to CBS and several other broadcasters.

　　后来，他发现基地组织企图在马来西亚的一个峰会上刺杀克林顿的密谋（总统聪明地躲过了），他还发现了阿富汗的其他的两个案杀阴谋。另外，他宣称在“持久自由行动”中他与美国反塔利班联盟“北方阵线”进行过斗争。他保护了一个基地组织以及塔利班恐怖分子接受训练的视频，他将这些视频卖给了CBS以及其他几个电台。

　　Oh, what a lovely war

　　噢，多么可爱的一场战争

　　Journalists were not alone in being conned²⁵ by Mr Idema, especially after he formed Task Force Sabre 7, a freelance group of American and Afghan vigilantes-cum-fortune-hunters who operated with impunity²⁶ for a while after the Americans had ousted²⁷ the Taliban in 2001. Afghanistan at this time was an adventure playground for thuggish American ex-servicemen employed or masquerading as security guards. They hung around the Mustafa hotel, wearing wraparound sunglasses and camouflage²⁸ fatigues²⁹, drove about in big Toyotas and carried a small arsenal³⁰ of weapons. They were not so much the dogs of war as the coyotes, dingoes and hyenas³¹. Mr Idema was one of them.

　　被艾德马欺骗的并非只有记者，特别是他组建“重剑7号特遣队”之后，这个由美国人和阿富汗人组成的自由职业者组织，负责维持当地秩序并借机敛财。2001年，美国人赶走了塔利班，有一个短暂的时期，这个组织得以逍遥法外。这时的阿富汗成为冒险家的乐园，一些残忍的美国退伍军人应征或假装成保安人员，他们在穆斯塔法酒店前游荡，戴着封闭式的太阳镜，穿着宽大的迷彩服。开着大丰田、携带着武器横冲直撞。与其说他们是战争烈犬，不如说他们是一群虎豹豺狼。艾德马就是这样的人。

　　Some of these people operated with the complicity of the American authorities, who had contracted out so many of the tasks once performed by soldiers. No wonder that on three occasions in 2004 Mr Idema found it easy to con² the NATO force into providing him with support for raids on compounds. He even conned the Americans into taking into custody³² a captured Afghan alleged³³ to be a Taliban loyalist. He was nothing of the kind.

　　他们中有些人便与美国当局串通，因为美国当局把很多原来由士兵执行的任务进行外包。难怪2004年，艾德马先生三次发现，欺骗北约军队支持他袭击一些地方并非难事。他甚至诱使美国人将一名据说是忠诚于塔利班的阿富汗俘虏投进监狱，实际上根本就不是那么回事。

　　Far more serious was the private prison run by Mr Idema and his friends. When it was discovered, complete with torture chamber³⁴ and eight captives, bound and hooded³⁵, some hanging by their feet, the Afghans said Mr Idema was trying to extract information that would lead to bounties³⁶. He said it had all been okayed by the Pentagon, even by Donald Rumsfeld. But he was tried nonetheless and given ten years. After three, spent in extraordinarily³⁷ comfortable conditions in the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi jail, he was inexplicably³⁸ pardoned by President Hamid Karzai.

　　更为严重的是艾德马和他的朋友设立私人监狱。与此一起曝光的还有他的酷刑室， 8个俘虏，手脚被绑，套上头罩，一些人倒悬室内。阿富汗人说艾德马刑讯逼供，是为了领取赏金。他说他的行为得到了五角大楼的同意，甚至是拉姆斯菲尔德的首肯。但他却受到了审判，被判刑十年。在臭名昭著的Pul-e-Charkhi监狱度过三年异常舒坦的日子，卡尔扎伊莫名其妙地赦免了他。

　　By this time, though, Mr Idema was beginning to look less plausible³⁹, his luck less inexhaustible. His loyal wife, Viktoria Runningwolf, had been abandoned, along with the Ultimate Pet Resort that he had helped her set up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. And his past, including 36 arrests (though no convictions) in the 1980s and 1990s, had come to light. He was still wanted in North Carolina for impersonating a policeman and, despite claims to “superblood”, he was to contract AIDS. His life ended in a haze⁴⁰ of vodka and cocaine⁴¹, the self-belief perhaps slightly dented⁴², the self-delusion as strong as ever.

　　虽然现在艾德马看起来越来越不可信，他的好运渐渐走到尽头。他忠实的妻子Viktoria Runningwolf，以及艾德马为她在北卡州法伊特维尔建造的“终极宠物圣地”都曾被他抛弃。他的过去，包括上世纪80和90年代他曾36次被拘（尽管没有判罪），也已大白于天下。他因在北卡州冒充警察依然在通缉之中。虽然宣称他身上流淌着“超级血液”，他还是感染上了艾滋病。他在伏特加和可卡因作用下结束生命，他的自我信仰也许减少了一点，但自我幻觉依然坚强如往。

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