F.B.I. to Help Russia Investigate Plane Crash in Egypt
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. has agreed to help the Russian government with its investigation into the deadly crash of a Russian charter plane in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, senior American officials said on Saturday.

Some American officials said that the Russians want help doing a forensic analysis to determine what brought down the Airbus A321-200, while other officials said that the request from the Russians was more general. Although most of the debris is scattered over nearly eight square miles in the desert, some parts of the plane were taken to Russia for analysis.

It is rare for the Russians to make such a request, which was first reported on Friday by CBS News, and some American officials interpreted it as a sign of the challenges facing investigators.

Moreover, although the F.B.I. and its Russian counterpart, the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., often work together on terrorism issues when they see a common enemy — in Muslim extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, for example — American-Russian relations are at one of their lowest points since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In this case, Russia’s reaching out to the Americans could serve geopolitical interests. The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, has been trying to leverage the issue of terrorism, and the global threat it represents, to end the isolation and sanctions imposed by the West over the Ukraine crisis. His military intervention in Syria, while addressing a potential problem for Russia given the more than 5,000 Russians estimated to be fighting there with Islamic State militants, was also seen as an attempt to be accepted as a global partner in tackling terrorism.

While it is possible that Russia needs the F.B.I.’s experience to help solve the mystery of the crash, the Kremlin may have seen the cooperation as another opportunity to be engaged as a partner.

In Cairo on Saturday, the head of the Egyptian-led committee looking into the crash said investigators were focusing on a sound heard in the last second of a 23-minute cockpit voice recording. But he insisted that it was still premature to consider any specific explanations.

At a news conference, Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the committee, confirmed previously reported data about the Oct. 31 crash, which killed all 224 aboard, and said 58 investigators and technical advisers from Egypt, France, Russia, Ireland and Germany were working on the inquiry.

He did not elaborate on the sound on the recording and emphasized that all possibilities were being considered. When asked specifically what was being looked at, Mr. Muqaddam listed as possibilities a lithium battery explosion in a passenger’s luggage, a fuel tank explosion, fuselage fatigue or “the explosion of anything.”

“We can say that an in-flight breakup took place,” Mr. Muqaddam said. “Saying more than this would be entering the space of inference.”

He said nothing about the theory that a terrorist bomb brought down the plane, an explanation that has been endorsed by Britain and that President Obama has said he is taking “very seriously.” A branch of the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash.

The plane, flown by the Russian airline Metrojet, was on its way to Moscow from the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheikh when it disappeared from radar screens around 30,000 feet. Egypt, which is highly dependent on the money tourists bring to Sharm el Sheikh, has dismissed suggestions that a bomb exploded on the plane.

In an apparent reference to the bomb theory, Mr. Muqaddam said that some news media reports “claimed to be based on official intelligence that favors a certain scenario for the cause of the accident,” and that Egypt had not been provided with that information. After fielding two questions, he left hurriedly, saying, “Please, people are waiting for me!”

俄空難 99.9%確定「機上有炸彈」

CNN 8日報導，美國官員百分之99.9%確定，上月31日在埃及西奈半島失事的俄國客機，是因為飛機上的炸彈爆炸墜毀。路透也報導，埃及調查小組的一名成員說，第二具黑盒子在失事前幾秒收錄到的雜音，「90%」確定是炸彈爆炸。之前埃及官員僅承認是爆炸，但不確定是否為炸彈爆炸。

美國情報單位、軍方和國家安全的幾位資深官員對CNN說，他們愈來愈相信飛機上有恐怖分子的炸彈。一名官員說，「99.9%」確定有炸彈。

這些說法比美國總統歐巴馬本月5日說法又更確定，歐巴馬當時說，飛機上「可能」有炸彈。

美國官員說，客機墜機後，美國和英國情報單位攔截到「伊斯蘭國」（IS）在西奈半島的分支「西奈省」分子的通訊。該組織公開宣稱犯案，但未說明用什麼方式。

美國官員說，美英情報單位正在分析截聽到的「西奈省」分子談話中的特定用語，判定他們是否在談論使用的炸彈和引信的種類。

幾位官員說，由於談話內容很具體，因此美英情報單位認為機上很可能有炸彈。

不過，由於美國和英國都未直接介入調查，無法拼湊出謎團的全貌。美國官員說，美國、埃及和俄國正在協商讓美國聯邦調查局（FBI）的專家，特別是炸彈專家協助調查。

目前參與調查的專家來自埃及、俄國、法國、德國和愛爾蘭，都是與這起空難有關的國家。

紐約時報報導，俄國當局罕見地要求FBI協助調查。俄方要求FBI協助分析墜機的鑑識證據，以找出失事原因。FBI和俄國的聯邦安全局經常在打擊凱達組織和IS方面合作，但俄方要求協助調查飛機失事原因很罕見。

俄國當局八日表示過去廿四小時已從埃及接回一萬一千名俄國觀光客，共七萬多名觀光客等待政府接回國。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/world/middleeast/russian-plane-crash-egypt.html

Video：A week after the crash of a Russian charter flight in the Sinai Peninsula, the government of Egypt is finding itself increasingly isolated in resisting the idea of a terrorist attack on the plane.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000004024849/the-bomb-question.html

2015-11-09．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯田思怡