02 February 2006
Negroponte Says Terrorism Tops U.S. List of Threats
Director of national intelligence testifies to Senate Intelligence Committee
By David Anthony Denny
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The director of U.S. national intelligence calls terrorism "the pre-eminent threat to our citizens, to our homeland and to our interests abroad."
Ambassador John Negroponte told a Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing February 2 that "the war on terror is our first priority and driving concern as we press ahead with a major transformation of the intelligence community." Negroponte was the main administration witness testifying about worldwide threats faced by the United States. Also present at the hearing were: Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss; Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller; General Michael Hayden, Negroponte's principal deputy; Defense Intelligence AgencyDirector Lieutenant General Michael Maples; Department Of Homeland Security Chief Intelligence Officer Charles Allen; and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State For Intelligence and Research Carol Rodley.
In an opening statement to the committee, Negroponte presented a general survey of threats to the United States as analyzed and evaluated by the U.S. Intelligence community. He commented on: global jihadists and the efforts to defeat them; the struggle in Iraq and Afghanistan against "insurgency, terror, and extremism”; Iran and North Korea in the context of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; political instability in various regions; and globalization, emerging powers and transnational challenges such as the geopolitics of energy, narco-trafficking and possible pandemics.
From his perspective as director of U.S. national intelligence, Negroponte said "the most dramatic change of all is the exponential increase in the number of targets we must identify, track and analyze." Analysts must pay attention not only to unfriendly national governments, he said, but also to "terrorist groups, proliferation networks, alienated communities, charismatic individuals, narcotraffickers and microscopic influenza."
These are issues that confront not only the United States, Negroponte continued, but also "responsible leaders everywhere. That is the true nature of the 21st century: accelerating change affecting and challenging us all."
At the top of the intelligence community's list of threats is al-Qaida, Negroponte said. Though much of its 2001 leadership has been eliminated and its cadres depleted, he said, "the organization's core elements still plot and make preparations for terrorist strikes against the homeland and other targets, from bases in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area." He added that al-Qaida has benefited from its merger with Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi's network in Iraq. That has, he said, "broadened al-Qaida's appeal within the jihadist community and potentially put new resources at its disposal."
Assessing the situation in Iraq, Negroponte said if Iraqis create a stable political and security situation, "the jihadists will be perceived to have failed and fewer jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere." If not, the jihadists "could secure an operational base in Iraq and inspire sympathizers elsewhere to move beyond rhetoric to attempt attacks against neighboring Middle Eastern nations, against Europe, and even the United States." (See Iraq Update.)
In the question-and-answer period that followed Negroponte's presentation, Committee Chairman Pat Roberts asked him to assess the intelligence community's current capabilities to collect and analyze information about terrorism and proliferation regarding Iran, North Korea and China.
"[W]e are working very, very hard on this question of penetrating the hard targets, and I'm satisfied that we're making progress," Negroponte replied.
Committee ranking minority member John D. Rockefeller IV asked Negroponte to corroborate statements the president and vice president had made about the legality of wiretaps without court orders and the much-publicized National Security Agency (NSA) program to intercept communications between persons in the United States and known or suspected al-Qaida members or affiliates outside the country.
Negroponte replied that the NSA program has been "effective and important … in dealing with the terrorist threat," and then asked his deputy, Hayden, to elaborate.
Hayden said the intelligence community had "learned information from this program that would not otherwise have been available," and that it has "helped detect and prevent terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad."
After the open hearing, the witnesses continued to meet with the committee in closed session.
Negroponte’s statement (PDF, 26 pages) to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is available on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Web site.
For additional information, see Response to Terrorism.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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