Negroponte: Al-Qaida biggest terror threat (AP) Updated: 2006-02-03 09:49
"I'm sorry to tell you that the damage has been very severe to our
capabilities to carry out our mission," Goss said. "It is my aim, and it is my
hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present
being asked to reveal who is leaking this information."
Senior Bush administration officials elsewhere Thursday stressed the terror
threat. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the risks could be greater now
because the weapons available are more dangerous.
"Because (terrorists) lurk in shadows, without visible armies, and are
willing to wait long periods between attacks, there is a tendency to
underestimate the threat they pose," Rumsfeld said at the National Press Club.
At the hearing, Negroponte said more than 40 terrorist groups, insurgencies
or cults have obtained or pursued chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
He said the "battered but resourceful" al-Qaida organization remains a top
concern, particularly with its added reach and appeal through its merger with
terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's operations in Iraq.
Negroponte, the former U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, stressed the importance of
Iraq on the global jihad.
If jihadists there thwart Iraq's attempts to set up a stable government, he
said, "they could secure an operational base in Iraq and inspire sympathizers
elsewhere to move beyond rhetoric to attempt attacks" around the world,
including the United States.
On Iran, Negroponte said leaders there seek a Shiite-dominated government in
Iraq and are providing support to certain Iraqi Shiite political and military
groups. He blamed Tehran for "at least some" of the increasing lethality of
attacks by providing Shiite militants with increasingly sophisticated improvised
explosive devices.
Yet "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has
been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack
it," Negroponte said.
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