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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&ncid=2181&e=3&u=/nm/20050216/us_nm/security_usa_dc_7
U.S. Sees Threats from Terror, Iran and North Korea
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States faces a range of threats from North Korean and Iranian missiles to a Sept. 11-scale attack by Islamist militants, inspired by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and hardened by their experience in Iraq (news - web sites), top U.S. intelligence officials warned on Wednesday.
In his first public appearance as U.S. spymaster, CIA (news - web sites) Director Porter Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence there was an emerging terrorist threat from experienced fighters now battling U.S.-led forces in Iraq later joining international militants.
"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks," Goss said.
"The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists," he said.
Appearing on Capitol Hill to give lawmakers the CIA's annual threat assessment, Goss said U.S. authorities and their allies had dealt "serious blows" to the al Qaeda network blamed for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
"Despite these successes, however, the terrorist threat to the U.S. in the homeland and abroad endures," Goss said in an assessment that differed little from the previous year's report.
Goss, a long-time intelligence officer and former chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, took over the CIA last year with a mandate to reform the premier U.S. spy agency after huge lapses in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2003 Iraqi invasion.
His predecessor, George Tenet, resigned amid widespread criticism over flawed intelligence.
Goss was one of several top intelligence officials to appear before the Senate committee, which recently decided to subject U.S. intelligence on Iran, North Korea (news - web sites) and other potential hot spots to new scrutiny in hopes of avoiding the mistakes committed before the war on Iraq.
FBI (news - web sites) Director Robert Mueller told the panel that al Qaeda remained intent on attacking the United States, most likely by using low-technology methods of the kind employed in 2001 when terrorists killed about 3,000 people after hijacking commercial airliners with box-cutters.
But both Goss and Mueller said they were concerned that al Qaeda or other militants were seeking chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Goss said "it may only be a matter of time" before militant groups try to use such arms.
THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA, IRAN
In addition to terrorist groups, Goss also pointed to threats posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea and an Islamic regime in Iran that U.S. officials fear is seeking nuclear weapons.
A week after Pyongyang for the first time said explicitly it has nuclear weapons, Goss underscored North Korea's ability to field effective long-range missiles.
"We assess the TD-2 is capable of reaching the United States with a nuclear weapon-sized payload," he told the senators in reference to a North Korean missile.
He noted that Iran was also pursuing long-range ballistic missiles at a time when the Islamic Republic refuses to give up its ability to produce enriched uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons development.
"We are more concerned about the dual-use nature of the (nuclear) technology," Goss said.
U.S. officials charge that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program -- a charge Tehran denies.
Goss also said Iran was "supporting some anti-coalition activities in Iraq" and could encourage more attacks against Israel through Hizbollah in hopes of derailing progress toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
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