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[q]U.S. Officials Warn of Greater Terror Threat
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — Top American intelligence and military officials said today that the threat of terror attacks against American interests might be greater than ever, despite progress against Al Qaeda and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because terror groups have become more diffuse and are aggressively seeking more lethal weapons.
They also complained to senators that the disclosure of once-classified programs like the warrantless surveillance program conducted since 2001 by the National Security Agency had severely undermined their work.
John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that despite "notable successes against the global jihadist threat" — many of them at the hands of the United States' allies — there had been an "exponential increase" in the numbers of targets being tracked by American intelligence agencies, from terrorist groups to drug traffickers.
Mr. Negroponte said that while "we have eliminated much of the leadership that presided over Al Qaeda in 2001," there were other factors of concern.
Fragmentation of terror groups, both through pressure on longer-standing groups like Al Qaeda and the copycat generation of new groups, had led to "the emergence of a decentralized and diffused movement with minimal centralized guidance or control," like those that had attacked in Casablanca, Madrid and London, Mr. Negroponte said. "They are harder to spot."
Both Al Qaeda and dozens of what he dubbed its "self-generating progeny" remained interested in acquiring chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, he said, adding that it was now more likely that a terror group might use weapons of mass destruction than that a state might do so.
That view was reinforced in a speech today by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "The enemy — while weakened and under pressure — is still capable of global reach, and still possesses the determination to kill more Americans — and to do so with the world's most dangerous weapons," Mr. Rumsfeld said in remarks prepared for delivery at the National Press Club.
"There is a tendency to underestimate the threat they pose," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/i...&en=822c59d9e39b3243&ei=5094&partner=homepage
[/q]
[q]U.S. Officials Warn of Greater Terror Threat
By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — Top American intelligence and military officials said today that the threat of terror attacks against American interests might be greater than ever, despite progress against Al Qaeda and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because terror groups have become more diffuse and are aggressively seeking more lethal weapons.
They also complained to senators that the disclosure of once-classified programs like the warrantless surveillance program conducted since 2001 by the National Security Agency had severely undermined their work.
John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that despite "notable successes against the global jihadist threat" — many of them at the hands of the United States' allies — there had been an "exponential increase" in the numbers of targets being tracked by American intelligence agencies, from terrorist groups to drug traffickers.
Mr. Negroponte said that while "we have eliminated much of the leadership that presided over Al Qaeda in 2001," there were other factors of concern.
Fragmentation of terror groups, both through pressure on longer-standing groups like Al Qaeda and the copycat generation of new groups, had led to "the emergence of a decentralized and diffused movement with minimal centralized guidance or control," like those that had attacked in Casablanca, Madrid and London, Mr. Negroponte said. "They are harder to spot."
Both Al Qaeda and dozens of what he dubbed its "self-generating progeny" remained interested in acquiring chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, he said, adding that it was now more likely that a terror group might use weapons of mass destruction than that a state might do so.
That view was reinforced in a speech today by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "The enemy — while weakened and under pressure — is still capable of global reach, and still possesses the determination to kill more Americans — and to do so with the world's most dangerous weapons," Mr. Rumsfeld said in remarks prepared for delivery at the National Press Club.
"There is a tendency to underestimate the threat they pose," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/i...&en=822c59d9e39b3243&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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