CIA Chief Calls bin Laden Biggest Threat to U.S. Security

by Robert Burns
The Associated Press
February 7, 2001


WASHINGTON - The biggest threat to U.S. national security is the Muslim extremist network of Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi who has declared holy war on America, CIA director George Tenet said Wednesday.

In a detailed assessment of global threats facing the United States, Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee that international terrorists are becoming more technologically sophisticated and difficult to combat.

"Osama bin Laden and his global network of lieutenants and associates remain the most immediate and serious threat," Tenet said. The director of central intelligence makes annual public presentations to Congress on the most acute threats to American security. Bin Laden is wanted by the FBI in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people.

Tenet said the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which allows bin Laden to operate from its territory, "encourages and profits from the drug trade." He said opium production in Afghanistan has been "exploding," accounting for 72 percent of the world's illicit opium production last year.

Tenet also addressed other global threats, including

-Iraq: "We are likely to see greater assertiveness" by President Saddam Hussein over the next year, he said, as the Iraqi leader attempts to wriggle free of the U.N. economic sanctions and finance the rebuilding of his military.

-Iran: It has one of the largest and most capable ballistic missile programs in the Middle East and could test an intercontinental-range missile capable of delivering a small weapon to the United States in "the next few years."

-Russia: Its future under President Vladimir Putin looks dim. "There can be little doubt that President Putin wants to restore some aspects of the Soviet past," he said, including its status as a world power. One of his goals seems to be to improve ties with China and other regional partners as a means of checking U.S. influence globally.

Tenet, who has been CIA director since 1997 and has been asked by the Bush administration to remain in the post, said terrorist groups are becoming more decentralized, which makes them harder to identify.

"Terrorists are also becoming more operationally adept and more technically sophisticated in order to defeat counterterrorism measures," he said. As the United States has strengthened security around government buildings and fixed military facilities, terrorists are seeking out "softer" targets.

The most dramatic example of this, Tenet said, is the Oct. 12 attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 sailors. Two men in a small boat sidled up to the $1 billion destroyer in Aden harbor in Yemen and, without warning, detonated explosives that ripped an enormous hole in the ship and nearly sank it.

The FBI has yet to determine who was behind the bombing but bin Laden's network is a prime suspect.

Of bin Laden, Tenet said, "His organization is continuing to place emphasis on developing surrogates to carry out attacks in an effort to avoid detection, blame and retaliation."

Tenet also emphasized the importance of threats from the spread of ballistic missile technologies.

"We continue to face ballistic missile threats from a variety of actors beyond Russia and China - specifically North Korea, probably Iran and possibly Iraq," he said in his prepared remarks.

The overall challenge to American security is more complex than ever, Tenet said.

"Never in my experience," he said, "has American intelligence had to deal with such a dynamic set of concerns affecting such a broad range of U.S. interests. Never have we had to deal with such a high quotient of uncertainty."

A major theme of Tenet's presentation to Congress on the same topic in March 2000 was the risk of sudden surprise and the growing importance of transnational threats - those that cross national borders. He cited a "growing risk of surprise" as a result of gaps in intelligence insight into the efforts of certain countries and groups to obtain or produce weapons of mass destruction.

A year ago Tenet said the CIA and other parts of the U.S. intelligence community had identified more than 50 nations "of concern" as suppliers, conduits or potential proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. He said intelligence efforts were focused mostly on 10 of those 50, and they include North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

 

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

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