CIA, FBI Warn Panel on Top Threats to U.S.

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Groups associated with al-Qaida are at the top of the list of threats to the United States, leading government intelligence officials said Wednesday, saying Iran has emerged as the top threat to American interests in the Middle East.

Despite gains made against al-Qaida, CIA (news - web sites) Director Porter Goss, in an unusually blunt statement before the mostly secretive Senate Intelligence Committee, said the terror group is intent on finding ways to circumvent U.S. security enhancements to attack the homeland.

"It may be only a matter of time before al-Qaida or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. We must focus on that," Goss said.

FBI (news - web sites) Director Robert Mueller said he worries about a true sleeper operative whom he contended has been in place for years to launch an attack inside the United States. "I remain very concerned about what we are not seeing," he said in his prepared remarks.

Mueller, Goss and other intelligence leaders provided these and other assessments at the annual briefing of threats from around the globe.

The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, painted Iran as a leading threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East.

In his prepared testimony, Jacoby said he believes that Iran will continue its support for terrorism and aid for insurgents in Iraq (news - web sites).

He said the country's long-term goal is to expel the United States from the region, and noted that political reform movements there have lost momentum.

In related developments:

_Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also sent out a warning, telling the House Armed Services Committee he believes terrorists are regrouping for another strike. But he also said the United States is preparing to deal with any threat.

"The extremists continue to plot to attack again. They are at this moment recalibrating and reorganizing. And so are we," the Pentagon (news - web sites) chief said.

_Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) plugged the administration's request for $5.8 billion to fight terrorism and also made a pitch on Capitol Hill for an additional $750 million this year for other countries that assisted in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq.

In Iraq, Rice said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the United States wants to spend $360 million next year for economic assistance "targeted toward helping the Iraqi government to create a functioning democracy and a justice system," among other services and improvements.

In the past year, the intelligence community has been faced with a series of negative reports, including the work of the Sept. 11 commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee's inquiry on the flawed Iraq intelligence.

And next month, President Bush (news - web sites)'s commission to investigate the intelligence community's capabilities on weapons of mass destruction is also expected to submit its findings.

Given the after-the-fact investigations into the Iraq intelligence, Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said his panel will become more proactive in how it reviews the intelligence community's strengths and weaknesses, already focusing on nuclear terrorism and Iran.

The hearing came as the White House continues its eight-week-long search for a new national intelligence director, a position created in last year's intelligence reorganization bill.