Hezbollah is a growing danger, US intelligence chief reports
Greatest threat is from Al Qaeda, yearly review says
WASHINGTON -- Al Qaeda poses the gravest terrorist threat to the United States and an emboldened Hezbollah is a growing danger, the US intelligence chief said yesterday.
In his annual review of global threats, Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte highlighted an increasingly worrisome assessment of Hezbollah -- backed by Iran and Syria -- since its 34-day war with Israel last year.
"As a result of last summer's hostilities, Hezbollah's self-confidence and hostility toward the United States as a supporter of Israel could cause the group to increase its contingency planning against United States interests," Negroponte told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He depicted a more multifaceted terrorist threat than in years past. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, US spy agencies have stressed the threat from Al Qaeda and associated Sunni extremist groups, rather than from Hezbollah and other Shi'ite Muslim groups.
Hezbollah has a global fund-raising network, but has not directly attacked US interests in years. It was responsible for the 1983 bombings of the US Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed hundreds of American servicemen. The group's Saudi wing, in coordination with the larger Lebanese Hezbollah, is blamed for the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996.
The hearing covered a range of subjects -- from the nuclear work of Iran and North Korea to the expected increase in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan this year to Al Qaeda's interest in exploiting turmoil in Somalia. The US military this week launched a strike in Somalia that killed as many as 10 members of Al Qaeda and its affiliates.
Negroponte said Iraq is at a "precarious juncture" and the Baghdad government needs to establish secular institutions that can bridge sectarian differences. The flow of weapons and fighters from Iran and Syria in support of Shi'ites must be stemmed, he said.
The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency painted a picture of unchecked bloodshed in Iraq that has led more people to turn to sectarian groups for their basic needs and threatened the country's unity. Criminal networks are exacerbating the situation, Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples said.
His agency believes the US-led coalition in Iraq "is the primary counter to a breakdown in central authority," Maples said.
Yet the intelligence chiefs agreed the US could not withdrawal quickly from Iraq without creating more chaos. CIA Director Michael Hayden said more Iraqis would die, Al Qaeda would obtain a safe haven, and the conflict could expand in the region.
