CIA chief says terror threat high despite fall of Saddam

WASHINGTON -- George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, said Tuesday that the world is at least as "fraught with dangers for American interests" as it was a year ago, despite the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and successes in dismantling the leadership of al-Qaida.

Most worryingly, Tenet said, the radical anti-American sentiments and destructive expertise employed by al-Qaida have spread to other Sunni Muslim extremists who are behind a "next wave" of terrorism that will endure "for the foreseeable future with or without al- Qaida in the picture."

"People who say that this is exaggerated don't look at the same world that I look at," Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee as he presented a stark annual report on the threats facing the United States around the world. The broader terrorist threat, he said, "is not going away any time soon."

In his State of the Union address last month, President Bush described the world as having become "a better and safer place," since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam last year.

On Tuesday, Tenet also emphasized progress in Iraq, but he noted that the post-invasion violence there continues, with attacks against American forces down from a November peak but still at a level similar to that of last August.

Tenet's appearance before Congress was his first since last March, and it exposed him to sharp questions from senators who asked him to address the gap between prewar intelligence about Iraq's illicit weapons with the fact that no such weapons had been found.

Tenet sought to deflect such queries saying it was too soon to draw firm conclusions, but he promised to make public the unvarnished truth about any intelligence mistakes.

Appearing with Tenet were the FBI director, Robert S. Mueller III, and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, who presented a similarly worrisome picture. Despite the killing and capture of many senior leaders in the last year, they said, al-Qaida enjoys considerable support, and enlisted new recruits, and has authored a series of "chilling plots," including signs of possible poison attacks, the training of pilots for suicide missions, and strong indications it is targeting the White House, the Capitol, and the American transportation system for possible attacks.

Tenet described as "seriously damaged" the leadership structure of al-Qaida as it was charted after the Sept. 11 attacks. But he said the group "remains as committed as ever to attacking the U.S. mainland" and that intelligence information "continues to validate my deepest concern: that this enemy remains intent on obtaining, and using, catastrophic weapons."

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