Negroponte: Al-Qaida the Biggest Threat

Outgoing Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, second from right, accompanied by other intelligence officials, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007 before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on national threats. From left are, Randall Fort, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research; CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden; Negroponte; and FBI Director, Robert Mueller. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson) (Lawrence Jackson - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida poses the gravest terrorist threat to the United States and an emboldened Hezbollah is a growing danger, the U.S. intelligence chief said Thursday.

In his annual review of global threats, National Intelligence Director John 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, U.S. spy agencies have stressed the threat from al-Qaida and associated Sunni extremist groups, rather than from Hezbollah and other Shiite Muslim groups.

Hezbollah has a global fundraising network, but has not directly attacked U.S. interests in years. It was responsible for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, 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.

A separate report by government task force predicted that attacks against America and its allies probably would increase in the next few years because terrorists' intentions have not diminished and their methods are "very nimble and very complex."

The panel said al-Qaida is a diminished organization overall with a core that is "resilient and in some respects resurgent," according to the chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.

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 Shiites must be stemmed, he said, and al-Qaida in Iraq must be stopped.

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. Robust criminal networks are exacerbating the situation, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples said.

His agency believes the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq "is the primary counter to a breakdown in central authority," Maples said.

Al-Qaida is America's top concern among terrorist groups, he said. Osama bin Laden's network maintains active connections "that radiate outward from their leaders' secure hide-out in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, northern Africa and Europe," Negroponte said.

Conventional explosives are the "most probable" means of attack from the group, he said, but there are reports al-Qaida is trying to obtain chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.