CIA Director Nominee Identifies Main Threats

The White House nominee to lead the CIA yesterday identified terrorism, proliferation, Iran and the Korean Peninsula as the threats that are the focus of U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts, the State Department announced in a press statement (see GSN, May 8).

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the number of terrorists worldwide has increased, though their capabilities are “much reduced.” He said al-Qaeda was standing “on its back foot right now.”

Hayden also said moves have been made to improve intelligence collection on Iran’s nuclear program. He said he had medium to high confidence in the intelligence community’s assessment that Iran is still some years away from having nuclear weapons.

Hayden also said intelligence failures on Iraq were a learning opportunity.

“We can’t be surprised again,” he said (U.S. State Department release, May 18).