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  Negroponte: Al-Qaida biggest terror threat   (AP)  Updated: 2006-02-03 09:49  
 "I'm sorry to tell you that the damage has been very severe to our 
capabilities to carry out our mission," Goss said. "It is my aim, and it is my 
hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present 
being asked to reveal who is leaking this information."
 Senior Bush administration officials elsewhere Thursday stressed the terror 
threat. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the risks could be greater now 
because the weapons available are more dangerous.
 "Because (terrorists) lurk in shadows, without visible armies, and are 
willing to wait long periods between attacks, there is a tendency to 
underestimate the threat they pose," Rumsfeld said at the National Press Club.
 At the hearing, Negroponte said more than 40 terrorist groups, insurgencies 
or cults have obtained or pursued chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
 He said the "battered but resourceful" al-Qaida organization remains a top 
concern, particularly with its added reach and appeal through its merger with 
terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's operations in Iraq.
 Negroponte, the former U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, stressed the importance of 
Iraq on the global jihad.
 If jihadists there thwart Iraq's attempts to set up a stable government, he 
said, "they could secure an operational base in Iraq and inspire sympathizers 
elsewhere to move beyond rhetoric to attempt attacks" around the world, 
including the United States.
 On Iran, Negroponte said leaders there seek a Shiite-dominated government in 
Iraq and are providing support to certain Iraqi Shiite political and military 
groups. He blamed Tehran for "at least some" of the increasing lethality of 
attacks by providing Shiite militants with increasingly sophisticated improvised 
explosive devices.
 Yet "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has 
been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack 
it," Negroponte said.
   
  
  
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