Threats to National Security

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Tenet, your testimony was that more than a third of the top al Qaeda leadership identified before the war has been either captured or killed.

MR. TENET: Yes, ma'am.

SEN. COLLINS: Obviously and unfortunately, that does not include Osama bin Laden. But do you believe that Osama bin Laden is still in active command of the al Qaeda network, or have we been sufficiently successful that we have disrupted his ability to control the network?

MR. TENET: Ma'am, I'd like to talk about all that in closed session with you.

SEN. COLLINS: You had mentioned that your analysts are just beginning their study of the tape that was released yesterday.

MR. TENET: Yeah.

SEN. COLLINS: Are there any preliminary indications that that tape was intended as a trigger or a signal to cells to attack?

MR. TENET: Ma'am, I think I would say the following to you. You know that in the previous two instances where he made tapes, on October 6 his remarks were made shortly before the French oil tanker Lindberg, the murder of the U.S. Marine in Kuwait, and the Bali bombing; his 12 November statement was 12 days before the bombing in Kenya, the hotel in Kenya. So one of the things we're looking at is, he's obviously raising the confidence of his people, he's obviously exhorting them to do more. And whether this is a signal of impending attack or not is something we're looking at. I can only tell you what the history is. What he said has often been followed by attacks, which I think corroborates everything that we're seeing in terms of raising the threat warning, in terms of the specific information that we had at our disposal last week.

SEN. COLLINS: Yesterday there were media reports that our intelligence has detected the movement of Iraqi Scud launcher equipment next to mosques, that Saddam Hussein has moved explosives to southern Iraq near the oil fields, and that he has positioned some of his military forces among civilian areas. Do those developments suggest that if war comes, that Saddam is going to pursue a scorched earth strategy? Do you believe that those developments are substantiated?

If vice admiral would like to respond, that would be fine, too.

ADM. JACOBY: Senator, there's a pattern over a considerable number of years, and it's being played out today: Saddam intermingling combatants in civilian population. It's part of the strategy to, you know, to blend in—to use the term human shields—is part of his approaches. And that continues.

The parts of the question having to do with current disposition of forces, I'd like to take on in closed session, if I could. And I can give you some specifics about where he is in some of the issues that are being presented.

SEN. COLLINS: That would be fine.

Mr. Tenet, I'm also troubled by press reports this week that the Iranian government intends to develop uranium mines in the southern part of its country. While Iranian officials have contended that this step has been undertaken to address civilian energy needs, I'm concerned about the implications for Iran's nuclear arms program. Could you please comment on that?

MR. TENET: Yes, ma'am. We're concerned, as well. We're going to follow up on all of that reporting. We have some very specific data for the classified session about specifically where the Iranian nuclear program is today. People who are supplying it may not be supplying it. There have been some improvements in Russian behavior in this regard, but all of this is of a piece, and it comes back to my serious concern about how many countries are pursuing nuclear weapons; how many countries are developing an indigenous capability to do so; and the amount of foreign assistance that's available from foreign states and networks that really make this a formidable challenge when you lash it up to ballistic missile proliferation, whether it's medium or long-range ballistic missiles.

SEN. COLLINS: Has Iran been an impediment to the establishment of the new government in Afghanistan?

MR. TENET: Well, I think you know that in the Bonn—in the diplomatic part of this, when they went to Bonn and set this government up, I believe the record is the Iranians were quite helpful diplomatically in creating this government. I think if the Iranian—every country on the border of Afghanistan naturally has its own agenda. We initially in the conflict were concerned about Iranian assistance or safe haven or conduit to Taliban and al Qaeda remnants. So remember, you've got two governments—you're really dealing two faces in a country like Iran. A spiritual leader and then President Khatami and their control of different services often create different pictures of this government's activity inside Afghanistan. But your specific question, they were very cooperative in Bonn, as near as I can tell.

SEN. COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.