US intel chief: Al Qaeda active, strong in Pakistani hideout

Pakistani officials said Negroponte's remarks appeared to overlook the failure by US and Afghan security troops in curbing militancy in Afghanistan.

"It's the failure of the US in tackling militant movements which continue to keep groups like Al Qaeda alive," said a Pakistani government official who asked not to be named. "Rather than pointing fingers at Pakistan, the Americans should ask themselves, why is it that they have not been able to curb this problem, five years after the war on terror was launched?"

The Washington Post reports that Negroponte also said that Hizbullah was also becoming "increasingly worrisome," especially after its recent conflcit with Israel.

"As a result of last summer's hostilities, Hizbullah'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 ...

Hizbullah has a global fundraising network, but has not directly attacked US interests in years. It was responsible for the 1983 bombings of the US 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 Hizbullah, is blamed for the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996.

In his syndicated column, Robert Novak writes that Negroponte's departure as the NID after less than two years on the job, has many US senators concerned. Novak writes that Negroponte explained to one GOP senator that he did not want to leave, but that the White House prevailed upon him because of concern about the state of affairs at the department of state.

Republicans in Congress, who do not want to be quoted, tell me the State Department under Secretary Condoleezza Rice is a mess. That comes at a time when the US global position is precarious. While attention focuses on Iraq, American diplomacy is being tested worldwide – in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Korea and Sudan. The judgment by thoughtful Republicans is that Rice has failed to manage that endeavor.

The left-of-center radio show Democracy Now! looks at the man chosen by President Bush to replace Negroponte, Vice-Admiral Mike McConnell, and argues that he has been "a leading figure in outsourcing US intelligence operations to private industry." Vice-Admiral McConnell is a former director of the National Security Agency and the current director of defense programs at Booz Allen – one of the nation's biggest defense and intelligence contractors.

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