McConnell, Mike
The latest news on McConnell, Mike
National Intel Chief Mike McConnell, in a goodbye memo, says much still needed to be done.
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have managed to increase the number of their attacks every year since 2002, according to U.S. military figures. In 2007 alone, violence jumped 33 percent over the previous year. Part of that was because of a rise in suicide bombings, but small-arms attacks were up 47 percent.
When wheat prices hit a record high yesterday after jumping 25 percent in a single day, the economic implications were clear.
Costlier commodities could trigger unrest in poor countries and may curtail food aid to refugees.
This week's Annual Threat Assessment appearance on Capitol Hill by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, seemed to stand in contrast to two months ago, when the public version of a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran blew up a policy storm with its conclusion—in spite of heated rhetoric to the contrary—that Iran had halted its work on how to design and build a nuclear warhead way back in 2003. It was as though the lyrics were much the same as in the recent past, but the tone of the music had darkened noticeably.
Al Qaeda and Iraq were the main subjects when the top leaders of the U.S. intelligence community appeared this morning on Capitol Hill to deliver their annual threat assessment to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
