U.S. Intel Says Iran Willing to Attack on U.S. Soil: Report
(Newsroom America) -- A new U.S. intelligence assessment says Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks against the U.S. on its own soil, as the Obama administration ramps up pressure on Tehran over its suspected nuclear weapons program.
U.S. intelligence officials, in congressional testimony on Tuesday, suggested Iran may have elevated its adversarial relationship with the United States, the Washington Post reported.
They say that while Iran has been linked to attacks on Americans and U.S. interests overseas, "U.S. officials said they see troubling significance in Tehran’s alleged role in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington last year," the paper reported.
Though officials say they see no direct evidence Iran is plotting attacks on American soil, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the disrupted Saudi plot "shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime."
In other areas, U.S. intelligence officials said they believe the al Qaeda terrorist organization has been badly disrupted and expressed growing concern over alleged cyber-espionage by China.
In addition, intelligence officials are watching the power transition in nuclear-armed North Korea and have growing concerns about the security situation in Afghanistan after U.S. force leave.
Clapper and other intelligence officials, however, spent much of the hearing answering questions about Iran, the Post reported.
Clearly, the administration's focus on Iran has sharpened. During his State of the Union address last week, President Obama hinted at future military action against Iran if necessary, to keep Tehran from building nuclear weapons, saying he would "take no options off the table to achieve that goal."
And, in an interview on CBS News "60 Minutes" episode Sunday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran had gained enough technology to potentially build an atomic bomb within a year, though he said it would likely take another year or two to develop a missile warhead and delivery system.