Terror Threat or Global Market Economy

U.S. sees Russia, China, OPEC financial threat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States should be worried that Russia, China and OPEC oil-producing countries could use their growing financial clout to advance political goals, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress.

Discussing U.S. financial vulnerabilities, McConnell voiced “concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends.”

U.S. National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell voiced the concern to Congress in an annual assessment of potential threats, in which economic matters joined terrorism, nuclear proliferation and computer-network vulnerabilities as top security issues.

National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell
testifies on Capitol Hill (Dennis Cook/AP Photo)

Russia was positioning itself to control an energy supply and transportation network from Europe to East Asia. China’s global engagement was driven by a need to access markets and resources, McConnell said.

A weak U.S. dollar had prompted some oil suppliers to ask to be paid in other currencies, or to delink their currencies from the dollar.

“Continued concerns about dollar depreciation could tempt other producers to follow suit,” McConnell said.

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CIA used waterboarding on three Al-Qaeda detainees

WASHINGTON (AFP) – CIA director Michael Hayden for the first time admitted publicly that the agency had used “waterboarding,” or simulated drowning, in interrogations of three top Al-Qaeda detainees nearly five years ago.

The technique, which critics say is tantamount to torture, was used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri at a time when further catastrophic attacks on the United States were believed to be imminent.

All three were initially held and interrogated at secret CIA-run detention centers overseas before being transferred in 2006 to a military-run detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hayden’s remarks were the first direct official admission that agency interrogators had used “waterboarding” in questioning “war on terror” detainees.

Attorney General Michael Mukasy told Congress last week that the CIA no longer uses “waterboarding” and that it was not “currently” an authorized interrogation technique.

Mukasy refused to say whether waterboarding is torture.