CIA Still Trying to Get Access to Pakistani Nuclear Scientist

CIA Director Porter J. Goss said Wednesday that the United States was making a renewed push for access to Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, and acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies had yet to track down and eradicate certain pieces of Khan’s vast proliferation network.

Goss said in congressional testimony that efforts to get information from Khan were underway “virtually as we speak,” but unraveling the scientist’s international web of nuclear suppliers remained an unmet goal.

“We have not got to the end of the trail,” he said, underscoring U.S. concern that remnants of Khan’s network had not been uprooted. The Pakistani scientist has admitted selling nuclear secrets to Libya and other countries.

Goss did not disclose details of the requests, or whether there had been a response from the Pakistani government, which is holding the scientist under house arrest and has rebuffed previous requests.

The spread of nuclear technology was among an array of security threats Goss highlighted during his first public appearance since taking over as CIA director in September.

In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Goss and other top intelligence officials said that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups continued to pursue plots targeting Americans; that Iran and North Korea posed daunting challenges; and that Iraq had become a recruiting and training ground for anti-U.S. Muslim militants.

In other testimony, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and James M. Loy, acting secretary of Homeland Security, said Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups remained intent on carrying out attacks in the United States.

But much of the attention Wednesday was focused on Goss, who has had a rocky tenure at the CIA, and who found himself responding to questions about interrogation practices and encroachments by other government agencies on CIA turf.

Goss delivered a lengthy defense of the CIA’s handling of detainees, saying that “interrogation is a main stream of information” in the Bush administration’s campaign against terrorism, but insisting that the agency did not engage in torture or deliver suspects to other countries “as a cute way of end-running” laws banning mistreatment of prisoners.

Goss said he supported efforts by other agencies to step up their own intelligence operations. He also indicated that he and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld agreed that the CIA should not relinquish control over paramilitary operations -- as was recommended by the Sept. 11 commission -- and that their positions were to be outlined in a memo to President Bush.

Since taking over the CIA, Goss has sought to lower the agency’s profile in public, and his testimony Wednesday was circumspect compared with that delivered by his predecessor, George J. Tenet, in previous years.

Goss was particularly cautious on North Korea, which declared last week that it had nuclear weapons and would not resume diplomatic talks about its arms program. When asked to expand on a 2002 CIA assessment that North Korea had enough plutonium for one or two bombs, Goss would say only that “they have a greater capability than that assessment. It has increased since then.”

Goss was more forthcoming on the war in Iraq. He referred to militants taking part in the insurgency as a “potential pool” for terrorist networks and cells that could scatter to other countries.

“The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists,” Goss said.

“Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism.”

Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said insurgents were launching an average of more than 60 attacks per day, compared with 25 per day a year ago.

Asked about access to Khan, the Pakistani scientist, Goss said, “We are further exploring our opportunities to learn about Mr. Khan,” adding that “active, appropriate, direct efforts are underway on that matter.”

Access to Khan has become one of the thorniest issues in U.S. relations with Pakistan, which is otherwise credited by the Bush administration with providing significant support in the war on terrorism.

The scientist is a national hero in Pakistan, and was pardoned by the Pakistani government after he apologized. But the government has refused to let anyone question him, rebuffing not only U.S. intelligence agencies but also the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog group.

“The IAEA has had no contact directly with any Pakistani from the A.Q. Khan network since the start of its investigation into the nuclear smuggling ring,” said a senior Western diplomat familiar with the inquiry.

“The Pakistanis are helpful on other issues. On the network so far, they could do much better.”

Times staff writer Douglas Frantz in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report.