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News & Views CIA: Iran likely to face serious unrest in 1999 February 2, 1999 WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, blamed by the United States for last year's U.S. embassy bombings, is still a threat and the CIA fears another attack could occur "at any time," the U.S. intelligence chief said Tuesday. "There is not the slightest doubt that Osama bin Laden, his worldwide allies, and his sympathizers are planning further attacks against us," Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet said. "We are anticipating bombing attempts with conventional explosives, but his operatives are also capable of kidnappings and assassinations," Tenet testified to a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Bin Laden is accused of plotting the bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last August that killed more than 250 people. Tenet said bin Laden's aim was to get the United States out of the Gulf and that he had stated all Americans were targets. Neighboring Iran, meanwhile, was "more likely to face serious unrest in 1999 than at any time since the revolution 20 years ago," Tenet said. The moderates in Iran represented by President Mohammad Khatami were "on the defensive" in their struggle with the country's conservatives, Tenet said. "We need to bear soberly in mind that reformists and conservatives agree on at least one thing: weapons of mass destruction are a necessary component of defense and a high priority," Tenet said of Iran. "Thus ... we need to be vigilant against the possibility of proliferation surprise," he said.
* Iran News
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