U.S. intelligence chiefs outline global threats

Top U.S. intelligence officials briefed a Senate committee Tuesday about threats to the country’s security, the biggest of which comes from China. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his agency has open investigations into economic espionage in virtually every one of its 56 field offices. The number of those cases has doubled in recent years, and most of them lead back to China, he said. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the committee that China will use any means necessary to achieve global superiority, “and that increasingly involves an alliance with Russia.” Coats said Moscow and Beijing are “more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s.”

This year’s Worldwide Threat Assessment, which U.S. intelligence agencies present to the Senate annually, noted that despite diplomatic progress with North Korea, that country is unlikely to give up its nuclear arsenal. Coats also cited Iran’s stockpile of ballistic missiles as a major concern. And the assessment said Islamic State (ISIS) “remains a terrorist and insurgent threat” inside Iraq.