U.S. intelligence chief: Iran nuclear weapon could start regional war

U.S. National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell on Friday said that Iran is two to three years away from having a long-range missile that could reach Europe and is continuing to produce low-enriched uranium, the raw ingredient for the fissionable material needed for a warhead.

As he prepares to leave office, McConnell told reporters that U.S. intelligence agencies lack enough evidence to prove Iran has decided to build a nuclear warhead, but he shares the alarm of outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden that the possibility may come soon.

"I'm very concerned Iran will continue down a path that will result in a nuclear weapon," he said.

He is especially worried about the effect it would have in the Middle East, either kicking off a regional arms race or a war.

McConnell said that protection of U.S. computer networks - government, military and commercial - is another major worry.

"Cyber-security is the soft underbelly of this country," he said.

His fear is less that information would be stolen off the networks by hackers or spies but that they would destroy it outright.

"It could have a debilitating effect on the country," he said.

The federal government is still building its cyber protection plan, with the Homeland Security Department nominally in charge. McConnell said the spy agencies, especially the National Security Agency, have to play a principal role in protecting domestic computer networks. That prospect alarms privacy and civil liberty advocacy groups, who oppose giving agencies meant to spy on foreign powers access to private citizens' data and activities on the Internet.

Breaking down walls among the 16 intelligence agencies to force cooperation and sharing is among the central functions of the national intelligence director. He said a new policy that will require sharing of all finished intelligence and much of the raw information that feeds it across the agencies will be signed in the next few days.

"I believe we failed the nation at 9/11. There was sufficient information in the system that had it been properly recognized, shared and considered, we probably would have reacted in a different way," McConnell said. "It's the policy to hope that we would never repeat 9/11."