The Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnel while assessing the “nuclear competition” between India and Pakistan also said that missile tests and new force deployments over the past three years have not affected their ongoing political dialogue.

“Although both New Delhi and Islamabad are fielding a more mature strategic nuclear capability, they do not appear to be engaged in a Cold War-style arms race for numerical superiority ,” said McConnel while briefing the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence on an unclassified version of the Annual Threat Assessment.

The top Intelligence person of the Bush administration also argued that the ongoing political uncertainty in Pakistan has not seriously threatened the militarys control over the countrys nuclear arsenals.

“We judge the ongoing political uncertainty in Pakistan has not seriously threatened the militarys control of the nuclear arsenal, but vulnerabilities exist.

The Pakistan Army oversees nuclear programmes, including security responsibilities, and we judge that the Armys management of nuclear policy issues to include physical security has not been degraded by Pakistans political crisis,” the top Intelligence official maintained.

A good part of the assessment has been on the nature and continuing threats posed by the al Qaeda with McConnel not mincing words in how the intelligence community perceived this from the framework of Pakistan.

McConnel said al-Qaida continues to maintain a “safe haven” in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where the outfit is able to stageattacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“al-Qaida has been able to retain a safe haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that provides the organisation many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale.

“The FATA serves as a staging area for al-Qaida’s attacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as a location for training new terrorist operatives, for attacks in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US,” McConnel said.

He said the al-Qaida, using the “sanctuary in the border area of Pakistan, has been able to “maintain a cadre of skilled lieutenants capable of directing the organisation’s operations around the world.”

“It has lost many of its senior operational planners over the years, but the group’s adaptable decision making process and bench of skilled operatives have enabled it to identify effective replacements,” he added.

al-Qaida is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the US: the identification, training, and positioning of operatives for an attack in the Homeland, he said.

“While increased security measures at home and abroad have caused al-Qaida to view the West, especially the US, as a harder target, we have seen an influx of new Western recruits into the tribal areas since mid-2006,” McConnel told law makers on the Senate panel.