Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Dennis C. Blair
Director of National Intelligence

25 February

Far-Reaching Impact of Global Economic Crisis

The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications. The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism. Though we do not know its eventual scale, it already looms as the most serious global economic and financial crisis in decades.

Forty Six Page PDF HERE:
http://www.dni.gov/testimonies/20090225_testimony.pdf