WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to Syria told Congress on Wednesday that there is so far no evidence to back reports that chemical weapons were used in Syria on Tuesday.

“So far, we have no evidence which substantiates the reports that chemical weapons were used yesterday. But I want to underline that we are looking very carefully at these reports,” Robert Ford, who was recalled from Damascus in February 2012, said during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing.

TRIPOLI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Libyan authorities have detained a man investigators believe could be an important witness or suspect in the attacks on U.S. outposts in Benghazi, Libya last September, according to people familiar with the matter.

The man, a Libyan national identified as Faraj al-Chalabi, fled to Pakistan after the attacks and only recently returned to Libya, said the sources, who include people in the United States and Libya close to the ongoing investigations. One Libyan security source said he was from Eastern Libya.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – The Obama
administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies
full access to a massive database that contains financial data
on American citizens and others who bank in the country,
according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S.
intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks
and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks,
criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which
legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless
likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – The Obama
administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies
full access to a massive database that contains financial data
on American citizens and others who bank in the country,
according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S.
intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks
and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks,
criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which
legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless
likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence leaders
said for the first time on Tuesday that cyber attacks and cyber
espionage have supplanted terrorism as the top security threat
facing the United States.

That stark assessment, in an annual “worldwide threat”
briefing that covered concerns as diverse as North Korea’s
belligerence and Syria’s civil war, was reinforced in remarks by
the spy chiefs before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Forces seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Al Assad are gaining strength and territory, but the Syrian opposition remains fragmented and is grappling with an infusion of militant foreign fighters, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Tuesday.

Two years into an uprising against Assad’s rule, U.S. intelligence agencies do not know how long the Syrian leader will keep his hold on the country, Clapper said at a Senate Intelligence Committee on global security threats.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cyber attacks and cyber espionage have supplanted terrorism as the top threats to the United States in an annual “worldwide threat” assessment released on Tuesday by the U.S. intelligence community.

However, in testimony prepared for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, played down the likelihood of catastrophic attacks on the United States by either cyber attackers or foreign or domestic militants in the immediate future.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. investigators tracked Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, for about 10 years before he was detained in Jordan and brought by the FBI to New York City in the past few days, U.S. officials familiar with the investigation said.

An FBI agent and a New York police detective together spent more than a decade investigating Abu Ghaith, not only for his role as a spokesman for al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington but for activities they believed he was involved in before 2001, said one official.