Rice: U.S. is safer 5 years after attacks

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says the United States is safer five years after the Sept. 11 attacks and has new allies in the war on terror.

Rice said those new allies include a democratic Iraq and Afghanistan.

She also told "Fox News Sunday" al-Qaida has been "hurt badly" by U.S. efforts. Rice insisted the administration relied on the best U.S. intelligence when it linked pre-war Iraq to al-Qaida, even though a 2002 Defense Intelligence Agency report released last week by a Senate committee concluded there was no link.

Rice said there are "intelligence reports and conflicting intelligence reports all the time," and she doesn't remember seeing the DIA report.

"I think it's clear that we are ... safer, but not really yet safe ... In terms of homeland, we're more secure, our ports are more secure, our airports are more secure," Rice told Fox News.

"We have a much stronger intelligence-sharing operation, not just within the country, where we've broken down walls between law enforcement and intelligence agencies to get all of the information to break up terrorist plots, but also across the world."

Rice declined to say whether the administration had made mistakes, but said the world was better off without Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq.