NU Online News Service, Oct. 27, 11:20 a.m. EDT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. --Hanging over the collective heads of Americans trying to recover from the recession are a handful of threats, each with the potential to block the road to prosperity, a military expert here said.

Five possible roadblocks to economic recovery are Iran, China, cyberspace, Mexico and terrorism, General Michael Hayden, retired director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told attendees of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America meeting here.

While large-scale attempts at terrorism have been thwarted by intelligence, the general, who also is former director of the National Security Administration and deputy director of National Intelligence, said less-complex strategies are likely to succeed. Those plans, he added, will be "less lethal but more numerous."