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 He noted that the first World Trade Center bombing occurred in President Clinton's first year. The 2001 terrorist attacks on the same buildings happened in President Bush's first year.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Biden took heat for saying last week that running mate Barack Obama will face a manufactured foreign policy crisis designed to test his leadership within the first six months if he is elected.
Republican nominee John McCain seized on the remark to undercut his rival. "We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when the economy is in crisis," he said.
Biden may have just been repeating what he and Obama have been told in the secret intelligence briefings both the teams of candidates have received since clinching their parties' nominations.
McConnell said even more detailed briefings covering top secret and covert operations not "known to even those on (Capitol) Hill except perhaps to those on the intelligence oversight committees" will start the day after the election.
"My counsel to the next set of players is, 'before you make dramatic changes fully understand where we are and what we're doing,'" McConnell said.
McConnell oversees the nation's 16 intelligence agencies with approximately 100,000 officers and analysts, and a budget of almost $48 billion.
McConnell told the National Conference of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation that terrorism remains a pressing threat, and singled out biological weapons in the wrong hands as a particular concern.
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