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American Intelligence on Iran nuclear program inadequate, NY Times

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New York, March 9, IRNA -- A commission due to report to President 
Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as 
inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran`s nuclear program, New 
York Times said on Wednesday. 
"The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal 
assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, Mr. 
Bush ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence 
about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons." 
New York Times said that the Bush administration has been issuing 
increasingly sharp warnings about what it says are Iran`s efforts to 
build nuclear weapons. The warnings have been met with firm denials in
Tehran, which says its nuclear program is intended purely for civilian
purposes. 
"The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting
inspections in Iran for two years, has said it has not found evidence 
of any weapons program." 
The nine-member bipartisan presidential panel, led by Laurence 
Silberman, a retired federal judge, and Charles S. Robb, a former 
governor and senator from Virginia, had unrestricted access to the 
most senior people and the most sensitive documents of the 
intelligence agencies. 
In its report, the panel is also expected to be sharply critical 
of American intelligence on North Korea. But in interviews, people 
who have been briefed on the commission`s deliberations and 
conclusions said they regarded the record on Iran as particularly 
worrisome. 
One person who described the panel`s deliberations and conclusions
characterized American intelligence on Iran as "scandalous". 
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