Bush insists Tehran is developing a secret nuclear program, despite the US panel’s assertions the US intelligence on the Islamic republic is “scandalous”.

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program is “inadequate” for making firm judgments about the country’s weapons program, a leading US newspaper reported Wednesday, March 9.

In a report to be presented in detail to US President George W. Bush later this month, a US bipartisan presidential panel investigating pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons concluded that the American intelligence record on Iran is “worrisome”, The New York Times said.

The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, which the American President ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The United States accuses Iran of having a secret program to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Iran staunchly denies the allegations and the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohammad El-Baradie reiterated that there was no evidence that Tehran was developing nuclear weapons.

Iran and the European Union embarked in December on negotiations towards a long-term agreement to give Tehran trade, technology and security aid and guarantees in return for it taking steps to reassure the international community that its nuclear program is strictly peaceful.

An official, who described the nine-member panel’s deliberations and conclusions, characterized the American intelligence data on the Islamic republic as “scandalous”, the US daily said.

The NY Times said its sources would not be more specific in describing the intelligence inadequacies on the Islamic republic.

However, it quoted former government officials, who are experts on Iran, as saying that the US intelligence agencies have had little success in the kinds of human spying needed to understand the Iranian decision-making.

Among the major setbacks of the US intelligence agencies was the successful penetration in the late 1980’s by Iranian authorities of the principal American spy network inside the country, which was being run from a CIA station in Frankfurt, former intelligence officials told the paper.

The arrests of reported American spies was known at the time, but the impact on American intelligence reverberated as late as the mid-1990's, the US daily said.

A spokesman for the nine-member commission, however, declined to comment on the NY Times report.

“The report itself isn’t complete yet and the full details will be presented to the president,” spokesman Larry McQuillan was quoted by Reuters as saying.

In its report, the bipartisan panel, led by Laurence Silberman, a retired federal judge, and Charles S. Robb, a former governor and senator from Virginia, is also expected to sharply criticize the American intelligence on North Korea.

A classified version of the report is expected to be sent to the American President by March 31, while an unclassified version which may or may not include the criticism of intelligence on Iran will be made public at about the same time, the US daily said.

The panel's findings will include recommendations for further structural changes among intelligence agencies, to build on the legislation Bush signed last December that sets up a new director of national intelligence.

US ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte was picked up by Bush on February 17, as the first US director of national intelligence who will oversee all 15 US spy agencies.

The US intelligence service, haunted by its fiasco in Iraq, has launched a broad review, ordered by the National Intelligence Council (NIE), of classified information on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.