The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has not found conclusive evidence that
Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported..
Let's just repeat that !
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has ***NOT*** found conclusive evidence
that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a US magazine has reported.
Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, cites a
secret CIA report based on intelligence such as satellite images.
Correspondents say the alleged document appears to challenge Washington's views
regarding Iranian nuclear intentions.
The CIA assessment, according to unnamed officials quoted in the article, casts
doubt on how far Iran has actually progressed to making a nuclear weapon.
"The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear
weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has
declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Mr Hersh wrote.
It says the agency based its conclusions on technical intelligence, such as
satellite photography and measurements from sensors planted by US and Israeli
agents.
The article says: "A current senior intelligence official confirmed the
existence of the CIA analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile
to it."
In response....
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino criticised the article, calling it an
"error-filled" piece in a "series of inaccuracy-riddled articles about the Bush
administration".
"The White House is not going to dignify the work of an author who has viciously
degraded our troops, and whose articles consistently rely on outright falsehoods
to justify his own radical views," she was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6167304.stm
Graham