Source of Powell's Iran intelligence under scrutiny
/The source of intelligence used this week by U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell to suggest Iran is working on a nuclear
weapons program may not be reliable, knowledgeable sources told CNN
Friday. The issue surfaced when The National Council of Resistance of
Iran -- which is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist
organizations --revealed satellite photographs this week it said showed
a hidden nuclear plant in Iran, allegations the Iranians denied. "This
allegation is timed to coincide with the next meeting of the board of
governors of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]," Iran's top
nuclear negotiator, Hussein Moussavian, said. "And every time just
before the meeting there are these kind of allegations either from the
United States or terrorist groups. And every time these allegations
have proven to be false." Powell, en route to the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit in Santiago, Chile, told reporters he had seen
intelligence that appears to "corroborate" the resistance group's
information. Some U.S. officials were angered by a report in Friday's
edition of The Washington Post which quotes two sources who said Powell
used information that was classified, and . A Washington Post article
said the information Powell shared with reporters came from a single
unvetted source or a "walk-in" source who approached U.S. intelligence
and may or may not be reliable. [more]
