WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (AFP) - The US intelligence community, burned by its fiasco in Iraq, has launched a broad review of its classified data on Iran as an escalating war of words suggested a possible showdown between the United States and the Islamic republic over its nuclear program, US officials said Saturday.
The review, ordered by the National Intelligence Council, was expected to produce two major papers -- a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran and a so-called "memo to holders" -- that will assess Iran's suspected drive to manufacture nuclear weapons and its implication for regional and global security, the officials said.
"It involves the entire intelligence community to write these products," said one of the officials, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
The US intelligence community has not produced a formal estimate on Iran since 2001, and analysts said the new focus on the country likely reflected new strategic priorities for the administration of President George W. Bush, who has accused Iran of "pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve."
The official said the new NIE on Iran was "coming out" but gave no specific date. The memorandum was expected "several months from now."
But the official made it a point to say that the "memo to holders" was "self-initiated." "It is not that somebody has requested it," the official added.
The CIA-led review was expected to go in parallel with a reassessment of information about Iran being undertaken by the Senate intelligence committee, which was expected to hold a series of closed-door hearings on the matter in coming months, according to congressional officials.
Last year, the committee probed the US failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, whose alleged presence in the country served as the prime rationale for the March 2003 invasion.
A scathing report produced as a result of this investigation accused the intelligence community of "group think," "poor management" and "inadequate intelligence collection."
02/12/2005 22:52 GMT - AFP