British Doubt Iran Report

British espionage experts have serious doubts about a U.S. intelligence report asserting that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program four years ago.

Security services in London fear that Iran may have hoodwinked the U.S. by feeding misinformation to the CIA.

A senior British official told The Daily Telegraph that British analysts believe Iranian nuclear staffers, knowing that their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation. And American spy chiefs were so determined to avoid giving President Bush a justification for attacking Iran that they were eager to accept the bogus intelligence.

“We are skeptical,” the official said. “They say things on the phone because they know we are up on the phones. They say black is white. They will say anything to throw us off.”

Some espionage agents in the U.S. share Britain’s concern that Iran is still committed to producing nuclear weapons, according to The Telegraph.

Officials in the British government are said to be angry over the timing of the U.S. intelligence report, which comes as Britain’s Foreign Office is studying a third United Nations Security Council resolution that would impose tough sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

In the wake of the U.S. intelligence report, the Telegraph reports, “diplomats say the chances of winning Chinese and Russian support for the move are in freefall.”