A top US intelligence official on Saturday responded to critics of a report that found Iran had suspended its atomic weapons program, saying the findings were the result of "solid" analysis.
"The task of the Intelligence Community is to produce objective, ground truth analysis. We feel confident in our analytic tradecraft and resulting analysis in this estimate," said Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence.
Kerr issued the unusual statement after Republican lawmakers questioned the conclusions of US intelligence agencies which declared with "high confidence" that Iran halted a secret nuclear weapons program in 2003 in response to international pressure.
The assessment of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released on Monday overturned long-held US policy assumptions that Iran is bent on obtaining nuclear weapons, regardless of international demands or sanctions.
Titled "Iran NIE Example of Solid Analytic Tradecraft," Kerr said the statement was issued "in response to those questioning the analytic work and integrity of the United States intelligence community."
"National Intelligence Estimates contain the co-ordinated judgements of the Intelligence Community regarding the likely course of future events and the implications for US policy," he said.
US President George W. Bush and other top officials had made dire warnings about Iran's nuclear program, and Democrats in Congress now say his administration was overstating the threat posed by Tehran.
Senior US intelligence officials said this week they were responding to new information, subjected to more rigorous analysis than in the past, in reaching their conclusions on Iran's nuclear efforts. But they said they were determined not to repeat the errors made in 2002, when bogus intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction set the United States on a course to war.
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