"Outrageous and dishonest" posted by Richard Seymour

U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest" and offering evidence to refute its central claims.

Officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the report contained some "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements."

The head of the U.N. agency responsible for investigating Iran's nuclear program said Tuesday that there had been no discoveries in the last six months to substantiate claims that the Islamic state is secretly working toward building a nuclear bomb.

In a wide-ranging interview with four U.S. newspapers, Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency also described White House policies on Iran and North Korea as inconsistent. Without greater U.S. participation in diplomacy, ElBaradei said, confrontation could increase.

The IAEA issued a report on January 27, noting that there was no evidence of Iraqi nuclear weapons development, but that a number of questions remained unresolved. A separate statement by the IAEA on January 27 noted only that there was no evidence of Iraqi nuclear weapons development. Both the head of the IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei, and the Chairman of UNMOVIC, Hans Blix, asked for more time to continue inspections. However, the USA appeared determined to go to war with Iraq based on the evidence of non-compliance in the UNMOVIC report, and on US intelligence, indicating substantial illegal weapons development.