IRAN WMD

SF Chronicle: U.S. gleans facts on Iran from debatable source Nuclear arms allegations derived in part from rebel group's data

Tehran -- Both Iran and Iraq were accused by the United States of developing banned weapons, and in both cases much of the intelligence came from exile groups whose credibility has been questioned.

Now, some fear that despite the deal struck between Iran and European foreign ministers last week to allow inspections of nuclear sites, the United States may be proceeding down a warpath toward Iran, as it did with Iraq, based in part on faulty intelligence peddled by politically ambitious exiles.

In the case of Iraq, much of the Bush administration's information about Saddam Hussein's alleged programs to build chemical, biological and nuclear weapons came from sources associated with the Iraqi National Congress (INC), an exile group favored by senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. With the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, many of the INC's claims have been discounted.