Evidence of Iran aid in Iraq is weak

WASHINGTON – Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they have yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims that Iran is fomenting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Administration officials have long complained that Iran was supplying Shiite militants with lethal explosives and other materiel used to kill U.S. servicemen. But despite several pledges to make the evidence public, the administration has twice postponed the release – most recently, a briefing by military officials scheduled for Tuesday in Baghdad.

“The truth is, quite frankly, we thought the briefing overstated, and we sent it back to get it narrowed and focused on the facts,” national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said Friday.

The acknowledgment comes amid shifting administration messages on Iran. After several weeks of saber-rattling that included a stiff warning by President Bush and the dispatch of two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Persian Gulf, near Iran, the administration has insisted in recent days that it does not want to escalate tensions or to invade Iran.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seemed to concede Friday that U.S. officials can’t say for sure whether the Iranian government is involved in assisting the attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq.

“I don’t know that we know the answer to that question,” Gates said.

Earlier this week, U.S. officials acknowledged that they were uncertain about the strength of their evidence and were reluctant to issue potentially questionable data in the wake of the intelligence failures and erroneous assessments that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In particular, officials worried about a repeat of former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s 2003 U.N. appearance to present the U.S. case against Iraq. In that speech, Powell cited evidence that was later discredited.

In rejecting the case compiled against Iran, senior U.S. officials, including Hadley, Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, confirmed Friday they were concerned about possible inaccuracies.

“I and Secretary Rice and the national security adviser want to make sure that the briefing that is provided is absolutely accurate and is dominated by facts – serial numbers, technology and so on,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

Another reason for the delay, as is often the case when releasing intelligence, was that officials were concerned about inadvertently helping adversaries identify the agents or sources that provided the intelligence, Hadley said.