Paul Kiel September 14, 2006, 10:22 AM

Sound familiar? From Reuters:

U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran’s nuclear work, calling parts of it “outrageous and dishonest”, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false, and underlined continued tensions over Iran’s dossier.

Sent to the head of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Intelligence by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August 23 committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA findings on Iran’s activity.

The letter said the errors suggested Iran’s nuclear fuel program was much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington’s own intelligence assessments have determined.

Update: More from The Washington Post:

Privately, several [U.S.] intelligence officials said the committee report included at least a dozen claims that were either demonstrably wrong or impossible to substantiate. [The office of Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee] said the report was reviewed by the office of John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence.