Data on Iran Scant, U.S. Official Says

President Bush’s national security advisor acknowledged the difficulty of gathering intelligence in Iran but said Sunday that Tehran’s behavior had been “suspicious enough” to warrant U.S. concern.

“Intelligence in Iran is hard to come by. It is a very closed society. They keep their secrets very well,” Stephen J. Hadley told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Hadley was asked whether, given the intelligence failures in prewar Iraq, he was convinced that U.S. intelligence in Iran was good enough to declare that it was developing a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity, but U.S. officials allege that it is trying to build atomic weapons.

Meanwhile, London’s Sunday Times reported that Israel had drawn up plans for an air and ground attack on Iran’s nuclear installations if diplomacy failed to halt its atomic program.

The newspaper said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his inner Cabinet last month had given “initial authorization” for a unilateral attack on Iran.

The paper said Israeli tactics would include commando raids and airstrikes by F-15 jets using “bunker-busting” bombs.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she was not aware of the Israeli plans.

Iran has frozen its uranium enrichment program while it tries to reach a settlement with Britain, France and Germany on its nuclear operations.

In a bid to support those talks, Washington on Friday offered Iran incentives to abandon sensitive nuclear activities.

On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Rice said although President Bush didn’t “take any options off the table ... he’s made very clear that, from our point of view, this is a problem that can be resolved diplomatically.”