U.S. disputes Iran's claims about crashed drone

This photo released on Dec. 8, 2011, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, claims to show US RQ-170 Sentinel drone, as the chief of the aerospace division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, right, listens to an unidentified colonel, in an undisclosed location in Iran.

/ AP Photo/Sepahnews

UPDATED 3:23 p.m. ET

(CBS News) A senior administration official disputes Iran's claims that they have extracted secret intelligence information from an American drone that crashed in December.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was quoted Sunday by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that Iran has reverse-engineered the RQ-170 Sentinel.

But a senior administration dismissed those claims. "They don't have the technology to be able to pull it off," the official told CBS News.

Asked about claims that Iran is hacking the software to build a drone of its own, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was skeptical.

"I don't want to get into particulars of that program, but I think I can tell you based on my experience that I would seriously question their ability to do what they say they have done," Panetta told reporters on his plane traveling to Colombia.

Watch Panetta's comments below:

[slatep]

You don't really believe a "senior administration offical" is going to tell you the truth do you.?

[kbbpll]

"senior administration official"? If you won't put your name on it, it's just propaganda.