Political Sports Player of the Week - Oct. 10, 2005
Mohamed ElBaradei is this week's Political Sports Player of the
Week. Mr. Baradei and the organization he leads, The
International Atomic Energy Agency, won this year's Nobel Peace
Prize, which was announced this week. The White House strongly
criticized ElBaradei in the period leading up to the start of
the Iraq War, contending that his findings, indicating that Iraq
did not have any WMD, including nuclear weapons, was absolutely
wrong. You can read the article at
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/07/1344244. I have
quoted part of the article below.
"In February 2003 - a month before the U.S. invasion - ElBaradei
told the United Nations that nuclear experts had found no
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said "We have to date
found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or
nuclear-related activities in Iraq." John Bolton - who is now
the US ambassador to the United Nations - responded by saying
this is "impossible to believe." Vice President Dick Cheney said
"I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong." But it turned out
ElBaradei was correct. He was also correct when he publicly cast
doubt on President Bush's claim that Iraq was purchasing tons of
enriched uranium from Niger for a nuclear weapons program. Days
before the U.S. invasion, ElBaradei revealed that the U.S. had
relied on fabricated documents to come to that conclusion.
Now the U.S. and ElBaradei are at odds again. This time it is
over Iran. ElBaradei says the IAEA has no evidence that Iran has
a nuclear weapons program. But the Bush administration rejects
this view and went so far as to spy on him in an attempt try to
block his re-election. Last year the Washington Post revealed
that the U.S. listened in on dozens of phone calls between
ElBaradei and Iranian diplomats in search of ammunition to use
against him. When his re-election was initially put for a vote,
34 nations agreed to keep him as head of the IAEA and only the
U.S. expressed opposition. ElBaradei has also called on Israel
to disarm its secret nuclear weapons program and called for a
nuclear-free Middle East."