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."