ELBaradei Wins Nobel Peace Prize Months After U.S. Tries To Force Him From Job

The announcement was made earlier today in Oslo Norway. The Egyptian-born ElBaradei has served as Director General of the IAEA since 1997. He won the prize just months after the United States tried to force him from his job after the Bush administration repeatedly clashed with him over Iraq and Iran.

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. Last year in an interview with the New York Times he warned “"If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction.”

* Phyllis Bennis, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, specializing in Middle East and United Nations issues. She is the author of the book “Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis.”

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