ninme

the question of whether the IAEA can be trusted to be “continuously objective and impartial”

Pfff-hahahahaha

Opinion Journal - Secretary of State ElBaradei The U.N. arms inspector goes soft on Iran, but hard on Congress.

I don’t know why I bother, but I feel like we’re due for a UN-Sanctioned-Mahdi-With-a-Missile Update.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, is supposed to be the Jack Webb of the nuclear nonproliferation scene, a “just the facts” man who reports his findings to his political superiors in the U.N. Security Council. Lately, however, he’s been sounding more like the real life Jimmy Carter than the fictional TV detective.

“I don’t think sanctions work as a penalty,” Mr. ElBaradei opined after meeting with Condoleezza Rice on Monday. The director general was talking about North Korea, of whose leaders he took the forgiving view that they are testing nuclear weapons because “they feel isolated, they feel they are not getting the security they need.” As for Iran, “the jury is still out on whether they are developing a nuclear weapon.” However, he was quite certain that “at the end of the day, we have to bite the bullet and talk to North Korea and Iran.” No doubt Condi was grateful for this free public chiding. …

These assurances [that he's "continuously objective and impartial"] look disingenuous now that Mr. ElBaradei is offering confident judgments, well above his pay grade, about Kim Jong Il’s motives–and cautious ones about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s. It’s even harder to believe given the selective leaks and political hits the IAEA has recently practiced against the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress. …

Under Mr. ElBaradei’s leadership the IAEA has presented itself as the ultimate arbiter on questions of nuclear proliferation, despite its failures to detect Iraq’s nuclear-weapons programs in the 1980s and Libya’s in the early part of this decade. Yet if the IAEA cannot get its personnel unimpeded into Iran–and especially if Iran can bar the toughest, most skeptical inspectors–the quality of the IAEA’s information and the reliability of its judgments are bound to deteriorate.

Had Mr. ElBaradei been doing his real job, he might have made a more strenuous effort at pointing out publicly Iran’s failures to comply with its obligations, rather than offer grand pronouncements on diplomacy and making partisan intrusions into American politics by critiquing Congressional white papers and Administration policy. As it is, we have Mr. Hoekstra to thank for bringing to light yet another instance of Iran’s bad faith, and of the U.N.’s unreliability.

Yet another instance of Iran’s bad faith and of the U.N.’s unreliability, eh? Well knock me down.