Rogue Regulator

Today’s column was written intermittently over 10 days after a I read a Washington Post editorial about Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei that left me puzzled as I trust the newspaper. The editorial contradicted what I knew about the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, so I took my time and sought more information and consulted people in the know.
Under the headline Rogue Regulator the editorial reflected views more associated with the Wall Street Journal and the extremist and neocon writers and contributors to its opinion pages than the liberal and highly respectable Washington Post.
The first paragraph claims that ElBaradei “has made it clear he considers himself above his position as a U.N. civil servant.” I say this is not true. Simply put, ElBaradei will not play the role of a cat’s-paw on behalf of this particular U.S. administration. This is not thwarting leading members, above all the United States, as the editorial asserts.
The second paragraph recognizes that ElBaradei, with a handful of assistants in Vienna, succeeded in denying the existence of an active Iraqi nuclear program while American intelligence, 16 agencies in all, failed or colluded with the Bush administration in its push for war. The editorial writer then claims that IAEA director wants to stop the “crazies” in Washington while he considers them more sane than Ahmadinejad. Maybe this is true but it does not change the fact that there is a war party in Washington intent on unleashing another catastrophe in the Middle East and the editorial is silent about the warmongers while it concentrates on a U.N. official with no comparable influence on war and peace.
Two paragraphs follow and present Security Council sanctions against Iran like a universal verdict when they are American positions passed only after pressuring allies and threatening or bribing other members of the council who watered down the two sanction resolutions to the point of making them ineffective. The editorial then complains about the very short period of time the IAEA has given Iran to answer questions about its program while admitting that the questions are important. I don’t accept that the time given Iran is too long, considering that its nuclear program is about 17 years old and was only uncovered by Iranian dissidents, not American intelligence, in 2002
What is the alternative to questions and answers within a short period of time? Another war or a third round of sanctions? War will be calamitous and sanctions will not stop Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
The last paragraph complains that ElBaradei wants to wait until the end of the year when it may be too last and all “thanks to a diplomat who apparently believes he need not represent anyone other than himself.”
ElBaradeil will not represent the Cheney team and the editorial is walking on thin ice, considering the failure of the Washington Post in challenging the lies and fabrications of the administration leading up to the Iraq war. My favourite newspaper is not the Washington Post of the Vietnam War or the Watergate scandal.
When I started seeking additional information about the subject I found the Washington Post in the same boat as Militant Islam Monitor, The Jewish Blog Network, and JBlog Central or the Jewish and Israeli Blog Network. They are all happy with the Washington Post editorial claiming “WP shishkabobs ElBaradei: Rogue Regulator.” If anything is rogue it is the uncharacteristic editorial.
I don’t need AEIA to tell me that Iran is persisting in its nuclear program and will not stop. The U.S. is free to try to stop it by any means other than war. We have seen the results of its misadventure in Iraq, and Iran will be a far worse scenario. Ahmadinejad is an extremist revolutionary but he is no worse than the warmongers of Washington who killed a million Iraqis and about 4000 U.S. and allied troops and are still clamouring for more death and destruction. Ahmadinejad has not killed anyone and war is threatened on the strength of suspicion about future intentions..
The Washington Post should, and can, do better. All the water of the Potomac will not wash away the blood of innocent people from the hands of Cheney, Wolfowitz, Feith and company.

Jihad Khazen