Times: ElBaradei has been a Failure

One of the first opinions on the Nobel peace prize 2005 that was awarded to ElBaradei and IAEA is delivered with a bang by the Times' foreign editor:

Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Mohamed ElBaradei is a slap in the face for the United States. That was surely the motivation; it is hard to see any other reasons for the award to him, shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In the past eight years, they have failed to detect covert nuclear programmes in at least three countries - and failed to get diplomatic purchase on the problems when others have finally brought them to light. That does not amount to a contribution to world peace.

The single judgment which ElBaradei has got right in his eight years as Director-General of the IAEA is the one most provocative to the US: that Iraq, in 2003, had no significant nuclear programme. Cont.