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Yukiya Amano found huge shoes to fill when he took over from the widely respected Mohamed ElBaradei on December 1. ElBaradei had the courage to call a spade a spade and, when necessary, a forgery a forgery--like the documents alleging that Iraq had sought yellowcake uranium in Niger.
ElBaradei took a perverse--if diplomatic--delight in giving the lie to spurious allegations and became persona non grata to the Bush/Cheney administration. So much so that, in an unsuccessful campaign to deny him a third four-year term as Director General, the administration called in many diplomatic chits in 2005--the same year he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In addition to a strong spine, Elbaradei had credentials that would simply not quit. His extensive diplomatic experience together with a PhD in international law from New York University, gave him a gravitas that enabled him to lead the IAEA effectively.
Gravitas Needed
Lacking gravitas, one bends more easily. It is a fair assumption that Amano will prove more malleable than his predecessor--and surely more naà ¯ve. How he handles the controversy generated by Thursday's report should show whether he means to follow ElBaradei's example or the more customary "flexible" example so common among U.N. bureaucrats.
Press reports over the past few days--as well as past experience--strongly suggest that the "new evidence" cited by the Times may have comes from the usual suspects--agenda-laden sources, like Israeli intelligence.
On Saturday, the Jerusalem Post quoted the Israeli government as saying the IAEA report "establishes that the agency has a lot of trustworthy information about the past and present activities that testify to the military tendencies of the Iranian program." The newspaper cited the IAEA report as suggesting that "Teheran had either resumed such work [on a nuclear weapon] or had never stopped when U.S. intelligence said it did."
Perhaps the Jerusalem Post should have stopped there. Rather, in a highly suggestive sentence, it went on to suggest that "intelligence supplied by the US, Israel, and other IAEA member states on Iran's attempts to use the cover of a civilian nuclear program to move toward a weapons program was compelling."
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