JEDDAH, 9 November 2004 — Until even a month ago the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wore a mask of incredulity when confronted with the threat of nuclear terrorism.
Speaking off the record, IAEA officials, including its Egyptian Director Muhammad El-Baradei claimed that all talk of terrorists using nuclear weapons was fabricated by Washington to help with President George W. Bush’s re-election. And the last thing that El-Baradei and his associates wanted was a second Bush term. According to The Wall Street Journal, El-Baradei fell out with the Bush administration after he was told that the US would veto his application for another term as IAEA director.
Sen. John Kerry, the Democrat candidate for presidency, however, had informed El-Baradei through mutual friends that a Democratic administration would have no objection to another mandate for the Egyptian. It was apparently to give Kerry a helping hand that, just days before the US election, El-Baradei leaked a six months old story about some missing explosives in Iraq. The idea was to show that Bush had been unable even to secure arms’ caches in Iraq and that he may have allowed terrorists to obtain dangerous weapons.
With Bush re-elected El-Baradei seems to have decided to make a gesture of friendship toward him by adopting one of his administration’s key themes: Nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.
But it is not at all certain that El-Baradei’s belated conversion to Bush would help him stay in his job.
