Ka-Dud

There is some speculation that the source of the story is the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei. ElBaradei has a history of strong disagreement with American Middle East policy; furthermore, his candidacy for the third term as the director general of the IAEA is being opposed by the Bush Administration.

ElBaradei, in turn, was relying on a letter of 10 October he received from Mohammed Abbas, a senior official at Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology, who reported that the disappearance of the explosives occured sometime after 9 April 2003 (copy of the letter here).

The letter is curious; as the "New York Sun" story reports, "one U.N. official who is well versed with monitoring procedures told the Sun that there is no way for the Iraqis to know whether the material was looted at that date or was hustled out of Iraq earlier, during the war. 'We are talking about 40 trucks worth of this stuff,' the official who asked not to be named told the Sun. 'It's a huge operation'." The date of the removal also seems to be contradicted by the NBC story, relying on its embedded reporters, as well as American soldiers connected with the al-Qaqaa installation (see the comments section of this post).

Duelfer also said U.N. weapons inspectors recommended in 1995 that the high explosives be destroyed because of their potential use in a nuclear weapons program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency instead ordered the explosives stored in sealed bunkers 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital. The last time the IAEA verified that the bunkers were still sealed was in March of last year, about a month before the first U.S. troops moved into the complex as they pushed toward Baghdad.
Why GIs Didn't Hunt Explosives

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei : Director General
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations system. He was appointed to the office effective 1 December 1997, and reappointed to a second term in September 2001.
Dr. ElBaradei was from 1984 a senior member of the IAEA Secretariat, holding a number of high-level policy positions, including that of the Agency´s Legal Adviser and, beginning in 1993, Assistant Director General for External Relations.
The DG´s Biography

NEW YORK — Mohamed ElBaradei is seeking a third term at the helm of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, a move opposed by the Bush administration.
Mr. ElBaradei, the director-general of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), this week circulated a letter to the 35 board members expressing his availability to serve another four-year term.
But U.S. officials have said they don't believe that senior U.N. officials should serve more than two terms, and have made it clear they do not want to make an exception for the Egyptian nuclear physicist.
A senior Bush administration official said recently that Washington's chief reservation is the two-term limit, but indicated that officials had problems with some of Mr. ElBaradei's judgments in recent investigations.
"We've made it clear to him that we support a two-term limit on agency heads," said the official. "We're trying to be gentlemanly about it."
IAEA chief requests 3rd term

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.