UNITED NATIONS: El Baradei dismisses timing accusations

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday dismissed as "total junk" accusations that he timed the release of an Iraqi report on the disappearance of 377 tons of high explosives to make it an issue in the U.S. presidential election.

The missing explosives have become a flashpoint in the final week of the campaign, with Democratic nominee John Kerry accusing President Bush of "incredible incompetence" for not securing the dangerous material and saying the blunder should cost the commander in chief his job.

A number of political commentators and editorial writers have questioned the timing of the report, accusing ElBaradei of trying to boost Kerry's chances against Bush in next Tuesday's election.

"It's total junk," ElBaradei told The Associated Press when asked about accusations that the timing of the disclosure was linked to the U.S. election. "The timing probably is unfortunate, but there is a world out there other than the American election."

In a separate CNN interview, he said, "It's unfortunate that it's taking a political spin," quickly adding, "that's not ours."

ElBaradei said the timing "was driven" by a letter dated Oct. 10 that the International Atomic Energy Agency received from Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology. It stated that the high explosive material had disappeared from the former military installation at Al-Qaqaa after April 9, 2003 as a result of "theft and looting ... due to lack of security."

"I informed the U.S. government with the hope that before the issue broke in public that they can retrieve it," ElBaradei said. "But once it became public, of course, I had to inform the Security Council immediately."

The New York Times reported on the missing explosives Monday, and later in the day ElBaradei sent the Iraqi letter to the council.

The April 9, 2003 date the Iraqis gave was the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, and questions have arisen about what the United States knew about Al-Qaqaa and what it did to secure the site.

ElBaradei told CNN the IAEA has "no clue" when or how the explosives disappeared, "and that's why I asked the multinational force in cooperation with the Iraqi government to come to the bottom of this."

In a cover letter, he said the 215 tons of missing HMX explosives had been under IAEA seal and the missing RDX and PETN explosives were "both subject to regular monitoring of stock levels."

ElBaradei, who is in New York to attend a meeting of senior U.N. staff, stressed that his primary concern is security. The IAEA, based in Vienna, Austria, has said it fears the explosives may have fallen into insurgents' hands.

"My concern has always been security - not who knew what - but security of the troops, security of the Iraqi people," ElBaradei told the AP. "Our hope is to make sure that this stuff does not fall into the wrong hands. It's a security issue for us, and for the world and for the Americans, of course."

He told CNN "it's not who is to blame, it's a matter of can we retrieve these explosives and take precautionary measures."

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

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