The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Sgt. Schultz, "I zee nuthing!"
Posted on 10/07/2005 9:51:33 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Awarding the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency sends a warning to Iran about its development of nuclear weapons, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and its director Mohamed ElBaradei will share the prize "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way," the committee said in a statement.
ElBaradei said the prize underlined the "value and the relevance" of the IAEA's work.
"It recognizes the urgency of addressing the dangers we face: nuclear proliferation, nuclear armaments, and nuclear terrorism." ElBaradei said in a statement.
But Peres, one of the founders of Israel's own nuclear program, said there are "many holes" in the IAEA's system of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, especially in the case of Iran.
Nevertheless, Peres said the IAEA had contributed a lot to preventing nuclear weapons from falling into dangerous hands.
Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in 1994 for signing the Oslo peace accords - the first time an Israeli leader had signed an agreement with the PLO.
"The message [in giving the award to IAEA and ElBaradei] is to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, because if irresponsible people in the world - and there are quite a few of these - get nuclear weapons, it will be very difficult to exist in the world," Peres said in a radio interview in Hebrew.
Peres said that it was possible that the prize would strengthen the IAEA's effort to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.
"If Iran gets nuclear weapons, there will be a danger that every country that hates others will be able to get nuclear weapons," he said.
Cameron Brown, deputy director of the Global Research Center in International Affairs, a think tank near Tel Aviv, said that the Nobel Prize committee had decided on the award "to make a statement and not to reward behavior."
The Peace Prize committee wanted to say that it understands that nuclear weapons are a major threat to world security, Brown said. Nevertheless, "[the IAEA] doesn't have a wonderful record," he added.
In 1990, the IAEA gave Iraq a clean bill of health but after the 1991 Gulf war it became clear that Iraq was clearly developing a nuclear program, Brown said. North Korea and Libya are other nations that have developed nuclear programs undetected, at least in the beginning, by the IAEA.
In the case of Iran, the IAEA is not taking the lead, he said.
The U.S., Britain, France and Germany want to see Iran referred to the United Nations Security Council, but other IAEA members have resisted the move.
The U.S. and Israel have long suspected Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover for making an atomic bomb.
That doesn't look like the message to me. Remember previous peace prize winners.
Can't blame Israel for trying.
Death to Khamenei!
Death to Iran!
Death to Khamenei!
Death to Iran!
Death to Khamenei!
Death to Iran!
Death to Khamenei!
Death to Iran!
????
Jusdt wanted the mullahs to get a
;ittle of their own back....>Bo)
See how *they* like it.
Giving those guys a Nobel Peace Prize does indeed send a message to Iran:
The message says: "Go ahead and build your nuclear bombs. We will pretend to be strict and to negotiate, but in reality will look the other way."
Next Nobel Peace Prize will go to Al Qaeda's #2 man, who today, showing a sensitive new awareness to having gone over the top a little by showing beheadings, etc. , indicates he wants to try "a softer side', and start merely shooting infidels in the head, rather than beheading them.
Or perhaps Osama himself will get it in the next year or two, since Al Qaeda may be so compromised numerically, that its efforts may start to wane, and that will be interpreted by the committee as positively "Arafatian", and deserving of the big Prize.
Hans Blix is very jealous.
"Why doesn't the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation just change the name of its annual Peace Prize to the Bush Bash?"
"A key Nobel official frankly described the Carter honor as a 'kick in the legs' to George W. Bush."
"All this, of course, takes the suspense out of the Nobel Foundation's choice for the 2006 Peace Prize. Cindy Sheehan might as well go ahead and start writing her acceptance rant, er, speech."
I forgot the link to the U-T editorial:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051008/news_lz1ed8middle.html
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the IAEA
The award was a vindication of a man and an agency who have long sparred with President Bush and his administration over how to confront Iraq and Iran. The prize could strengthen the agency's position as conflicts loom over preventing Iran from obtaining fuel it could turn into nuclear weapons and disarming North Korea.
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