Bush, Pope Among Nobel Peace Nominees

CNN ^ | 2-13-04 | Doug Mellgren

[My Favorite Headache]

Bush, Pope Among Nobel Peace Nominees By DOUG MELLGREN

OSLO, Norway (AP) - The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee reported a record 173 nominations for 2004, with known candidates including President Bush, jailed Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu and the pope.

Committee secretary Geir Lundestad said the preliminary list includes 129 individuals and 44 organizations, and is likely to be expanded when awards committee members forward their own nominations at their first meeting of the year on March 2.

Last year, there were 165 nominations, and the award went to lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win.

The committee accepts proposals postmarked by Feb. 1.

``This year, there are not that many new names,'' Lundestad said. ``But we see that as the prize becomes more global, the nominations also become more global.''

The five-member Norwegian awards committee keeps the names of nominees secret for 50 years, releasing only the number with no other information.

However, those nominating candidates often announce their choices, this year including Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for protecting world peace; the European Union; French President Jacques Chirac; former Czech President Vaclav Havel; Pope John Paul II; former U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei; Vanunu, for exposing his country's nuclear weapons program; Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya; and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and former Sen. Sam Nunn for their Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which is intended to dismantle nuclear weapons left over from the Soviet Union..

Lundestad said thousands of people, including member of any national legislature or government and many university professors, have nomination rights, so being proposed for the prize is no distinction in itself.

``It's easy to get nominated for the prize, but very hard to win,'' he said.

Lundestad said he had received thousands of e-mails protesting the nomination of Bush and Blair, for example.

``There is a common misunderstanding. The fact that someone is nominated is in no way a form of endorsement from the committee,'' Lundestad said.

Other likely, but not confirmed, nominations include the Salvation Army, South African Adurrazack Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign for their work fighting HIV-AIDS, the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist group, Russian antiwar group Mothers in Black, and Italian charity The Community of Sant' Egidio

The award, which last year included a $1.4 million cash prize, will be announced in mid-October. It is always presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of the prizes creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. The peace prize is awarded in Oslo, and the other Nobel prizes are presented in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

On the Net:

http://www.nobel.no

02/13/04 14:26

[k2blader]

If President Bush wins it something will be very very wrong.

[EUPHORIC]

Mannnnnnnn!!! I'd positively LOVE it if Bush got the prize!!! That would drive the damned left absolutely WACKO!!!

But considering the anal-retentive screwfaced liberal cockroaches that make the decision its a 1 in a million change he could win.

[RockyMtnMan]

If Bush wins, hell will freeze, monkeys will fly from my anus, democrats will campaign for smaller government and Madeline Albright will appear on the cover of SI's Swim Suit edition.

[VulgarWit]

Dont be silly
The democrats will never campaign for smaller government. Monkeys and butts maybe..
but smaller govt..
Get real!!

[EggsAckley]

I'm betting that it'll be the Pope, since he's on his last legs.

[hershey]

Bush should request that his name be removed and the American soldier be named instead. But...that might give the Euroweenies the idea that we should be their Hessians while they teach us how to suck eggs.

[hershey]

Yup, the pope will probably get it.

[Finalapproach29er]

The Euro's have turned against GOD. They detest the Pope. No chance.

[World'sGoneInsane]

I'd positively LOVE it if Bush got the prize!!!

I positively love that he was NOMINATED!!! That alone is great!

[Sofa King]

Someone must have been hitting the bottle pretty hard to let this slip by. I'd have an easier time believing that they nominated Saddam.

[Bluntpoint]

I have been waiting year after year after year and still Maxine Waters gets stiffed by the Nobels.

[CasearianDaoist]

Maybe they can get Arafat to give the keynote.

[CasearianDaoist]

Maybe it's just a ploy to get him overthere.

It would be hilarious, though.

[woofer]

If President Bush wins it something will be very very wrong.

Well, last year they gave it to Jimmy Carter as a slap at W.

It'll serve the left right if they give it to Bush this year. At least he is trying to propogate peace in the Mid East, as opposed to Carter, who's only contribution to peace was to appease the eastern bloc.

[proud American in Canada]

"If Bush wins, hell will freeze, monkeys will fly from my anus, democrats will campaign for smaller government and Madeline Albright will appear on the cover of SI's Swim Suit edition."

Yep... and John F*****g Kerry will tell the truth about his post-war activities and his Botox injection. ;)

Too bad, though... GW has done so much for the cause of peace... the ULTIMATE cause of peace, which is freedom & democracy.

[proud American in Canada]

"I'm betting that it'll be the Pope, since he's on his last legs."

You're right... if he makes it. I was surprised he didn't make it last year.

[proud American in Canada]

re: the Pope--

but if the Pope doesn't make it, can they award it posthumously?

I'm sorry, everyone, if this sounds bad... I don't wish him ill but he has been in very bad health. Like I said, I was very surprised he didn't make it last fall, esp. considering everything he did regarding opposing communism.

[branko]

That's Cool!
Serbians also tried to have Mr. Milosevic nominated for the Nobel Prize!
Good this Great Nation have its initiative of non-extradition-to-international-war-tribunals of the American Cirizens going, otherwise Mr Slobo might enjoy some unexpected company.

[randog]

I'd positively LOVE it if Bush got the prize!!! That would drive the damned left absolutely WACKO!!!

If Bush got the prize then you could rest assured that the left has indeed gone wacko, considering the Nobel committee is just to the left of Stalin.