The man who took on George Bush and won (The Nobel Peace Prize)

[cal04]

The man who took on George Bush and won (The Nobel Peace Prize, that is)

In a dramatic rebuff to President George Bush, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the man who dared to tell the Americans that the main plank of the US argument for waging war on Iraq was based on a lie. The Nobel committee bestowed the prestigious award for 2005 on Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN official who rose to prominence by exposing the lengths that America would go to in its efforts to build a case for war.

Mr ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which shares the prize, delivered a body blow to the Bush administration on the eve of the Iraq war. During a televised meeting of the UN Security Council in March 2003, he told assembled foreign ministers that documents purporting to prove Iraq had attempted to import uranium from Niger to make a nuclear weapon were fake.

Leading lights of the Bush administration, particularly Condoleezza Rice and Vice-President Dick Cheney, had advanced Iraq's supposed nuclear weapons programme as a major reason for going to war. Ms Rice memorably said of the UN weapons inspectors' search for a "smoking gun" before the war: "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Britain also cited the now discredited Niger connection to push the case for immediate military action against Saddam, suggesting that he was in the process of adding a nuclear capacity to his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

No weapons of mass destruction of any sort, far less any evidence of a nuclear programme, have ever been discovered. The recognition of Mr ElBaradei and the IAEA is also seen as a warning to President Bush- and to Tony Blair who backed Mr Bush over the invasion - against military strikes on Iran over its nuclear programme. The underlying message of the Nobel committee, which said the threat of nuclear weapons "must be met through the broadest possible international co-operation", is that weapons inspections are a better way of dealing with any crisis than war.

rest of the article
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article318053.ece

[henslee]

1. Yeow.

[eleny]

2. I heard this on the radio in the wee hours of the morning

And fell back asleep with a smile on my face!

[Burried News]

3. Too bad David Kelly isn't alive to see this day.

[Cha]

4. Wonderful! It's so

awesome that The Nobel Peace Prize is going to Mohamed ElBaradei.

There is some Justice.

[electron_blue]

5. crap - how come this is the first I've read of this?

I must have read 3 stories on this guy so far today and this is the first I've run across the real reason it was given.

Only fluff, feathers and sleight of hand on CNN, BBC & the rest. Yeah, I know, you're not surprised.

[ailsagirl]

6. kick

excellent news

It's nice to know the Nobel committee has rock solid integrity.
Their choices for the Nobel Prize prove this. Their winners
(even nominees, I'm certain) are all people who strive for (and
achieve) a better world.

Cheers to them.

[Demeter]

7. Committee said: "Not a veiled critcism of the Bush Administration."

Translation: this is the typical Swedish form of humor; the criticism wasn't veiled at all!