Nobel Peace Prize (ElBaradei & Russia's nukes)

[struggle4progress]

Award turns spotlight on nuclear nonproliferation


Last update: October 11, 2005


The Bush administration had reason to dislike Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. In early 2003, as the administration was trying to build support for an attack on Iraq, ElBaradei eviscerated the administration's claim that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons or a nuclear program of any consequence. ElBaradei proved right. The Bush administration proved wrong, and held a grudge, trying until a few weeks ago to keep ElBaradei from heading the Atomic Energy Agency for a third term.

On Friday, ElBaradei and his agency were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005. "The prize," he said, "recognizes the role of multilateralism in resolving all of the challenges we are facing today. It will strengthen my resolve and that of my colleagues to continue to speak truth to power."

The Bush administration has been deaf to those truths. There's nothing ElBaradei can do about the Iraqi fiasco now. But he's been pressing the administration on another, potentially more disastrous front: the possibility that rogues could get their hands on nuclear weapons from stockpiles in Russia or Pakistan, and use them in a terrorist attack against civilians.

Russia has 16,000 warheads, 8,800 of which are considered "dormant" -- the type Russia keeps in reserve for future use or that it intends to dismantle. Those are the weapons that are most vulnerable to theft. Russia and the United States are cooperating on a program to secure and deactivate the stockpiles. But it's been slow-going. In 2002, Bush sought to cut the $400 million per year program by $140 million. The president is requesting $415 million for the program in 2006 -- an amount considerably lower than the program's Clinton-era budgets ($475 million in 2000). Further, the program doesn't extend to Pakistan, which has 40 to 60 nuclear warheads. <snip>

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN13101105.htm

[longship]

1. And Bush exposes a covert op dedicated to control nukes.

And the neocons nominated Chimp for the Peace Prize.
Pshaw! Boggles the mind.