Glenn Greenwald: Our Serious Foreign Policy Geniuses Strike Again

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Our Serious Foreign Policy Geniuses Strike Again
by Glenn Greenwald


Over the past year, the rhetoric from our Serious Foreign Policy establishment regarding the supposed threat posed by Iran’s active pursuit of nuclear weapons has severely escalated both in terms of shrillness and threats. Opposition to this building hysteria has been led by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who — exactly as he did prior to the invasion of Iraq — has been relentlessly warning that there is no real evidence to support these war-fueling allegations.

Because of that, he has been relentlessly attacked and smeared by our Serious Foreign Policy elite — yet again. And yet again, ElBaradei has been completely vindicated, and our Serious Foriegn Policy Experts exposed as serial fabricators, fear-mongerers and hysterics.

In 2005, the Bush administration vigorously (though unsuccessfully) sought to block ElBaradei’s re-election as IAEA head on the ground that he was right about Iraq’s non-existent weapons stockpiles:

The U.S. has complained ElBaradei has been too soft with Iraq, and has clashed with him over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ElBaradei balked at U.S. claims that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted WMD.

The administration went so far as to tape record ElBaradei’s conversations with Iranian officials in order to prove he was in league with them, all “in search of ammunition to oust him as director general.” As The Washington Post reported, even back then (2005), administration officials “with access to the intercepts” were accusing ElBaradei of being “way too soft on the Iranians.” According to the Post: “Some U.S. officials accused ElBaradei of purposely concealing damning details of Iran’s program from the IAEA board.”

Less than three months ago, the Very Serious Foreign Policy Expert Fred Hiatt published a scathing Washington Post Editorial attacking ElBaradei for warning of the dangers of an unnecessary war with Iran and pointing out that the evidence is non-existent that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Hiatt’s Editorial accused ElBaradei of being a “Rogue Regulator” right in the headline.

ElBaradei’s crime in Hiatt’s eyes: he was trying to “use his agency to thwart their leading members — above all the United States.” And how, according to Hiatt, was ElBaradei engaging in his dastardly obstruction? By pointing out that the claims from American warmongers regarding Iran’s nuclear program were exaggerated or false. Hiatt said that ElBaradei’s chief sin was “to excuse the Iranian activity that most justifies the would-be bombers — uranium enrichment.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/04/5600/