Watchdog chief: IAEA is 'total mess'

NEW YORK – The retiring director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, is defending Tehran's denials it has reactivated its nuclear weapons program and is blaming Jerusalem for causing "humiliation and impotence" among other Middle East nations.

The comments come from Mohamed ElBaradei, who was addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. He said the major powers who are trying to limit the spread of nuclear weapons have created a "total mess."

In reality, he said, the agency is now no more than a "sleepy watchdog" whose effectiveness "is at the mercy of member states."

Explaining that more than 80 nations now have rebuffed efforts to give the IAEA more authority over unannounced and intrusive inspections to uncover illegal nuclear weapons programs, he claimed critical intelligence used by Israel to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear weapons center on Sept. 6, 2007, was available to Jerusalem and Washington "more than a year before the attack."

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Yet he claimed the same information was available to his agency only six months after the attack.

And he insisted that any efforts to address the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East "must be comprehensive."

He said Israel's alleged nuclear weapons program has "caused humiliation and impotence" among Middle East nations and that cannot be "ignored."

ElBaradei denied suggestions in Washington and Jerusalem that Tehran has re-activated its nuclear weapons program.

"There is no evidence that Iran has an on-going nuclear weapons program," he said, adding reports the IAEA is hiding critical information on Iran's nuclear activities is "total bonkers."

He warned against any U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear plants, at least one of which is located on a military base and is suspected of being used to pursue a weapons program. He said such an attack would set the program back only perhaps two years.

But it would have other impacts.

"It would turn the Middle East into a ball of fire," he said, because it would give Iran support "to launch a crash program" to make an atomic bomb.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been known to proclaim publicly that the nation of Israel needs to be removed from the face of the Earth.

But ElBaradei blamed Washington.

"For three years they (the U.S.) would not talk to Iran. For another three, they set unacceptable pre-conditions," he said.

John Bolton, who first headed the arms control desk at the State Department and later was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. during George W. Bush's administration, lamented that the nuke agency chief "still has a month left to cause more damage."

ElBaradei's comments appear to put him on the side of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who is now steering his country towards more eastward thinking and away from relations with the West.

A report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin confirms Erdogan is warning that if the West doesn't want Iran to have nuclear weapons, Western countries, including Israel, need to give up theirs.

According to the report, in a recent meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Erdogan cited the fact Israel is the only country in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons.

"Those who criticize Iran's nuclear program continue to possess the same weapons," Erdogan said. "I think that those who take this stance, who want these arrogant sanctions, need to first give these weapons up. We shared this opinion with our Iranian friends, our brothers."

However, WND previously reported on accusations from a senior Israeli government source who said the IAEA deliberately is suppressing information showing Iran actually is seeking nuclear weapons.

A top Israeli government source told WND the IAEA was passed a massive amount of data from several Western and Middle Eastern intelligence agencies showing Iran is actively pursuing research into developing nuclear warheads as well as a full-scale nuclear weapons program.

The source said the IAEA generated a second report written by its inspectors in Iran and signed by the head of that agency in Tehran. The report, however, is being withheld deliberately by ElBaradei.

In a surprising sidenote, ElBaradei admitted Libya's secret atomic weapons program "was no big deal."

"It was not a model for anyone," he said. "Most of the equipment was still in boxes in warehouses. It wasn't going anywhere.

"But, if you want to give us credit for stopping it, that's OK. We'll take it," he said.

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