IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped

[quaoar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57928-2004Dec11.html


U.S. Pores Over Transcripts to Try to Oust Nuclear Chief

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 12, 2004; Page A01

The Bush administration has dozens of intercepts of Mohamed ElBaradei's phone calls with Iranian diplomats and is scrutinizing them in search of ammunition to oust him as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to three U.S. government officials.

But the diplomatic offensive will not be easy. The administration has failed to come up with a candidate willing to oppose ElBaradei, who has run the agency since 1997, and there is disagreement among some senior officials over how hard to push for his removal, and what the diplomatic costs of a public campaign against him could be.

Although eavesdropping, even on allies, is considered a well-worn tool of national security and diplomacy, the efforts against ElBaradei demonstrate the lengths some within the administration are willing to go to replace a top international diplomat who questioned U.S. intelligence on Iraq and is now taking a cautious approach on Iran.

The intercepted calls have not produced any evidence of nefarious conduct by ElBaradei, according to three officials who have read them. But some within the administration believe they show ElBaradei lacks impartiality because he tried to help Iran navigate a diplomatic crisis over its nuclear programs. Others argue the transcripts demonstrate nothing more than standard telephone diplomacy.

[punpirate]

1. OMG!!! A UN official has dared...

... to search for a diplomatic solution to a problem, instead of calling for the US to bomb the shit out of yet another country.... Best we unilaterally string him up right now! :wow:

[Just Me]

2. These MoFos really are completely out of control,...

,...and are so power-hungry,...it really flips me out!!!

Where are our damned heroes?

[neweurope]

15. They aren't out of control. They're IN control.

[Just Me]

19. Ya' think?

They are only in so much control as others are willing to give them.

Personally, I don't give away control over myself,...to anyone.

Do you?

They only have as much control over others as others are willing to give them. Yes?

[neweurope]

20. Yes. But they're beging given that control.

They have been preparing this for years. Every day we hear about a new preposterous fact. And there is no action, just reaction and not too much of that.

*sigh*

[quaoar]

3. I'm sure there will be congressional hearings on this

Not.

[Elidor]

4. US Officials can do this with impunity

And not even be embarrassed by pertinent questions from the news media.

All media whores need to be egged. Repeatedly.

[Zorra]

5. The Bu$h administration has seized totalitarian control of the US and is

now trying to eliminate the leaders of any international body that will not lie and cheat in order to cooperate with their nefarious purposes.

These "Straussian" neocon regressives are the worst sort of "leaders" imaginable. Drunk with power, they are sociopathic adults with primitive, undeveloped consciousnesses and limited, linear intellect, and have "ids" comparable to that of a two year old child.

Because they cannot, or do not, see any reason whatsoever for ethics or morality, they will take any action, no matter how unspeakably evil, that they deem necessary to satisfy their uncontrollable lust for power.

I refuse to support them, or cooperate with them, in any way.

[quaoar]

6. How can they fail to find a candidate to oppose El Baradei?

Isn't there a nuclear power lobbyist or arms manufacturer willing to take the jon

[DeepModem Mom]

7. This is a very interesting leak -- Bolton v Powell?

"...another official said there is disagreement within the administration, chiefly between Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John R. Bolton, whom aides say is eager to see ElBaradei go, and outgoing Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, over whether it would be worth diverting diplomatic capital that could be better spent on lobbying the board to get tougher with Iran."

[jmcgowanjm]

10. Yes, it's about Iran & Baradei "let" the Iranians off

Voice of the WH says the Carrier JFK has left the Gulf.

The JFK was to be the prime instrument in attacking Iran.

The Forces of Evil are having to regroup.
In the meantime, punishments will be handed out.

Quickly.

Notice how fast we move to punish/ reward in some
areas-like Iran.
and how slow we move to punish/reward in other areas
-like 911.

[neomonkey]

8. Sniffing our undies

No one questions them.

I have to give it to the Bushies. They have truly usurped the paradigm and they can do anything they please now.

Next year they will be legally sniffing our underwear.

[quaoar]

9. Gives new meaning to your mom's warning

Make sure you wear clean underwear.

[ebayfool]

21. Is it treason if you don't wear underwear for 'em to ...

awww, I just can't say it! Fill in the blanks!

[jmcgowanjm]

11. When the Son of God stole Election04, we said Hell was here

Plans are afoot to start withdrawing troops from Iraq
by
the middle of next year, writes an anonymous
White
House insider. The reason? Bush wants to invade Iran
and
Syria.

The only thing stopping these guys are the # of US
Casualties-the real #, not the ones the AP
is reporting.

http://tbrnews.org/Archives/a1247.htm

[CatWoman]

12. kick

:kick:

[underpants]

13. 3/2/03-this is NOT the first time the have bugged UN officials

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905936,00.html

The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.
Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer.

The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.

[Willy Lee]

23. I don't think the IAEA is part of the UN

I believe the International Atomic Energy Agency is it's own entity (I could be wrong). Their mission statement? "The world's center of nuclear cooperation working for the safe, secure, and peaceful use of nuclear technologies".

Safe? Secure? PEACEFUL?? Better get rid of them- they don't fit our M.O.

[Gothmog]

14. The bushies are so arrogant

I remember that the bushies were also tapping UN security council members during the Iraq vote a couple of years ago. this is very arrogant behavior.

[robbedvoter]

16. UN - the new Democrats - not as in DLC, but whipping boy

BFEE are going Arkansas Project on them.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

17. So, I guess the next step is to kill ElBaradei...no one in the way of WAR

THE IMPERIAL CRUSADE MUST CONTINUE AT ALL COSTS...so says Bush the DICTATOR.

I weep for our country. I have never been more ashamed to be an American.

JB

[maddezmom]

18. at this point, ya have to wonder who the US isn't tapping??

Chirac, Blair..... :shrug:

[Jack Rabbit]

22. From the story as told in the Guardian:

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Monday December 13

US tapped ElBaradei calls, claim officials
By Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Ian Traynor in Zagreb

The Bush administration has been listening in on telephone conversations between the director of the international nuclear agency and Iranian diplomats with the aim of gathering evidence to remove the UN bureaucrat from his post, it was reported yesterday.
With Washington's campaign against the IAEA chief, Dr Mohammad ElBaradei, now in its second year, the administration has acquired dozens of telephone intercepts of such conversations in the hopes of finding evidence of wrongdoing, the Washington Post said. The newspaper quoted three anonymous US government officials as saying that the administration embarked on its eavesdropping mission to collect material that would discredit Dr ElBaradei in his dealings with Tehran in the crisis over its clandestine nuclear programme.

At the IAEA headquarters in Vienna it is taken for granted that Dr ElBaradei's phone calls are tapped. Officials shrug that such activities go with the territory. The CIA had no comment when contacted yesterday.

For the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration, Dr ElBaradei has been an enemy since he exposed the hollowness of Washington's claims about Saddam Hussein's nuclear arsenal during the run-up to the war on Iraq. In recent months, as global efforts to halt Iran's clandestine nuclear programme gathered pace, some US officials who were sceptical of a diplomatic resolution accused Dr ElBaradei of hiding evidence of Tehran's weapons programme from the nuclear watchdog.

The neocons have their own reality and it has nothing to do with emperical reality. Dr. ElBaradei deals with facts. Thus, Dr. ElBaradei's ultimate sin in the eyes the neocons is that he tells the truth.

[Stockholm]

24. "I just wish they would have paid more attention to what I said"

Dr. Hans Blix on his feelings when news broke on him being bugged by the US.

[Supersedeas]

25. and the taxpayers receive no evidence to support * witchhunt