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Iraq Explosives Revelation Politically Motivated, Some Bush Administration Officials Say
Some Bush administration officials and supporters have accused International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei of orchestrating the scandal around explosives missing from the Iraqi al-Qaqaa military base to undermine President George W. Bush’s re-election bid today, the San Francisco Chronicle reported (see GSN, Oct. 25). “ElBaradei would like nothing better than to see President Bush lose,” said Clifford May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy. In the wake of the explosives scandal, Bush administration officials last week reiterated their opposition to ElBaradei’s bid for a third term as IAEA chief when it comes up for renewal next year, the Chronicle reported (see GSN, Nov. 1). “The people I’ve talked to in the administration are absolutely convinced that ElBaradei is trying to defeat Bush, and what happened (last) week means they will do anything it takes to make sure that he doesn’t get another term,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. In an Oct. 1 letter to the U.N. Security Council, ElBaradei said there had been large-scale looting of weapons in Iraq. Iraqi official Mohammed Abbas then responded to ElBaradei’s request for more information with a report that explosives at al-Qaqaa were lost after the U.S. takeover because of “theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security.” Some of the explosives could be used to detonate nuclear weapons, according to reports. “Did ElBaradei in some way persuade the Iraqi official that this letter was needed at this time because of the election?” said May. “This fuels the suspicion that ElBaradei is attempting to manipulate an American election by spreading false information.” ElBaradei said Friday that the allegations were “total junk,” according to the Chronicle. “The timing probably is unfortunate, but there is a world out there other than the American election,” he said (Robert Collier, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 2). The sole source for the explosives story was a letter sent to the agency on Oct. 10 by Abbas, who works in the Iraqi Science and Technology Ministry, ElBaradei told the New York Sun yesterday. “All we know (is that) the Iraqis reported to us the material is missing,” ElBaradei said. “We have been out of Iraq for a long time. If it were destroyed I would be very happy, if it hasn’t been destroyed I’d be very worried. But I have no clue.” Officials in the U.S. Defense and State departments question whether Abbas had authorization from his government to write the letter, a Washington source told the Sun. IAEA officials waited for five days after the letter arrived in the agency’s Vienna offices before passing it to the U.S.-led coalition for verification, an IAEA official told the Sun. During that time, the official said, the Iraqi interim government’s mission in Vienna confirmed that the letter was authentic. ElBaradei also denied that he hoped to prompt Abbas to report the missing explosives through the Oct. 1 Security Council briefing. “I have a legal obligation to report to the council every six months,” ElBaradei said. Since 1991 “we have this mantra that we should get this information from the Iraqis” (Benny Avni, New York Sun, Nov. 2). Meanwhile, the French newspaper Liberation reported allegations today that ElBaradei has been helping Egypt hide a secret nuclear program and that the defunct Libyan nuclear program “had Egyptian links,” Agence France-Presse reported. Libya had “worked not only for itself but also, secretly, for the Egyptians,” according to Liberation. The charges “by ricochet now are reaching Mohamed ElBaradei, accused by some diplomatic missions of using his influence as the head of the IAEA to put the brakes on the agency truly plunging into this dossier,” the newspaper stated. An IAEA spokesman did not comment on the allegations. Egypt’s ambassador to the U.N. agency said the report was “totally baseless.” “There is no clandestine program and therefore there is no dossier,” Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy told AFP. “The issue of a connection between Egypt and Tripoli in the nuclear field is totally baseless” (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 2).
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