"Succession battle looms for top post at nuclear watchdog" by Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times | March 19, 2009
VIENNA - A succession battle over the once-obscure leadership post of the world's arms control watchdog could affect attempts to persuade Iran to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure and shape the direction of nuclear nonproliferation efforts for the next four years.
Abdul Samad Minty, a South African, and Yukiya Amano of Japan are the front-runners to take over as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency after Mohamed ElBaradei's term expires this year. The agency's leader will be decided during a vote after a closed-door meeting of the agency's 35-member board here in the Austrian capital on March 26 and 27.
By most accounts the two officials could not be more different in their personalities and their attitudes toward arms control and atomic energy, which has been growing in popularity as part of what scientists call the "nuclear renaissance."
The debate over the two goes to the heart of the struggle between nuclear haves and have-nots, between those in the West who define arms control as preventing emerging nations from obtaining nuclear bombs and those in the South and East who want to highlight the obligations of atomic-weapons states to disarm.
Minty, a charismatic diplomat known for his outspokenness, has emerged as the favorite of developing countries. Most are sympathetic to Iran's nuclear aspirations and suspicious of the West's attempts to deny them nuclear technology while keeping their own weapons stockpiles untouched.
Wouldn't you be suspicious, too, 'murkn -- especially when we attack those that do not possess nuclear weapons?
Amano, a low-key technocrat, has emerged as the West's favored candidate for his commitment to restrict the agency's duties to narrow technical issues and forgo the type of opinionated diplomatic mediating role practiced by both ElBaradei and his predecessor, Hans Blix.
Translation: If you are TELLING the TRUTH (Iraq DID NOT have WMD and Iran only enriching to power plant levels) and are AGAINST WAR, shaddup!!!!
"A great director general is one who artfully navigates the politics of the situation to permit the IAEA to fulfill its technical mission," said Jeffrey Lewis, an arms-control expert at the New America Foundation. "I think (ElBaradei) has lost that sense of balance. His speeches now cover topics far outside the mandate of the IAEA, from missile defense to the Middle East peace process."
Yeah, right, ElBaradei was a boob because he had tremendous regrets and reservations about starting wars based on lies -- so he's got to go, and be disparaged in the process.
Truly, I'm sick of the pro-Israel bias when it comes to all things U.N. Tell the next guy whoever he is, to go check out Dimona.
The IAEA was set up to encourage safe nuclear technology and later became the means for verifying the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which grants signatories access to nuclear technology in exchange for forgoing weapons and submitting to inspections.
Which IRAN has SIGNED and ABIDED BY while "friends" Israel, Pakistan (although not for much longer) and India developed weapons and did not sign. You go figure that hypocrisy out and I'll get back to ya.
But in recent years, the IAEA has taken on the role of global troubleshooter, advocating policies for resolving disputes over nuclear technology.
"The political role that the agency has taken on has not served the agency very well," said Valerie Lincy, an analyst at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. "It was meant to sound the alarm when there is a violation. But they've taken on somewhat of a political role that I don't think has necessarily helped."
Yeah, but starting wars on lies, that's not a problem. Only when you try to stop them -- however half-heartedly -- are your motives called into question. This concealment of agendas and Zionist propaganda is really getting to be too much.
Minty insists that as a representative of a country that has acquired nuclear technology, he has the savvy to forge consensus in major disputes. "You have to be impartial and let the facts . . . speak for themselves," he told a group of reporters in Vienna. "The director general has to have some political understanding because every issue" will have a political dimension.
Very difficult when lying Zionist war propagandists control the AmeriKan MSM.
Of course, that's why you are here.
Amano defines the agency more narrowly as a body to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote the safe use of nuclear energy. "The mandate has been decided by statute," he said in a brief interview.
He's the West's guy.
--more--"
He must have lost seeing as there has been nothoing in the Globe since.
What's up with that anyway (and they wonder why they are tanking when it's the same old war propaganda crap day after day)?
