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RSSThe IAEA: in America's corner on Iran.
Don't believe me? Ask the Americans.
By Mehdi Hasan Published 09 November 2011 17:56
There was a time when I had a lot of admiration for the work of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Its Nobel-prize-winning chief, Mohammed ElBaradei, stood up to the Bush administration over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 invasion in 2003 - and was vindicated by the subsequent, post-war failure to find WMDs in the country. He also had the guts to resist US pressure on Iran; prior to his resignation from the agency in 2009, he bluntly described the threat from a nuclear Iran as "hyped".
His replacement as director-general of the IAEA, however, isn't as independent-minded or strong-willed as ElBaradei - especially on the contentious and politicized issue of Iran's nuclear programme. How do we know this? How else? WikiLeaks.
According to an October 2009 US state department cable released by the whistleblowing organisation late last year, Yukiya Amano, the Japanese diplomat who took over at the IAEA in July of 2009, seemed ultra-keen to show his loyalty to the United States from the very start of his term:
Amano reminded [the] ambassador on several occasions that he would need to make concessions to the G-77 [the developing countries group], which correctly required him to be fair-minded and independent, but that he was solidly in the US court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.
"Solidly in the US court"? Er. . .
The same US cable described Amano as:
DG of All States, But in Agreement with Us
In another 2009 US state department cable, released by WikiLeaks and examined by Iran expert, Professor Juan Cole, on his blog, the then British foreign secretary David Miliband
spoke of putting some 'steel' in Amano's spine. Ellen Tauscher, the US under secretary for arms control and international security affairs, said that the US and the UK must work to make Amano a 'success'.
Let's be honest, it doesn't fill you with much confidence in the Amano or the IAEA, does it?
(Oh, and for more details on the exaggerated threat from Iran's nuclear programme, see my column in this week's magazine. Out on the newsstands tomorrow.)
Mehdi Hasan is a contributing writer for the New Statesman and the co-author of Ed: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader. He was the New Statesman's senior editor (politics) from 2009-12.
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52 comments
Skewered again by another thrust from jackass's rapier like intellect.
oh the pain.....the pain.
@ Coleridge, sorry to let you down, but to think that Hassan would look at any of those issues in Iran or how they exist in most Muslim countries would be an admission that his own Ideology (that he thinks is the word of God - ROFL I still can’t believe a religious nut is writing for the NS) is wicked , evil and repressive.
He's far too busy apologizing for his brethren all over the Muslim world, in particular in Gaza and the West Bank.
He's very busy condemning Israel and the West at every opportunity trying to substantiate all the evils of the world at the hands of Zionists and the US.
He's also extremely busy pulling the wool over the eyes of the Infidel UK public with his 'I'm a hardline lefty man of the people stance' but keeping quite his stealthy Sharia compliant view of the world, our freedoms, and spreading the Dawah of Islam whenever he’s finds an opportunity.
Hang on a minute..I understand the process of making nuclear energy is the same as the process of making nuclear weapons, up to a point.Isn't this common knowledge?
Like that old song - "it's not what you do, it's the way that you do it - that's what gets results.."
But apart from all that, who are we to deny the people of Iran the kinds of technology others get away with using for peaceful purposes? I read somewhere that most of France's energy comes from nuclear. Treating Iran less favourably just doesn't seem fair on the face of it.
But I don't like nuclear anything, personally. It's just far too easily corruptible in my view.
I wonder what the average European's attitude would be if Iran and China had overthrown the government of Britain in 1953 and replaced it with a dictatorship more to their liking. When it comes to carpet bombing civilians, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and supplying WMDs to dictatorships the USA, Britain and Israel have got impeccable past form unmatched by anyone.
A little off topic but still linked.
My in-laws have just come back from touring many parts of India.
Without them bringing up the subject they said that most of the local people they met where 'Islamphobes'...and that all had a healthy fear and loathing of Islam...irrational of course...IDL???
I wonder what kind of lefty think tank or media outlet in India might start to castigate these people and tell them they are wrong to fear Islam and that they are misguided? They must be linked to far right parties out there?? INP?
Sigh....what would be more open and honest is that black is black, white is white and the fear of Islam and all it entails is felt by people all over the world. That what we feel is real and not a phobia or something imagined. That we who are fearful of Islam are not bad people and not intrinsically racist or bigots. On the contrary we are freedom loving people who don't want there lives ruled or violated by Islam in any sort of way.
some perspective please?
1) Israel does or does not have nuclear weapons?
2) Israel does or does not have chemical weapons?
3) Israel does or does not have biological weapons?
would be nice if for once Israel could answer such simple questions rather than crying wolf ad nauseum.
Doubt if Iran has a practical nuclear weapon let alone a deliverable one.
But radio-active detritus delivered by missile could make Mid-East oil something of a scarcity.
Once that blame-culture gets going who knows who will get it in the neck.
Assyrians
Since I discover your blog Mr. Hasan I always enjoy reading it (-:
Of course if someone is proamerican should be expelled form any UN body, that obviously for any left-wing.
Perfect candidate in Navi Pillay (UN Human Rights High Commissioner) strongly antiamerican, always ready to combat racism, homofobia, or islamofobia in the West. The same time she put a blind eye on situation in China, DPRK, Burma, Cuba and Russia. Yes she is perfect, isn't she?
I'm not sure if any military operation will start against Iran, but I give about 70-75% for YES roght now. But don't worry it will be quick and swiftly. I know something about military strategy, air operations tactics, special ops so i could imagine how it will be look like this time.
But i really want to see useful idiots (I mean pace activists), marksisits and trotskists (New Left of course silly me), and islamists (poor minority oppressed by right-wing racists of course), piss off.
I like to see this kind of people piss off, I like it very much (-:
Do female Islamic scholars exist?
the whole interwebs at your fingers, and you don't know the answer to that?
really?
Mr Hasan, Listen to "Coleridge". Don't you read his logic?:
"Another piece of Islamist propaganda from Mehd 'non-Moslems live like animals' Hasan. Putting israel to one side does Hasan have any objections to the islamofascist Iranian regime that stones it's women to death, hangs teenage boys from cranes because they are Gay, persecuted the Bahaiis and the Kurds and invites the KKK and EuroNazis to attend Holocaust-denial conferences?"
Instead do what cowardly Americans and Israelis do. Either blow them all irrespective of whether they are innocent civlians, women or children with either depleted or enhanced uranium shells, preferably dropped using unmanned drones or use white phosphorus bombs on civilians who are unarmed and cannot respond to your aerial bombardm, especially when they are corralled by an illegally built wall. If that does not work bulldoze their homes with the occupants still living in them. That is much more humane than what Iran does according to Coleridge.
Mr Hasan, since when has a UN Secretary General been free of Us influence. Even after the murder of 9 Turkish citizens on the "Mavi Marmara" on the high seas and international waters, Amano ruled that Israelis had a right to self defence. That shows how impartial he is!! You would be in dereliction of your duties if you had not read up his record in the Wikileaks exposes.
"
@lucasmaster
"I know something about military strategy, air operations tactics, special ops"
course you do. course you do. all those endless nights playing COD weren't wasted.....
@jankaas
Or maybe you know better how, for example, standard combat procedure in urban areas for paratrooper unit looks like?
Or how use assult chopper, or Combat UAV for infantry protection?
The Iranians deny the holocaust, threaten to wipe Israel off the map and execute gentle christian converts according to the princples of sharia, which of course is a just and peaceful legal system. Surely thats enough to send over a few tommahawks and possibly a couple of reaper drones. That would be unfair though, most of the islamic world deny the holocaust, want to wipe out Isreal and execute christian converts. Of course Medhi and most British muslims dont give a toss about the ethnic cleansing of christians in the middle east.They are too busy complaining about those pesky jews (sorry its now Zionists) who ilegally soccupy other peoples countries. Only muslims are allowed to do that. Maybe Medhi you can do an article on the Turkish occupation of Northern cyprus even the ancient Greek homeland of Smyra and constantinople. Possibly the Armenian and Assysrian genocides. Maybe the decimation of coptic christians, the dissapearance of the Zoroastrians at the hands of yes you guessed it a friendly little caliphate in the middle ages. What about the Buddists of Afganistan, and lets not forget the numerous ancient jewish tribes of the Hirjaz (Saudi) that those early muslims had such a soft spot for. Bless.
Wikileaks, found a few cables that back up this article.
Check their Twitter feed.
@jankaas
I prefer Football Manager, sorry you missed (-:
Former regular army, and military industry contractor, air force history is my hobby.
Orthodoxcaveman: Who do you think will be whispering in the ear's of the Israelis and the American's.. about the necessity to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, which they already have.. Let me give you a clue. It's a wealthy desert Kingdom. PS. please give me a definition of WMD.. and tell me, when and to who Britain sold these weapon to?
Senior state officials accuse former IAEA chairman of covering up for Islamic Republic during his term, allowing Iranians to move ahead with nuclear program while playing for time. 'He is a despicable person,' one of them says. El Baradei calls accusations 'false'; Iranian Foreign Ministry says Tehran ready to resume nuke talks 'with respect for our nation's rights'
Senior Israeli officials said Tuesday night that the International Atomic Energy Agency report stating that Iran has been working on developing a nuclear weapon design proves that the former UN nuclear watchdog chairman "was an Iranian agent".
On Wednesday, ElBaradei rejected Israel's accusations and called them "false." His response was published on the website of the Egyptian daily al-Youm al-Saba'a.
The former IAEA chairman, Mohamed ElBaradei, is an Egyptian diplomat who even won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
For years he defended the Iranian nuclear program, claiming that it was peaceful, thus allowing the Iranians to continue their activity with the nuclear watchdog's seal of approval. According to one of the state officials, the new report published Tuesday proves "just how much he was working for the Iranians. "He simply rescued Iran and was constantly busy covering up for them, causing serious damage by allowing the Iranians to fool the entire world and play for time. History may judge him as the person who helped Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.
"The things exposed now are not new. These are old things which were hidden and not published," the official added. "Now it turns out that ElBaradei led an active policy of concealment and disregard. This is very serious. He is a despicable person."
"ElBaradei didn't just mess us up, he messed up the entire sane world," added Uzi Eilam, former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Agency. "He was dishonest his entire term. He is the one who stopped the Security Council from imposing serious sanctions, providing the Iranians with precious time."
In an editorial published Wednesday, the British Daily Telegraph indirectly criticized ElBaradei. "Indeed, the IAEA has known for years that Tehran was building an atomic weapon, but has been reluctant to say so. This has made it more difficult to create a united front against the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to world peace," the article read.
Also on Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Tehran remains ready to engage in negotiations with world powers concerned about its nuclear program, but only if the other parties show it due respect.
"We have always announced that we are ready for positive and useful negotiations but, as we have mentioned repeatedly, the condition for those talks to be successful is that we enter those negotiations in a stance of equality and respect for nations' rights," Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the website of Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television.
@Julia.
I love your posts as they are to the point and without a load of smoke, and also without the utter garbage of the bad bad Israel brigade. Keep it up, you're a breath of fresh air.
It's ok everyone, nothing to worry about. Mehdi Hasan has cleared up the whole nuclear threat from Iran. I'm glad that's finally sorted out.
What's for lunch?
I mean... Seriously?
jankaas: THANK FUCK!!!
YAWN !!! I pray that Israel and America strikes Iran's nuclear facilities. I'll be dancing in the street.
But the USA has taken care of those pesky wikileaks people, hasn't it?
Presumably the GIYUS people are dancing in the streets about that, too.
@Julia Harris
Ah yes, the freedom loving people...
"To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom. Their courage teaches us a great lesson -- that there are things in this world worth defending." - Ronald Reagan
Just reading all of the above is like receiving transmissions from another planet. And I was kinda expecting some sort of swing at me from one of these pinheads ... yet answer came there none. Then it hit me - of course, its all just another threnody from the anti-Mehdi/moozlum hater choir.
Who are these people who have such low self-esteem that the only way they can feel good about themselves is to fantasise about muslims dying horribly in the fires of nuclear annihilation? And before any of you knuckleheads wave your hands in the air to point out that wacky fundamentalist moozlums are thinking the same, let me point out the disparity between the west and the muslim world, y`know, the thousands of nukes we have compared to the immense none that Iran has. So next time you go typing on some comment thread (drooling and giggling so hard that the typos arrive in gangs) just remember how the man with the knife feels when faced with a pack of machine-gunners screaming for his blood.
Here endeth the lesson.
@Buckskin
"Skewered again by another thrust from jackass's rapier like intellect."
does that get you aroused?
pathetic.
Of course Israel has nuclear weapons.
It was around 25 at the last count. Being surrounded my hostile nations it's probably a good insurance policy. MAD all you rabid Jew haters most know what MAD stands for...
@Luddite
"jankaas: THANK FUCK!!!"
meaning what? that you're delighted we're all screwed, or that there are so many idiots like you....?
do tell.
@lucamaster
"Or maybe you know better how, for example, standard combat procedure in urban areas for paratrooper unit looks like?
Or how use assult chopper, or Combat UAV for infantry protection?"
great, so you know how to fight as part of a trained unit, with modern equipment. bully for you.
this does not mean however that you know diddly squat about solving complex global issues, or creating a functioning and effective foreign policy. it just means that you know how to kill other humans when you have an advantage.
and as the last half century has shown, this means absolutely nothing when we wish to solve a crisis.
or have you been too busy with your murder fantasies to read the papers?
@Luddite
"all you rabid Jew haters"
great. another intellectual midget who can't distinguish between Israeli and Jew.
we're screwed, there are just too many of you idiots.
"They are clearly mad, because bombing your neighbours will invite retribution and they are already out numbered. "
Israelis have always been outnumbered when fighting Arabs. That didn't stop the Israelis handing the Arabs their asses in 5 different wars. Arabs can't fight. They are pretty good at sending their kids out to fight for them though. That or cowardly attacks on Israeli civilians by an individual who's dreams come in 72's.
@Buckskin
"Arabs can't fight."
so they're stuffed then as Iranians aren't Arabs. but you knew that right?
you didn't.....?!
It seems the zionists have learned the lesson of Iraq. Don't pretend your next victim has WMDs - just say they have plans to get some!
They are clearly mad, because bombing your neighbours will invite retribution and they are already out numbered.
It's important that moderate jews speak out against the extremists in their community, to avoid zionist atrocities formenting anti-semitism.
"the Japanese diplomat who took over at the IAEA in July of 2009, seemed ultra-keen to show his loyalty to the United States from the very start of his term:"
Or does he know what it's like to have your country nuked ?
That's right Mehdi.
America = Bad.
Israel = Bad
Iran = Angels.
Do you honestly think the Israelis will allow that madhouse to develop a Nuclear weapon? If Argentina said the UK should be wiped from the face of the earth, and spewed their venom about the UK on a near daily basis, be permitted to develop Nuclear weapons? Y'aal pounded their ass for taking the Malvinas from you. Get a grip Mehdi. You are a pure Islamist and if it's in any way connect with Islam you would put it before your country.
@ Buckskins, thank you for the compliment and I enjoy your posts too...
embarrassingly and not wanting to take the credit my last post was a cut and paste from an article written by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs -which I just saw and thought it was a great retort.
I didn't highlight who wrote it as some on the left immediately poo poo anything written by certain bloggers, she is fantastic.
@Buckskins
'Y'aal'?
I think there might be a glitch in your cliche generation software. Nobody expects coherent grammar or spelling from you but this is just bogus vocabulary. Are you real?
A nuked Iran is not anything. I said Arabs. Clue me in about the Israeli Iran war? What year was that? You just wanted to announce that you knew Iranians are not Arabic. Imagine that, what a klevah lad yar jackass. How about the Egyptians?
An Iranian nuclear bomb would undermine rather than enhance their national security.
This is because it would alarm all their neighbours and start a regional arms race.
It would also divert resources away from their conventional forces and domestic programmes.
It is strong conventional forces, domestic stability and good relations with their neighbours that makes Iran strong.
The Iranian government knows this, which is why claims that they are trying to build a nuclear bomb are false.
PS. Have our nuclear bombs helped us in Afghanistan?
"@Luddite
"jankaas: THANK FUCK!!!"
"meaning what? that you're delighted we're all screwed, or that there are so many idiots like you....? "
jankaas
11 November 2011 at 19:19
" @Buckskins
"jackass"
oh dear, love that tactic; "if you're shown to be wrong, hurl insult"
pathetic "
@Buckskin
how slow off the mark are you? you could have made that point a day ago.
btw have you managed to come up with any "amusing" versions of your own username yet?
or, god forbid, write anything on topic.....?
For years under the "leadership" of Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Iran got a free ride in inspections and their lies were believed by the world. Only Israel knew that Iran was developing nuclear weapons and will use them once they are made. Now today everyone knows this to be true since the IAEA report on Iran's Nuclear Program has been leaked a week early.
I find it ironic that Israel screamed for years that Iran was building nukes and the world laughed at them. Yet they were correct. And although Sheik Obama wants to capitulate, the Israelis believe the time for talk is over.
It is just a matter of time before Israel has to destroy the Iranian threat. Every nation has a right to defend itself from attack and for years Iran has threatened to "Wipe Israel Off The Map". It is time that this Bully known as Iran learn the following lesson:
Elibiary serves on the "Freedom and Justice" board with Lady Al Qaeda's (Aafia Siddiqui) lawyer Farha Ahmed, along with a number of Muslim Brotherhood-connected co-conspirators.
A very perspective article Mehdi. It shows that you've looked at the bigger picture. Us PPE grads tend to be able to put all the pieces together .. well most of them. What's your economics like? I did a unit in development studies that very enlightening with regards to how the shift of world power would happen .. that is a movement away from the US towards China. The unit was based on basic maths .. it is just a matter of numbers.
Of course the US would try to resist by force but growth and investment would 'naturally' move Eastwards. That's destiny!
Looking forward to more thought provoking articles.
from normblog:
Empathy for the Iranian regime
Arguing for the rationality of Iran's wanting to acquire nukes, Mehdi Hasan writes this paragraph:
Then, of course, less than a thousand miles to the west, there is Israel, your mortal enemy, in possession of over a hundred nuclear warheads and with a history of pre-emptive aggression against its opponents.
Mortal enemy, with a history of pre-emptive aggression. You might easily gain the impression that as between Israel and Iran, Israel constitutes the originating threat to peace. Hasan only neglects to mention that it is an Iranian leader that has uttered threats against Israel's very existence and not the other way round; and that it is Iran that has proxy movements on Israel's borders that likewise dream and speak of the end of Israel.
The quoted paragraph is part of a more general apologia for Iran's effort to become a nuclear power. On Hasan's account, it's as if the West might have designs against that country independently of the menace the current regime's acquisition of nuclear weapons would constitute to the region and beyond. Mehdi Hasan is senior editor (politics) at the New Statesman, a leftwing weekly. Is it any wonder that a certain section of the left today strikes some people - including others on the left - as verkrappt?
Yes I read that Guardian article too. It included such purlers as
''The map makes it clear: Iran is, literally, encircled by the United States and its allies''
Well..... I think I'll be charitable and call that 'a stretch'?
Israelis have always been outnumbered when fighting Arabs. That didn't stop the Israelis handing the Arabs their asses in 5 different wars. Arabs can't fight. They are pretty good at sending their kids out to fight for them though. That or cowardly attacks on Israeli civilians by an individual who's dreams come in 72's. http://www.besthomeimprovementideas.org/
Seems like the biggest threat to safety is that of the Iranian people. My chemical engineering friend, fears the Iranians are messing about with some old style nuclear kit, which could be a danger to the Iranians locally. Hope not. We don't want another chernobyl. But America must stop getting out the go to war card, everytime someone sneezes. Or maybe they use fortune cookies to decide on wars.
Ahmadinejad and Khāmene’i have to divert public interest from the recent uprisings in Islamic based, and influenced countries, by uniting against the common enemy. A marvellous distraction from the modern day pressures their once unquestioned (Wizard of Oz like regime) faces from the likes of Facebook and social networking.
Iran is politically weak at the moment as it can't stop global communications pointing out it's short comings to the people there. It's leaders sense this and want to show they are strong, at their weakest time. Outsiders know this and want to circle in vulture style.
Okay, just to recap - last year Iran spent over $9bn on its military while the USA+Israel spent over 714 billion dollars on their military machines. So for the latter to say that the former is a threat is nothing short of laughable.
Of course, hasbara-droids like the Blessed Julia will come back with the usual froth about the insane Iranian mullahs, bwah hah hah hah. But you have to ask yourself, if the mullahs are so mad as to want to attack Israel (and thereby assure their self-destruction), why havent they gone on a rampage against, oh, I dunno, weaker opponents in the area?
Personally I don't think Iran would go to the lengths of actually developing a nuke, but it suits them for others to think that they might.
@Buckskins
"jackass"
oh dear, love that tactic; "if you're shown to be wrong, hurl insult"
pathetic.
Once a Muslim always a Mulsim...while the cattle class watches Youtube