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Mohamed ElBaradei
Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency have won the Nobel Peace Prize. I would say the fair return for a work of 8 years ahead of that International Agency.
Dr. ElBaradei was born in Cairo, Egypt, on 17 June 1942, son of the late Mostafa ElBaradei, a lawyer and former President of the Egyptian Bar Association. He gained a Bachelor’s degree in Law in 1962 at the University of Cairo, and a Doctorate in International Law at the New York University School of Law in 1974. He is also the recipient of various honorary degrees. (from the IAEA's website)
Christiane Amapour interviewed ElBaradei last March. Here is quote, a statement that probably helps explaining the Nobel:
(...)should a system by which everyone perceives it to be inclusive and fair, fairness is usually the key to a durable solution and my proposal is let us have a time out let us stop any new country developing, let´s stop developing nuclear any nuclear facility being built for now, let us see how we better control the facility, let us have a system by which every country is assured of supply so no country can say I want to have my own independent enrichment or reprocessing. (...)
I also appreciated Hans Blix's reaction: "I think it underlines the importance of the agency and it underlines the importance of states co-operating through an international organisation, rather than simply acting unilaterally."
and Jan Petersen's, Norway's Prime Minister: "He is a man of great integrity and has always sought to achieve results through negotiation. We saw this clearly in the run-up to the Iraq war, where he insisted to the very last that the weapons inspectors must be allowed to continue their work."
So Bono and Geldorf lost, but that's alright, everyone loves them and supports them anyway, their wonderful work has been done, ElBaradei and IAEA certainly needed more attention, as provided by such a prize, than Bono and Geldorf. If anything, they know they would be the most popular candidates.
Here a bit of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement:
"At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation..." and "In his will, Alfred Nobel wrote that the Peace Prize should, among other criteria, be awarded to whoever had done most for the "abolition or reduction of standing armies". In its application of this criterion in recent decades, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has concentrated on the struggle to diminish the significance of nuclear arms in international politics, with a view to their abolition. That the world has achieved little in this respect makes active opposition to nuclear arms all the more important today."
Read the whole text here.
Finally, an interesting article in the antiwar.com site from last June:
"Despite intense effort by John Bolton and the neocrazies to get rid of him, Mohamed ElBaradei has just been elected to a third term as Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (...)
So, why did the neocrazies want to get rid of ElBaradei.
Well, back in 1998 ElBaradei told the Security Council that
- There were no indications to suggest that Iraq was successful in its attempt to produce nuclear weapons.
- There were no indications to suggest that Iraq had produced more than a few grams of weapons-grade nuclear material through its indigenous processes.
- There were no indications that Iraq otherwise clandestinely acquired weapons-usable material.
- There were no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of amounts of weapons-usable nuclear material of any practical significance."
Does the Nobel award anti-American Prizes? I don't really think so.