Those U.N. Super-Sleuths

November 7, 2007 
The Wall Street Journal 
Original Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119439726424584620.html

So Mohamed ElBaradei finds it distressing that neither Israel nor the U.S. shared information with him about an apparent Syrian nuclear program before Israeli jets destroyed it on September 6. Imagine that: Not everyone is prepared to entrust the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency with their national security.

For the past year, Mr. ElBaradei has been running an independent foreign policy from his IAEA perch. People tell him he is doing God's work -- or so he tells the New York Times. In August, he announced a nuclear agreement he had reached with Iran's mullahs, without consulting his political superiors at the agency. Even the Europeans protested that one.

The agreement made no reference to the U.N. Security Council's demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program, a demand Mr. ElBaradei himself dismisses as moot. The agreement also allowed the Iranians to dribble out information on the dozen outstanding questions the IAEA has yet to resolve.

Mr. ElBaradei has coasted on the IAEA's reputation as the authoritative source of information on the world's nuclear secrets. Yet this is the same agency that was taken by surprise by nuclear projects in Libya, North Korea and Iraq in the 1980s. And now in Syria, which in September was voted co-chair of the IAEA's General Conference.

All this is reason enough for the U.S., Israel and any other country serious about stopping nuclear proliferation to refuse Mr. ElBaradei's not-so-good diplomatic offices. Not surprisingly, the Syrians are hailing the IAEA chief for saying neither Israel nor the U.S. had provided any evidence to suggest Damascus was in the nuclear business. Satellite images show the Syrians have now covered their tracks in the desert.