The Sun Shines on the IAEA

Via James Taranto, the New York Sun has a more complete account of the involvement of IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei. Their Benny Avni reports:

"Bush administration officials suspect political motivation behind a letter focused on the disappearance of 377 tons of explosives sent yesterday from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the United Nations Security Council.

"The letter, signed by the head of the IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei, addressed the disappearance of the highly explosive material from a deserted military base in Iraq. The non-nuclear explosives had been monitored by the Vienna-based watchdog agency because they could be used to detonate nuclear bombs."

ElBaradei is running for a third term as head of the IAEA and, as has been widely reported, the Bush administration opposes his reappointment.

More, according to Avni: "The loss, according to the Iraqi official quoted in the letter, Mohammed Abbas, occurred 'after [April 9] 2003, throughout the theft and looting of the governmental installations, due to lack of security.'

"But one U.N. official who is well versed with monitoring procedures told the Sun that there is no way for the Iraqis to know whether the material was looted at that date or was hustled out of Iraq earlier, during the war. 'We are talking about 40 trucks worth of this stuff,' the official who asked not to be named told the Sun. 'It's a huge operation.'"

Finally, the IAEA official told the Sun: "What bothers me is why this is such a big issue, while when we reported that a whole building disappeared, no one cared,' the official told the Sun. He was referring to the IAEA's early October report that said that a building that was under U.N. monitoring and which contained highly sensitive materials and sophisticated equipment was subject to 'systematic dismantlement. [emphasis added]'"

As James Taranto says, "one suspects that this was a foreign effort to influence the outcome of America's presidential election, aided by our domestic partisan liberal media."

At least we know that not every foreign dignitary was involved with Kerry's machinations, both now and over the past couple of years.