By Todd Crowell, Asia Times, 25 March 2009
TOKYO – During most of his 12 years in office, Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was a thorn in the side of president George W Bush and others in his administration cleaving to a hard line on Iraq and Iran.
Relations sank after ElBaradei publicly questioned Washington’s rationale for going to war with Iraq in 2003 and they never recovered. He openly criticized US hints that it might go to war with Iran over its uranium-enrichment program and deplored Washington’s withholding of information on the suspected Syrian nuclear site until after the Israelis bombed it in 2007.