September 18, 2007(LPAC)—In early March, 2003, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the United Nations Security Council that the "Niger Yellow Cake" documents, cited by the Bush administration as cause to attack Iraq were a fraud—a crude forgery that his staff had uncovered on the Internet. Despite this shocking revelation, Dick Cheney drove the Administration into war against Iraq, and began the bombings less than two weeks after ElBaradei's exposing the "Niger Yellow Cake" hoax.

This time, Dr. ElBaradei is driving a much tougher campaign against an unnecessary war against Iran. Speaking to reporters yesterday, ElBaradei again rejected any military option against Iran, stating, "We need always to remember that use of force could only be resorted to when ... every other option has been exhausted. I don't think we are at all there.... There is a UN charter and there are rules for the international use of force. I hope everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation when we see a drama unfolding every day."

ElBaradei said, that thousands of "innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country had nuclear weapons." ElBaradei had tried to continue inspections in Iraq, but was prevented by the U.S. war. Now, he is conducting negotiations with Iran: "I think what we need now to do is to encourage Iran to work with the agency to clarify the outstanding issues" about its nuclear program, in the more than four years of IAEA's investigation, ElBaradei said. He said, "by November-December we will be able to know whether Iran is acting in good faith or not, and if not, then obviously we will have a different situation. But people need to bear with us. People need to understand we are dealing with an issue that has a lot to do with peace and security and regional instability in the Middle East, and I would ask everybody to hold their horses until we go through the process," ElBaradei said.

He went on that, on the basis of the IAEA inspectors' work in Iran, "I have made it very clear that I don't see today a clear and present danger in regard to the Iran nuclear program." Then he characterized the talk of war as "a lot of hype," which reminded him of a statement by George Orwell to the effect that "in time of hype telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." ElBaradei continued, "If that is the case, I will continue, I can promise you, to be a revolutionary, by giving the truth in an objective and impartial manner."