Is IAEA Chief A "Blind Watchdog?"

I'm tempted to say yes, Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA is, as Charles Johnson at LGF called him, "a blind, toothless watchdog" over nuclear proliferation. The UN's inability to stand above the varied partisan positions of its member states and the Nobel Committee's gratuitous insult to America in giving ElBaradei the Nobel Peace Prize fuel ill will, much of it deserved.

Frequent hat-tip receiver Jim forwarded along a contrarian view from New Sisyphus which is worth reading. Excerpt:

While I certainly agree that ElBaradei's IAEA has not done as good a job with regard to Iran as I might wish, I cannot agree with Charles' characterization in this regard. Given the state of world opinion on this issue, which is largely negative thanks to our now completely discredited intelligence record in connection with weapons of mass distruction, and given that the IAEA serves many masters, most of whom do not share the United States' view of the Iranian situation, I am actually surprised that ElBaradei has been able to keep his eye on the ball as much as he has.

The only thing that I can conclude about the IAEA's continued hawkishness on the Iranian issue is that there exists--behind the scenes--a widely shared view among the world's power about the dangerousness of an Iranian bomb. This is very good news for the U.S., for Israel and for the world.