Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Iran, an example of the failure of multilateralism in the control of nukes

Con Coughlin:

The former head of the United Nations inspection team that is investigating Iran's nuclear programme has called on the Security Council to give it greater powers so it can determine whether Teheran is trying to build an atomic bomb.

For the past six years Dr Pierre Goldschmidt, a Belgian nuclear scientist, has been in charge of the inspectors sent by the UN-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, to investigate Iran's nuclear programme.

Throughout that period the Iranians have tried to conceal crucial aspects of the programme and have indulged in a dangerous game of diplomatic brinkmanship with the IAEA and the UN over the level of access provided to the inspection teams.

"It is reaching the point where it is beyond critical," Dr Goldschmidt told The Sunday Telegraph in his first interview since retiring from the IAEA in July. "The IAEA can only work on the basis of the facts that are presented to it, and there have been many serious omissions by the Iranians. The Iranians are exploiting all the loopholes in the international agreements. As to why they are doing this you can draw your own conclusions."

The Bush administration has given the Euros and international organizations an opportunity to stop Iran's development of nuclear weapons and they have all lived down to expectations. Multilateralism is not a rational defense against an irrational enemy like the ayatollahs of Iran.