U.S. spied on IAEA

Vienna

The Bush administration intercepted telephone calls from the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian diplomats, The Washington Post reported this week. Administration officials are combing transcripts of the calls to look for evidence of wrongdoing by Mohamed ElBaradei, secretary-general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the paper said, quoting unnamed administration sources. The Bush administration has been critical of ElBaradei since he questioned American evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program; now some officials suspect that he is coddling Iran. The IAEA took the reports of spying in stride. “We’ve always assumed that this kind of thing goes on,” IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. “We wish it were otherwise, but we know the reality.”

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