Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate who is expected to fly home today despite a ban on demonstrations by his supporters, received Egypt's highest honour four years ago but is now seen as a threat to the long rule of President Hosni Mubarak
The former Egyptian diplomat and Nobel laureate, who is returning home for his first visit since stepping down as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency late last year, has not ruled out contesting next year's presidential election.
That puts him at odds with Mubarak, who has been president of the US-allied country since 1981. Mubarak has been silent about his own ambitions, but there is wide speculation he is grooming his younger son, Gamal, to fill his shoes.
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President Barack Obama will try to win over Muslims on trip to EgyptElBaradei, who left Egypt 27 years ago to work for the United Nations, has been guarded about whether he will stand in the election. But he has said that if he does, he will do so only as an independent and only if the polls are transparent and democratic. That makes his candidacy nearly impossible, because under the election rules independents requires a minimum level of support from members of the lower and upper houses of parliament and municipal councils, which are all dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
Nevertheless, ElBaradei, who is untainted by the allegations of corruption that surround Mubarak's regime, is regarded as a hero in Egypt, where a Facebook campaign is under way to engineer a muted welcome that would bypass the ban on support rallies.
Security sources said that measures would be taken to prevent any "illegal demonstrations" by his supporters at Cairo airport.
ElBaradei, who was the public face of the UN nuclear watchdog for 12 years, is widely admired in Egypt, where he received the country's highest honour, the Nile Shas, in 2006.
Before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he won public admiration around the world and infuriated Washington by challenging claims that Saddam Hussein was hiding a secret nuclear programme. He was proved right when no nuclear weapons were found.
ElBaradei, 67, has earned a reputation for speaking his mind, and has lambasted what he calls the double standards of countries that have nuclear weapons but prevent other countries from obtaining them.
He was born on June 17 1942, in Cairo, where his attorney father headed the bar association, a position that sometimes put him at odds with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian strongman leader.
Following in his father's footsteps, ElBaradei earned his law degree at the University of Cairo in 1962.
"My father taught me that you have to stand by your principles. He was president of the bar association and was preaching civil liberties and human rights during some of the most repressive years of the Nasser era," ElBaradei has written.
"I think that's a lesson I remember from him," ElBaradei has said of his father, "that you stand up for what you believe in."
Two years after obtaining his law degree, ElBaradei joined the diplomatic service, and was assigned to the Egyptian missions to Geneva and New York, where he earned a doctorate in international law and later taught.
He has written that his New York years were among the most formative, helping him to broaden his world view.
As special assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, ElBaradei served on the negotiating team at the Camp David peace talks that led to Egypt's peace treaty and diplomatic relations with Israel.
ElBaradei began his UN career in 1980, and was sent to Iraq in the wake of the 1991 Gulf war to dismantle Saddam's nuclear programme.
In 1997, he was chosen as head of the IAEA, a role that made him an international household name and led to confrontations with Washington, first over Iraq and later over Iran.
When Washington claimed that Iraq was buying uranium in Africa, ElBaradei dismissed the evidence before the UN Security Council as fake.
The Washington Post reported that ElBaradei's telephone in Vienna was bugged by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
In 2005, ElBaradei and the IAEA were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts "to prevent nuclear energy for being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".
ElBaradei stepped down as head of the IAEA late last year, ending a 12-year term.
He is married to Aida Elkachef, a kindergarten teacher, and has two children, Laila and Mostafa.
Mubarak serves the NWO, to the detriment of the locals, as any good dictator would. It would be extremely difficult to be rid of him. His son is being groomed to take over by all accounts.
El Baradai has no inkling of support from the people that matter, as Coglan points out elsewhere. His integrity is a negative in this respect.
Report this commentI don't think this "good" dictatorship in the West's eyes, would be ever brought down without its approval.
Report this commentHe sounds like just the sort of leader Egypt and the Middle East needs. I'd be delighted to see Mubarak thrown out of office.
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