IAEA Iranian phone taps

WaPo has a peice on the phone tapping of IAEA communications with Iranian Dipolmats.

Surprisingly, the Old Grey Lady looks pretty reasonable on this report.

The Political shows this AM have shown some politios being outraged about this. They seem to be thinking that we shouldn't be spying on "allies" without cause. IAEA is an ally? Also, this is relevant intelligence related to a nation that is definitely outside international norms.
There also seems to be some opinion that the only reason that El Baradei's phone was tapped was to find information on him in order to get him fired. This smacks far too much of a conspiracy theory.

El Baradei has spoken against the US action against Iraq, but otherwise his work seems to have been reasonably effective. Not that the IAEA has had much of an effect overall, but they have been on oversite group that has stayed away from politics.

Collin Powell noted in September, the rule in Geneva has been for two terms, after El Baradei stated that he would stay if the IAEA board asked him. There are plenty of people out there that could do this job as well and not have the controversy that El Baradei raised by criticizing the US. This would probably aid the organization overall by having a leader that isn't veiwed as anti-American.