The UN's Nuclear Watchdog Refuses To Bark And Can't Bite

"After initially refusing, the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency will brief senators Wednesday. Are its nuclear monitoring practices kept secret because they're inadequate?

Yukiya Amano, the director general of the IAEA, until Friday was refusing to brief senators on exactly how the UN nuclear weapons watchdog would monitor Iran's nuclear activities. Now the longtime Japanese diplomat will testify to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday.

Democrats skeptical of the deal clearly helped change Amano's mind. They included ranking Foreign Relations member and Maryland liberal Ben Cardin, who urged 'direct communications with the IAEA.'...

A week ago Thursday, the same committee got the 'trust us' treatment from Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on the IAEA - even as Kerry admitted that the U.S. did not possess the text of the IAEA secret side agreement with Tehran regarding the agency's inspection of Iran's Parchin military site, where nuclear weapons development has likely taken place...

Moniz, at Kerry's side, pointed out the IAEA's 'customary confidentiality.'...

Moniz might have said, 'customary ineffectiveness.' And Parchin is a key case in point. Two years ago, the IAEA's second-ranking official, Belgian nuclear engineer Herman Nackaerts, was forced to step down for failing to get inspectors into Parchin...

We're placing our national security in the incompetent hands of a UN agency.

Worse, we're trusting it blindly. When IAEA chief Amano testifies Wednesday, he isn't likely to have a copy of his secret Iran side deal in his pocket, ready to reveal it to Congress and the American people."