by Mahmoud Abu Ghosh
Mohamed ElBaradei has dropped out of the running as a candidate in Egypt’s presidential race.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced his decision Saturday.
“My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a democratic framework,” ElBaradei said in a statement reported by the Los Angeles Times, adding that the ruling military council still had too much control over Egypt.
The council, which has repeatedly promised to step aside when a new president is elected in June, is behaving “as if no revolution took place and no regime has fallen,” ElBaradei said.
But the truth is more complex. Indy News Israel revealed in February that ElBaradei, who had been living abroad for over a decade after being exiled from Egypt by former President Hosni Mubarak, is strongly connected to the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations and is largely viewed by the Egyptian public as representing the interests of Western powers in the region.
As former head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog group, El Baradei focused his attention selectively, targeting nations viewed as obstacles to the CFR’s globalist agenda while ignoring the nuclear ambitions of countries like Iran.
Middle East Newswire reported last year that the entire notion of a united front of anti-Mubarak parties could somehow work together against the Egyptian regime was already set into motion well before the current crisis.
In a book by Bruce Rutherford entitled “After Mubarak,” the author explains how the Muslim Brotherhood, the judiciary establishment and the business sector can work in parallel to influence Egypt’s political future.
CFR associate Steven A. Cook later showcased this book in his April 2009 article on the CFR’s Foreign Affairs website.
When he returned in January 2011 to place himself at the head of the Arab Spring revolution in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, ElBaradei was welcomed by the youth and by some progressive movements eager to depose Mubarak after three decades of oppressive rule.
Since anti-Mubarak demonstrations began, the Western media had promoted ElBaradei as the uniting figure for all of the various Egyptian opposition groups. But a number of independent media outlets quickly exposed that ElBaradei sits on the board of the International Crisis Group – a CFR affiliate organization heavily funded by George Soros, a man well experienced in funding political coups and installing pro-globalist leaders in countries targeted for upheaval.
ElBaradei’s National Front for Change party did not do well in elections, however, and he has never appeared comfortable at massive rallies.
In the recent parliamentary elections, the formerly outlawed Muslim Brotherhood swept into power, winning at least 45 percent of the seats and making it unlikely that ElBaradei’s pro-Western agenda would be welcomed by the Egyptian people.
