Bush Among 173 Nobel Peace Prize Nominees
The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee reported a record 173 nominations for 2004, with known candidates including President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and the pope.
Committee Secretary Geir Lundestad said thousands of people, including members of any national legislature or government and many university professors, had nomination rights, so being proposed for the prize was no distinction in itself.
“It’s easy to get nominated for the prize,” Lundestad said.
He said he had received thousands of e-mails protesting the nomination of Bush and Blair, for example. “The fact that someone is nominated is in no way a form of endorsement from the committee,” Lundestad said.
Bush and Blair were nominated by Norwegian lawmaker Jan Simonsen of the right-wing Party of Progress, who praised the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The awards committee keeps the names of nominees secret for 50 years, releasing only the number. However, people making nominations may announce their choices. Other nominees include former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
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