Mohamed ElBaradei was virtually unknown when the United States engineered his candidacy eight years ago to run the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency. He was a soft-spoken lawyer then, who left the Middle East of his youth for New York, first as a diplomat, then as an academic and finally as a career U.N. servant. “What more could we ask for than a smart, respected Egyptian who cares passionately about the New York Knicks and nuclear nonproliferation?” said John Ritch, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency who was instrumental in ElBaradei’s selection.Full Story