peace
Bush, Blair Among Nobel Nominees as Deadline Looms
President Bush (news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) are among nominees for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize before a Sunday deadline for nominations despite failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Among nominees are the European Union (news - web sites) to mark its expansion to include former East bloc states. Pope John Paul (news - web sites), the Salvation Army, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, Chinese dissidents are also among nominees.
"Bush and Blair definitely still deserve it," said Jan Simonsen, a right-wing independent member of Norway's parliament who nominated the two for the 2004 prize shortly after the U.S.-led war toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April.
"Even though they haven't found those weapons they got rid of a dictator and made the world more safe," he told Reuters on Friday, sticking by the choice. "They got rid of a madman."
Nobel watchers say Bush or Blair's chances of winning are close to nil. The 2002 prize went to ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who argued against war. The head of the Nobel committee called the choice a "kick in the legs" to Bush on Iraq.
The 2003 prize, worth $1.35 million, went to Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi from a record field of 165 nominees. The annual deadline for nominations for the award, announced in October, is February 1
Lundestad said many people wrongly believed being a "Nobel prize nominee" was itself a kind of honor.
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) have made it to the list -- every member of all the world's parliaments, university professors from law to theology, ex-winners and committee members can submit names.
"There are many who do not understand the difference between a nomination and getting the prize," Lundestad said.
He also said he could not cope with a deluge of e-mails and said he preferred receiving letters or faxes.
"There are periods when I receive more than 1,500 e-mails per day, either supporting or denouncing someone," he said, adding he simply deleted most all of them. "Please don't put my e-mail address in a story. It's well enough known as it is."