Nobel Jury Defends Obama Decision

OSLO – The chairman of the Norwegian committee that gave President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize says the criticism of that choice is coming mainly from Obama’s political rivals and the media.

The chairman (Thorbjoern Jagland) says the decision was in keeping with Alfred Nobel’s desire that the award he established go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year. And he asks, “Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?”

He pointed to Obama’s efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and to scale down the Bush administration’s plan for an anti-missile shield in Europe.

The Associated Press asked the five committee members to comment on the uproar that followed Friday’s announcement.

One didn’t answer calls seeking comment, but the other four said they had expected their decision would be criticized.

Three of them rejected the notion that Obama hadn’t done anything to deserve the award, while the fourth declined to answer that question.