Obama got played

Obama has bent over backward to obtain "engagement" with Iran. He limited opposition to the regime's brutal crackdown to the threat that the US would "bear witness" to the regime's actions. He has continued the world apology tour for appeasement and continuously pokes a stick in the eye of one of our staunchest allies, Israel.

And for what ?? To be bitch-slapped.

President Obama and the leaders of France and Britain blasted Iran's construction of a previously unacknowledged uranium enrichment facility and demanded Friday that Tehran immediately fulfill its obligations under international law or risk the imposition of harsh new sanctions.

"Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow," Obama said, detailing how the facility near Qom had been under construction for years without being disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "International law is not an empty promise."

The new Iranian plant, the country's second uranium enrichment facility, is believed by U.S. officials to be part of a broad effort by Iran's leadership to pursue the ability to build nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly denied having any such goal, insisting that its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. U.S. officials said they believe the Qom plant is not yet operational but is intended to produce highly enriched uranium -- suitable for nuclear weapons -- and will be capable within months of producing enough material for at least one bomb per year.

In an early indication of Iran's reaction, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad warned Western officials against pressing their case about the new enrichment plan during the upcoming talks.

"If I were [President] Obama's adviser, I would definitely advise him to refrain making this statement because it is definitely a mistake," Ahmedinejad told Time magazine Friday in an interview in New York that took place even as Obama was publicly revealing the plant's existence. "It would definitively be a mistake."

Ahmadinejad dismissed the accusations from Obama and the other leaders.

Of course he did. Does anyone seriously think that this will suddenly make a difference in policy.

Jim Geraghty eloquently explains what Obama fails refuses to comprehend.

The Iranians are a brutal and cruel regime, willing to murder their own daughters in the streets to keep power, who think nothing of lying to the world. You cannot will them into being a better regime made up of better people. You cannot talk them out of their natures, you cannot negotiate them out of their ambitions, you cannot haggle them into better characters.

UPDATED: The worst part is that Obama has apparently known about this since January and has continued to play the appeasement/engagement game.

But White House officials said Western intelligence agencies have known about the facility for several years and believe that Iran acknowledged its existence Monday in an attempt to head off intense criticism that they knew was coming.

"We believe that the Iranians learned that the secrecy of the facility had been compromised," a senior White House official said Friday morning. "We've been aware of this facility for several years, building up a case so that we had very strong evidence."

Officials from the United States, France and Britain rushed to brief the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday on what they knew about the facility. U.S. officials said that detailed briefing was provided in an attempt to spark an immediate investigation by the international organization.

U.S. intelligence officials said that while they have known for several years about underground construction on the site about 20 miles north of Qom, their confidence about its purpose increased measurably this year. They described the plant as located in series of tunnels deep within a mountain on a base belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. Qom, a Shiite Muslim holy city about 100 miles southwest of Tehran, is considered the birthplace of the religious movement that led to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

So Obama knew that they were blatantly lying to him and still continued this course of diplomacy. Why, a cynic would think that Obama valued his legacy (i.e. Nobel peace prize) over U.S. national security.