“Non-threatening” Iran reveals second uranium enrichment plant

Somebody better tell both the President and Joe Biden, both of whom have said before that the size of the country of Iran meant it wasn’t a big a threat to our nation than bigger countries (via Memeo):

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 25 — President Obama and the leaders of France and Britain on Friday blasted Iran’s construction of a previously unknown uranium enrichment facility and demanded 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 at Qom had been under construction for years without being disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Association. “International law is not an empty promise.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Iran of “serial deception” that he said “will shock and anger the whole international community, and it will harden our resolve.”

“We will not let this matter rest,” Brown said. ” . . . Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear programs.”

Iran acknowledged the existence of the facility for the first time on Monday, in a letter to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The letter said “a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country,” said Marc Vidricaire, a spokesman for the watchdog agency. “The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5 percent.”

The kicker? The US and other western intelligence agencies knew about this second plant for years:

White House officials said Western intelligence agencies have been tracking the facility for years. Obama said officials from the United States, France and Britain briefed the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday on what they knew about the facility. The three heads of state decided to publicly disclose the existence of the facility after learning that Iran had become aware the site was no longer a secret.

Iran’s report of the facility’s existence — and Obama’s plans to accuse Tehran of hiding it — were first reported Friday by the New York Times.

Jim Geraghty blasts The Powers That Be:

Wow. Since January, we’ve sought re-engagement with Iran, soft-pedaled criticism of a brutal crackdown of Iranian civilians, and scuttled missile defense…

… and now we learn that they’ve been hiding a second nuclear facility the whole time, and that the U.S. government and its allies have known about this facility for a number of years, and we’ve pretended, in pursuing this re-engagement, that they could be trusted. And for months, we’ve made outreach after outreach, all aimed at establishing a relationship of trust with a government that lied to us, and continues to lie to us.

Dana Loesch adds:

Why did he not say anything to Ahmadinejad who was on our soil at the United Nations just two days ago? Do you realize how impotent this foreign relations #fail makes our President appear? How ineffective we appear?

Well, to be fair, if this President was truly and sincerely concerned about the possibility that his speeches would make him – and via extension this country – appear weak on a world stage, I feel certain he’d do us all a favor by never opening his mouth again at the UN or at any other “international” function. And for that matter, he’d probably instruct Biden to keep a cork in his, too.

One guy who didn’t play the role of appeasement/apologist at the UN this week when it came to the issue of Iran – and the UN? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. You can read/watch it here.

So that’s what leadership looks like. I’d almost forgotten.