U.S. to Shelve Nuclear-Missile Shield
Defense Plans for Poland, Czech Republic to Be Dropped as Iran Rocket Threat Downgraded; Moscow Likely to Welcome Move

The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to people familiar with the matter, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe.

The U.S. will base its decision on a determination that Iran’s long-range missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental U.S. and major European capitals, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Just as the WSJ is reporting that story, Agence France Presse comes up with this one: France ‘certain’ Iran working on nukes

French intelligence agencies are certain that Iran is hiding a nuclear weapons program, President Nicolas Sarkozy says.

“We cannot let Iran acquire nuclear” weapons because it would also be a threat to Israel, Sarkozy said during a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace with lawmakers from his conservative UMP party on Tuesday.

“It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear (weapons) program,” he said.

The French leader also said he would not “shake the hand of someone who wants to wipe Israel off the map”, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

So the French think the Iranians are getting nukes, but the Obama administration is not worried because the Iranian rockets are not ready to deliver them?

But, guess what, Intelligence Agencies Say No New Nukes in Iran
Secret updates to White House challenge European and Israeli assessments.
Not only does the administration think the Iranians don’t have the rockets, they don’t even believe Iran could get the bomb.

Gee, that so eases my mind!

Alright kids, let’s make Vlad happy, then!
Michael Goldfarb:

This represents a complete capitulation to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who had demanded that the proposed deployments be halted as a price for improved relations. Ironically, the Obama administration, which is appeasing Russia in the hopes that Moscow will help put pressure on Iran, has made this mammoth concession just a few days after Moscow declared that it had no intention of supporting sanctions against Iran.

The consequences of this action in Eastern Europe, especially in Ukraine and in other countries that feel vulnerable to Russian power, will be disastrous. It is a major American retreat in the face of Russian bullying. And we will get absolutely nothing for it.

More Obama-brand diplomacy:

A source tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the team in the air to Europe will be making stops in Warsaw, Prague, and Brussels. It sounds like the administration did not undertake any serious consultation with the allies affected by this decision, displaying a kind of unilateralism that became one of the core Democratic criticisms of the Bush administration’s diplomacy.

The Czech Interim Prime Minister got a midnight call. They couldn’t even bother to tell him in person.

From the day Obama was sworn in, the entire foreign policy has been, “appease our enemies, drop our friends.”

Let’s take a look at the map, and think fireworks,

Many other bloggers will be remarking that this move by the Obama administration gives the Czechs and Poles (and Israel) the middle finger. You can also be assured that Chavez is also welcoming the news, big time.

Exit question,
Is the healthcare debate timed to coincide with this in order to distract from the disastrous foreign policy, or is it just another disastrous move out of many?

UPDATE
While we’re at it, let’s appease China and throw the Dalai Lama under the bus, too.

At DEBKA, Sarkozy accuses Iran of hiding nuclear weapons program which threatens Israel

The first Western leader to expressly admit knowledge of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said: “It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear (weapons) program.” He added: “We cannot let Iran acquire nuclear” weapons because it would also be a threat to Israel.” Sarkozy spoke during a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace with lawmakers from his UMP party Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The French president said he would not shake the hand (of Iran’s president at the UN General Assembly) of “someone who wants to wipe Israel off the map.”

DEBKAfile’s militlary sources add:

French intelligence has thus gone further than US intelligence agencies which maintained in an assessment to leaked to the media on Sept. 10: “Iran has created enough nuclear fuel to make a rapid, if risky, spring for a nuclear weapon,” and “Iran has deliberately stopped short of the critical last steps to make a bomb.”

France is one of the five permanent UN Security Council members with veto powers. Together with Germany they have agreed to meet Iranian representatives on Oct. 1 for talks, although Tehran insists they will not cover its “inalienable nuclear rights.”

At least Sarko’s awake.

In today’s podcast
This will be the subject of today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern.

More
The gathering storm, part 168
Surrender and Betrayal Do Not Make Us Safer

Update 2
Adding insult to injury is the timing of the announcement: A friend emailed reminding me that September 17 is the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland. Nice going! Jules has more, lots more, on that.

Michael Goldfarb examines the decision:
[Read more…]