While President Barack Obama (D) was glibly assuring American Jews in particular and Americans in general on Friday that...

Fifteen years from now, the president, whoever that may be, will be in a stronger position to respond to the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, if the current deal with Tehran is adopted and implemented, President Barack Obama told an online audience for the Jewish Federations of North America on Friday.

Obama said the U.S. would have greater “knowledge” of the Iranian nuclear program after 15 years,  when key provisions of the agreement such as limits on uranium enrichment and centrifuges expire.

The president vowed that the U.S. would be prepared to respond in the even that Iran dashes for nuclear weapons. “We are confident in our ability to respond,” he said.

...facts on the ground told another story about the strength of the presidency to respond to Iran's use of nuclear weapons in...oh, say, 15 minutes from now.  It is weak.  Scarily weak.  The response to continued Iranian promises of "Death to America!" seems to be "OK."

Contradicting State Department reassurances mentioned here yesterday:

Responding to reports of construction at the Parchin military base, State Department spokesman John Kirby said that constructing an addition to one of the buildings was allowed because the site is a "conventional military site, not a nuclear site."

This is another flip-flop by the Obama administration, who had been insisting for years that Parchin may have conducted tests as recently as 2010 related to a nuclear explosive.  And of course, giving Parchin a clean bill of health before the IAEA even has a chance to examine the samples that will be collected by Iranian scientists is ludicrous. 

Reuters news agency quoted from a confidential (Hillary Clinton-type confidential?) International Atomic Energy Agency report:

"Since (our) previous report (in May), at a particular location at the Parchin site, the agency has continued to observe, through satellite imagery, the presence of vehicles, equipment, and probable construction materials. In addition, a small extension to an existing building" appeared to have been built.

The changes were first observed last month, a senior diplomat familiar with the Iran file said.

The IAEA says any activities Iran has undertaken at Parchin since U.N. inspectors last visited in 2005 could jeopardize its ability to verify Western intelligence suggesting Tehran carried out tests there relevant to nuclear bomb detonations more than a decade ago. Iran has dismissed the intelligence as "fabricated".  (snip)

"Full and timely implementation of the relevant parts of the road-map is essential to clarify issues relating to this location at Parchin," the new IAEA report said.

According to data given to the IAEA by some member states, Parchin might have housed hydrodynamic experiments to assess how specific materials react under high pressure, such as in a nuclear blast.

"We cannot know or speculate what's in the (extended) building ... It's something we will technically clarify over the course of the year," the senior diplomat said. The report said the extended building was not the one that some countries suspect has housed the controversial experiments.

"It’s funny that the IAEA claims there has been a small extension to a building ... Iran doesn't need to ask for the IAEA's permission to do construction work on its sites," Reza Najafi, Iran's envoy to the agency, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

So there!  Other than that, verification should be just splendid.  As should be a confident response.