UNBELIEVABLE - AT 4:35 P.M. ET:  Well, they announced it on a Friday afternoon, so I guess they didn't want too much publicity.  But one day after the "historic" meeting with Iran, the State Department's division of appeasement is out with a clarification, which should give the mullahs in Tehran a good laugh, to go with the other laughs they're having at our expense:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A two-week deadline set by world powers for Iran to open a newly-revealed nuclear site to inspectors is not "written in stone," the US State Department said on Friday.

"I don't think it was a hard deadline. We made clear it was a matter of some urgency," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly at a press briefing.

After Thursday talks between Iranian officials and representatives of six world powers, US President Barack Obama called on Iran to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit the newly-revealed nuclear site near the Iranian city of Qom within two weeks.

"Since Iran has now agreed to cooperate fully and immediately with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it must grant unfettered access to IAEA inspectors within two weeks," he said.

But Kelly said Friday that the two-week timeline was not a "drop-dead deadline."

"I don't know that it is written in stone necessarily," he said. "We do expect it to happen in the next couple of weeks."

COMMENT:  Are you believing this?  The first thing we do is extend the deadline, just as we've extended every other deadline.  This kind of thing looks pathetic, especially as it dovetails so well with the overall foreign-policy tone of this administration.

Well, President Obama did spend 25 minutes on the plane today, on the ground in Copenhagen, with General McChrystal.  Eliminating the pleasantries, that must mean about 20 minutes devoted to a war in which Americans are dying by the day.  No report on what was said, or when they'll meet again.

October 2, 2009