In the fall of 2009, when news emerged that Iran had secretly built a uranium enrichment plant on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base near Qom, ElBaradei went to Iran, and on Oct. 4 made a statement there that could hardly have been more deferential toward the UN sanctioned and nonproliferation-treaty-violating Iranian regime.

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Blair went on to note the discovery last year of a secret, second uranium enrichment plant "deep under a mountain near the city of Qom" (and on a military base of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps--though Blair did not spell that out).

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And at the base of that statue are words Washington expressed to his friend after the Revolutionary War in America was won -- and I've shared these words with President Sarkozy on one of our visits, so I want to conclude with them this afternoon, because they capture the spirit that we celebrate today.

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Rapidly losing its popular base, the regime is becoming increasingly dependent on its coercive forces, especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

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