HOW NICE TO KNOW IT – AT 9:44 A.M. ET  Even as we deepen our negotiations with Iran, and make one concession after another, Iran's human-rights record gets worse and worse.  From Fox: 

Iran has violated the rights of women, Christians and members of other religious groups and ethnic minorities on a massive scale, even as it seeks to negotiate with the West, according to a new UN report that details an explosion of executions, including state-sanctioned killing of juveniles.

Imprisonment and executions of Christians has continued -- even at an accelerated pace -- since the election of self-proclaimed moderate President Hassan Rouhani, according to Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special rapporteur on Iran. Nearly 100 Christians are currently imprisoned "due to their Christian faith and activities," Shaheed wrote. Christians who converted from Islam and are active in the underground house-church movement often come in for the most severe prosecution, he said.

“Authorities reportedly continued to target the leaders of house churches, generally from Muslim backgrounds," Shaheed wrote. "Christian converts also allegedly continue to face restrictions in observing their religious holidays.”

In 2014, 753 people were executed in the country, the most state-sanctioned killings since 2002. The grim tally includes the execution of 25 women and 13 juveniles.

Notice the silence of so-called "women's groups" in the United States.  I guess there's nothing in it for them.

Roughly half of the executions were for drug-related crimes and, according to Shaheed, fail to meet the international standard of “most serious crimes” required for use of the death penalty.

"The report is a sober reminder that Iran's government, which exports terrorism and seeks nuclear weapons, is also an egregious human rights violator," U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told FoxNews.com. "Far from being moderate, the Iranian regime persecutes women, Christians, Baha'is, and other ethnic and religious minorities, and systematically denies its citizen many freedoms that we take for granted."

Notice also the silence by Barack Obama about the murder of Christians, even though he claims to be one.

Shaheed has aggressively chronicled Iran's abysmal human rights record, even as the U.S. and Western nations negotiate with Tehran over its nuclear weapons program.

“With every report that Dr. Shaheed releases, it becomes more and more evident how systematic human rights violations are structured under the Iranian dictatorship,” said Saba Farzan, executive director of Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin. “The world community with leadership by the Obama administration has thrown human rights under the Persian rug -- literally. Democracy promotion has been sacrificed for the sake of talking endlessly to those who oppress Iranians terribly."

COMMENT:  Well said.  One of the most disgraceful aspects of the Obama administration, and the list is long, is its indifference to human rights.  In fact, the left generally has become increasingly cold to democracy itself. 

This is not really surprising.  There was always a gap between "the left" and "liberals."  For years we had great, true liberals who championed democracy, while the left championed the Soviet Union.  Now true, traditional national-defense liberalism has faded away within the Democratic Party, and the left has risen.  We see it in the Iran negotiations and in the so-called "reset" with an increasingly despotic regime in Moscow. 

Obama just doesn't seem to care.  And the media will not hold him accountable.  Not good for careers.

March 17, 2015