During the race for President of the United States, Barak Obama advocated a policy of engaging the radical Islamic regime of Iran in high level talks to bring about a normalization of relations and a curtailment of Iran's nuclear program.

In the past few weeks President Obama has begun executing this game plan.

He began by delivering a holiday greeting to the Iranian people and their religious leaders. While President Obama expressed his desire to engage the Iranian leadership, human rights activists were visibly upset by his failure to condemn the serious human rights violations of the Iranian regime. (Shortly after Obama's video message Amnesty International issued a report that criticized Iran for being number two behind China on the list of nations that execute civilians -- only China executed more people.)

Obama's holiday message has been followed up with outreach to start talks with Iran on the issue of Afghanistan and Obama's encouragement of NATO starting talks with Iran.

Perhaps most disturbing is Obama's acceptance of an invitation to address the Alliance of Civilizations in Turkey. The Alliance is an arm of the United Nations and has a long record of trying to legitimize the radical regime in Iran. The Alliance was founded by a leftist Spanish government in conjunction with the overtly Muslim government of Turkey.

A Spanish foreign policy expert described the Alliance as a "counter to the war on terror."

During its relatively brief existence, the Alliance has received enthusiastic support from Koffi Anan, and members of the European Union who have been quick to criticize Israel and the United States while whitewashing Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and other supporters of international terror.

Forbes Magazine's award winning columnist Claudia Rosett has recently written about the Alliance's unsavory supporters and agenda.

Rosett begins her "unofficial history" of the Alliance with this description:

"the Alliance might more appropriately be called a U.N.-approved Slush Fund for Advancing Iranian and Other Islamic Interests. Both high profile and hard to pin down, it is first and foremost an Iranian brain child, which came to the U.N. by way of an earlier venture pitched in 1998 by Iran's then-president Mohammad Khatami for a "Dialogue of Civilizations."

Rosett concludes her expose with these thoughts:

"The Alliance has to date acquired a "group of friends" consisting of 99 members. Along with various sovereign states, these "friends" include the Organization of the Islamic Conference (or OIC), the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (set up by the OIC), the Arab League, plus the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization.

Rosett notes that "There is no representation from Israel."

"This is the U.N.-fostered outfit providing the framework Obama, the American commander-in-chief, will dignify with his present at its April 6 and 7 meeting in Istanbul.

"There are many ways one might describe this Alliance: An Iran-spawned Islamic-themed club; another U.N. exercise in equating the desires of despotic regimes with the principles of free societies; a curious vehicle for U.N. officials with odd spots in their past; a diplomatic bordello providing dark nooks for backroom deals. But an alliance of civilizations it is not."

Read Rosett's complete article here.

As we have in the past, we ask why (given these facts) has Obama decided to legitimize this troublesome pack of troublemakers.?

Obama's radical shift away from advocating human rights violations and his new set of friends should trouble everyone who supports a world based on values of humanity that supports the innocent against the despots.