The Obama administration 'SABOTAGED a DEA operation to stop Hezbollah smuggling drugs into the US and helped the militant group grow into a global threat so the Iran nuke deal would go ahead'
By Gareth Davies
Daily Mail
December 18, 2017
Barack Obama's administration has been accused of sabotaging an operation to stop Hezbollah smuggling drugs into the US so that the nuclear deal with Iran could proceed.
In a stunning exposé by Politico, the former US President's officials are said to have opened the door for trafficking and money laundering operations.
The Drug Enforcement Administration led a complex venture called Project Cassandra to tackle the criminality of the Lebanese militant group from 2008 on.
But it is claimed Obama's people threw down a number of roadblocks, effectively paving the way for Hezbollah's illegal activities including cocaine smuggling into the US.
DEA agents claim the Obama administration stopped them arresting key figures linked to Hezbollah as an agreement on the Iran nuclear deal approached - and scrapped Project Cassandra entirely once the terms were agreed in 2015.
By putting themselves between the DEA and Hezbollah, it helped the militant group grow into a global security threat, the report said.
By putting themselves between the DEA and Hezbollah, it helped the militant group grow into a global security threat, the report said.
The undercover investigation's leaders sought permission for a number of significant prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, but Justice and Treasury Department officials delayed, Politico said.
In some cases, they were hindered and some requests from the DEA's Counter facility in Chantilly, Virginia, were flatly rejected.
This hampered Project Cassandra's efforts to bring the Hezbollah hierarchy to their knees.
They included one of the world's biggest cocaine traffickers who also supplied Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with chemical weapons.
Talking anonymously, some former Obama officials told Politico the decisions were made to improve relations with Iran.
David Asher, who helped establish Project Cassandra, told Politico: 'This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision.
'They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down.'
He added that the closer Obama for to finalizing the Iran nuclear deal, the more difficult the DEA's job became.
The weapons agreement was announced in January 2016, which coincided with Project Cassandra officials being moved onto other assignments.
After more than a decade of tensions with the West, Tehran signed a landmark deal with world powers to curb its nuclear activity in exchange for the gradual lifting of crippling economic sanctions. President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap the accord.
The revelations also come just a week after the leader of Hezbollah swore to 'end' the US, calling for 'martyr' terror attacks in Jerusalem after Trump's recognition of the city as the Israeli capital.
Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of the Lebanese militant group, made the impassioned televised speech to thousands of followers, inciting the crowd to chant 'Death to America'.
This was followed by a warning to Lebanonfrom Israel's Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz, who said that if Hezbollah attacked Israel, the country would return the whole country 'back to the Stone Age'.
In his speech this week, translated by the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah appeared to urge followers to carry out terror attacks in Jerusalem.
'It is time that everybody knows that America is not the sponsor of peace in Palestine and the region,' he said in the televised speech
'America is the sponsor of terrorism, of occupation, of Judaization, of deportation, of burning, of destruction and of civil strife.
'America created ISIS and the takfiri [apostate] groups.
He said the only position the Islamic nation can take regarding the United States is 'Death to America', which was followed by a crowd of hundreds brandishing Palestine flags repeatedly chanting the threatening words.
He urged followers to turn Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital into the 'beginning of the end' for the U.S.and Israel 'for all eternity'.
He also called for 'millions of martyrs' to march on Jerusalem, potentially inciting terror attacks.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006 and often trade warnings. But in an interview on Wednesday, Intelligence Minister Katz warned that if the organisation resumed a military conflict 'all of Lebanon will be a target.'
'What happened in 2006 would be a picnic compared to what could happen...
'I say Lebanon will return to the stone age.'
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