The Patriot Post® · Obama Allowed Hezbollah to Traffic Cocaine in U.S.

By Louis DeBroux ·
https://patriotpost.us/articles/53051-obama-allowed-hezbollah-to-traffic-cocaine-in-us-2017-12-20

“The Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free.” —New York Times faux conservative columnist David Brooks, Feb. 9, 2016

Scandal-free. That is a plausible claim … as long as you ignore the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal, IRS targeting of conservative groups, trading five hardened terrorists for traitor Bowe Bergdahl, a private email server and use of aliases between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Benghazi, NSA warrantless collection of every American’s private communications, etc., etc., etc.

But this latest bombshell may be the most shocking and egregious violation of the public trust yet.

As revealed in an in-depth investigative report by Politico, Obama used his presidential power to cripple Project Cassandra, an aggressive DEA operation targeting a cocaine trafficking operation run by the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah. The DEA had collected ample evidence showing Hezbollah had evolved from a Middle Eastern terrorist organization into “an international crime syndicate … collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.”

According to the report, Hezbollah is a major supplier of cocaine to the U.S., using the violent Los Zetas drug cartel to move the drugs from Mexico into the U.S., to the tune of $200 million per month. The drug money would then be laundered through a network of 300 American used car dealers by purchasing cars that would then be shipped to Benin on the west coast of Africa. The car dealerships in West Africa would then take those billions in profits and send them to Hezbollah-friendly banks, which would then fund additional terrorist attacks.

Why would Obama do this?

Specifically, Obama sabotaged the DEA operation to appease Iran (Hezbollah is a proxy for Iran) during negotiations of the nuclear deal, which Obama saw as crucial to his legacy.

As detailed in Politico, after amassing enough evidence to make its move against Hezbollah, the DEA was thwarted by the Obama administration as it sought to go after the major players. For example, Obama’s Justice Department denied Project Cassandra’s requests to file criminal charges against Hezbollah’s “high profile” Iranian envoy, a Lebanese banker who had laundered billions in drug money for the organization and who was “a central player in a U.S.-based cell of the Iranian paramilitary Quds force.” The Obama State Department also refused requests to lure “high-value targets” to U.S.-friendly countries so they could be arrested.

Furthermore, Obama prevented the DEA and FBI from going after Hezbollah operations being conducted on U.S. soil, refusing prosecution of a Hezbollah official in Philadelphia who facilitated the sale of what Politico called “1,200 Colt M4 military-grade assault rifles” that were shipped to Lebanon. Of course, it is possible that Obama was simply trying to avoid the appearance of favoritism between the Islamic terrorists and the violent Mexican drug cartels to which he had previously sold weaponry.

This is particularly enraging because Iran was taking these drug profits and funding terrorist attacks, including the financing of Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs), the most lethal type of IEDs, capable of “ripping M1 Abrams tanks in half” and responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq.

During testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, former Obama Treasury Department official Katherine Bauer testified that “under the Obama administration … these [Hezbollah-related] investigations were tamped down for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.”

Jack Kelly, the veteran DEA supervisory agent tapped to form and lead the Cassandra task force, said, “The FBI and other parts of the USG [U.S. government] provide a little or no assistance during our investigations. The USG lack of action on this issue has allowed [Hezbollah] to become one of the biggest transnational organized crime groups in the world.”

David Asher was the Defense Department illicit finance analyst who helped establish Project Cassandra and then provided oversight. According to Asher, the task force had, if anything, underestimated the scope and significance of Hezbollah’s operation, which was funding coordinated terrorism efforts between Islamic jihad and Iran. Asher testified before Congress that the operation represented the “largest material support scheme for terrorist operations” the world had ever seen.

Oh, and by the way, it was Obama’s mentor, the racist “Rev.” Jeremiah Wright, who once accused the CIA of allowing drugs into the country to poison poor black communities. No, it was actually his protégé.

Sadly, Obama’s actions are in line with his fundamental view of America as the source of much of the world’s ills, and the Middle East’s in particular. During his infamous 2009 apology tour, Obama directed much of the blame for Mideast violence on America’s foreign policy in the region, making a concerted effort to bestow international legitimacy on the Iranian regime.

An astute observer will recall that Obama also paid a $1.7 billion bribe to Iran, flying in the first $400 million, stacked on pallets in a cargo plane, in order to get around the U.S. and international sanctions that had effectively isolated the Iranian banking system from world financial markets. The deal also gave Iran access to the international arms market. And that’s not to mention the dangerous seven Iranian-born prisoners Obama released

So as we continue to endure the ludicrous Trump/Russia investigation, let us contemplate the fact that a U.S. president took actions to intentionally provide support for violent Mexican drug cartels and Islamic terrorists and the sad reality that he will never pay any price for doing so. But thank God, quite literally, that Obama’s successor, President Donald Trump, is aggressively undoing the damage Obama has done.