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So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal?
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Awesome.

Hezbollah, which operates in Lebanon, is basically an Iranian proxy army and "social welfare" organization. It was formed from the old Amal Shiite Muslim militia that helped contribute to Lebanon's misery during its long civil war. Not only is Hezbollah ("Party of God") a terrorist organization, but they're also a criminal drug gang that funds its terrorist activities by smuggling cocaine into the US.

So of course our government had to derail the investigation into the terror group, which would have threatened the Iran nuclear deal that was being pushed at the time.

"In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.


The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah's illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

They followed cocaine shipments, tracked a river of dirty cash, and traced what they believed to be the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests."


What is it about Iran that makes our government do stupid things? Like this and like trying to work with them and the Nicaraguan Contras on a complicated arms-and-missiles scheme? Are we just really, really stupid when it comes to the Islamic Republic?

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
Last edited by: big kahuna: Dec 18, 17 10:41
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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But but but Obama...
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [orphious] [ In reply to ]
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orphious wrote:
But but but Obama...

In fairness, Reagan and his amanuensis, Oliver North, cooked up a fairly foolish scheme to arm the Contras that involved backdoor dealing with Iran as well.

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [orphious] [ In reply to ]
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orphious wrote:
But but but Obama...

I also smell the fairly heavy hand of Mr. Obama's own amanuensis, the Iranian-born (to American parents) Valerie Jarrett, who's never met a repressive, theocratic regime she didn't immediately fall in love with. ;-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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LOL.. I was just saving the usual suspects the trouble of posting that.. ;o)
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [orphious] [ In reply to ]
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orphious wrote:
LOL.. I was just saving the usual suspects the trouble of posting that.. ;o)

That'll come later in the afternoon/early evening, I'm sure, though the majority of the mainstream news outlets aren't giving the Politico scoop the kind of big play you'd think such a story would garner. It's got it all and on an Iran-Contra scale that's vastly larger and equally as troubling. Oh, that's right... ;-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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big kahuna wrote:
orphious wrote:
LOL.. I was just saving the usual suspects the trouble of posting that.. ;o)


That'll come later in the afternoon/early evening, I'm sure, though the majority of the mainstream news outlets aren't giving the Politico scoop the kind of big play you'd think such a story would garner. It's got it all and on an Iran-Contra scale that's vastly larger and equally as troubling. Oh, that's right... ;-)

I dont think you'll see this get that kind of play in the major outlets. Well Faux will carry it eventually but that will be about it.
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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That'll come later in the afternoon/early evening, I'm sure, though the majority of the mainstream news outlets aren't giving the Politico scoop the kind of big play you'd think such a story would garner. It's got it all and on an Iran-Contra scale that's vastly larger and equally as troubling. Oh, that's right... ;-)


Oh please. Cocaine? The 80's called and wants it's drug war back.

We've moved onto opioids and OIC. ;-)
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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    A very expensive deal from our side. I repeatedly posted in these pages about things overlooked or lost to the goal of an Iran deal, and of the surety a deal would happen, because Obama had it as a top personal goal. One major cost was shared by him personally, in not following up on his "redline" comments re Syria, that in order to keep Russia on the side of helping with Iran. At any rate, we can and should look at such costly deals over time, to measure their worth.
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [dave_w] [ In reply to ]
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A very expensive deal from our side. I repeatedly posted in these pages about things overlooked or lost to the goal of an Iran deal, and of the surety a deal would happen, because Obama had it as a top personal goal. One major cost was shared by him personally, in not following up on his "redline" comments re Syria, that in order to keep Russia on the side of helping with Iran. At any rate, we can and should look at such costly deals over time, to measure their worth.

Criticize President Trump all you want, but you can't say he doesn't understand "The Art of the Deal" more than Obama did.

Having everyone know you are desperate to get some deal done, no matter what, doesn't usually lead to a good deal for you.
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Re: So Our Government Shut Down Efforts to Stop Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, to Pass the Iran Nuclear Deal? [efernand] [ In reply to ]
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efernand wrote:
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A very expensive deal from our side. I repeatedly posted in these pages about things overlooked or lost to the goal of an Iran deal, and of the surety a deal would happen, because Obama had it as a top personal goal. One major cost was shared by him personally, in not following up on his "redline" comments re Syria, that in order to keep Russia on the side of helping with Iran. At any rate, we can and should look at such costly deals over time, to measure their worth.


Criticize President Trump all you want, but you can't say he doesn't understand "The Art of the Deal" more than Obama did.

Having everyone know you are desperate to get some deal done, no matter what, doesn't usually lead to a good deal for you.

Every president since Jimmy Carter has thought he had the right "solution" to Iran. All of them have come up short, with their expectations of Iranian good behavior dashed on the rocky shoals of hard reality when it comes to the Islamic Republic, which -- no matter what -- will consider us the Great Satan until either we or they are no more. That's just the way it is with those folks.

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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