President Barack Obama was so determined to secure a nuclear deal with Iran that his administration derailed a massive investigation of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, according to a Politico report.
Politico reports the U.S., by way of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), started its probe, dubbed “Project Cassandra,” in 2008.
That’s when the agency realized the Iran-backed terrorist group was broadening its efforts into international crime, including trafficking drugs around the world.
Federal agents tracked Hezbollah’s drugs and money laundering, which included buying used American cars and shipping them to Africa.
They also identified those they believed to be the part of the inner most circle of the terrorist group.
However, in order to appease Iran and complete the nuclear deal, the Obama administration threw up road blocks that proved detrimental to the investigation.
“The Obama administration increasingly obstructed legitimate law enforcement activities against Hezbollah for fear of upsetting its patron, Iran,” Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., wrote in a letter to Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“This is outrageous and counter to America’s national security interests,” he charged.
Pittenger noted that the Obama administration’s actions were particularly egregious in light of its tendency to frustrate attempts to enact any meaningful national security strategy.
“Since the previous administration made enacting any type of meaningful national security strategy difficult, it is even more outrageous that the Obama administration undermined our efforts against terrorism for the sake of a bad nuclear deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran,” he wrote.
“Of note, the Obama administration sent $1.7 billion in cash to Iran,” he continued. “The previous administration was complicit in allowing the Hezbollah’s money laundering operation to continue and allowing it to fund terrorist activities and harm American interests and our allies. This undermines both the rule of law and law enforcement’s efforts to bring terrorists and criminals to justice.”
Pittenger is now calling on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to launch an investigation into the matter.
“We need a full investigation of what the Obama administration did to not proceed ahead with the investigation of Hezbollah,” the North Carolina lawmaker told CBN News. “They were converging in on some of the very leading officials with Hezbollah, and with that, they were prevented from going forward and a lot of roadblocks were put in the way because they didn’t want to do anything that would discourage the Iran agreement.”
“It’s really horrific the impact that this has in terms of our interests and those of our allies around the world to not do anything we can to make a major terrorist organization and try and dismantle them,” he continued. “That’s what this investigation is about.”
Reprinted with permission from CBN.com. Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, all rights reserved. {eoa}
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