A bombshell of an essay from Politico this past Sunday has put a huge black mark on the Obama legacy. Unsurprisingly, it surrounds the deeply controversial 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
What is surprising is the extent to which the Obama administration deliberately hamstrung anti-terror investigations, all the while Hezbollah “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.”
In sum, the administration blocked a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into drug-smuggling on the part of Hezbollah, a terrorist group that is backed by the Iranian state. The Obama administration did so to ensure the successful completion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), informally known as the Iran nuclear deal.
A strategy of non-hostility towards was the approach the Obama administration took, certainly in reaction to the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq with Americans: “Obama had entered office in 2009 promising to improve relations with Iran as part of a broader rapprochement with the Muslim world. On the campaign trail, he had asserted repeatedly that the Bush administration’s policy of pressuring Iran to stop its illicit nuclear program wasn’t working, and that he would reach out to Tehran to reduce tensions.”
But it is clear from the unrestrained growth of Hezbollah that this strategy is no longer viable, and turning a blind eye to terrorists and their global, illegal money-making schemes —including marketing illegal drugs inside the United States—can no longer be tolerated.
Congressman Robert Pittenger (R-NC) is demanding a congressional investigation into the matter, and he had choice words for the prior administration in an interview he gave to Fox News yesterday:
“These revelations are shocking and infuriating . . . . While American soldiers were bravely fighting ISIS terrorists, with some paying the ultimate price, the Obama administration reportedly was protecting Hezbollah terrorists who were funding themselves by trafficking illegal drugs. No wonder President Obama couldn’t bring himself to call them ‘Radical Islamist Terrorists.'”
