In an effort to get what he and his party desired he hindered the operation of anti terrorist taskforce.
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.
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.
A Lebanese supporter of the Shiite Hezbollah movement hold up the movement’s flag as he listens to Hezbollah’s leader Hasan Nasrallah delivering a televised speech
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…