Obama and Hezbollah

Hassan Nasrallah

As much as I hammer the current administration, it is good to remember that it wasn't too long ago that I was pointing my criticisms at the previous occupant of the oval office.

Politico has a must read, an exceptional article by Josh Meyer; The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook - An ambitious U.S. task force targeting Hezbollah's billion-dollar criminal enterprise ran headlong into the White House's desire for a nuclear deal with Iran.

This article reconfirms all the sneaking suspicions I had about the Iran deal. A very thorough piece, I look forward to hearing the reactions and supposed justifications from principals like John Brennan, Ben Rhodes and Wendy Sherman, not to mention Obama himself.

“During the negotiations, early on, they [the Iranians] said listen, we need you to lay off Hezbollah, to tamp down the pressure on them, and the Obama administration acquiesced to that request,” the former CIA officer told POLITICO. “It was a strategic decision to show good faith toward the Iranians in terms of reaching an agreement.”

CIA Director Brennan had long been in favor of a rapprochement with Hezbollah, or a fantasy I should say, about promoting its "moderate" elements, which really sounds like Obamaism in a nutshell.

It is mind boggling to think that our government would turn a blind eye to the skullduggery and machinations of a radical religious terrorist organization that has been responsible for so much killing and mayhem in order to make a nuclear deal with Iran. A group that was occasionally killing us with our own weapons and certainly using our money to do so.

... the Defense Department official, who was at Special Operations Command tracking the money used to provide ragtag Iraqi Shiite militias with sophisticated weapons for use against U.S. troops, including the new and lethal IED known as the “Explosively Formed Penetrator.” The armor-piercing charges were so powerful that they were ripping M1 Abrams tanks in half.

Imagine funding an organization that was complicit in the murder of United States citizens and soldiers. And was apparently a major player in funneling cocaine shipments into the United States from South America.

A short roundup from Wiki alleges Hezbollah responsibility for the following attacks, which does not include more recent involvement in Syria and elsewhere, or any of the drug dealing that the article recounts:

The 1982–1983 Tyre headquarters bombings
The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization),[201]
The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization), that killed 241 U.S. marines, 58 French paratroopers and 6 civilians at the US and French barracks in Beirut[202]
The 1983 Kuwait bombings in collaboration with the Iraqi Dawa Party.[203]
The 1984 United States embassy annex bombing, killing 24.[204]
A spate of attacks on IDF troops and SLA militiamen in southern Lebanon.[66]
Hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985,[202]
The Lebanon hostage crisis from 1982 to 1992.[205]

Since 1990, terror acts and attempts of which Hezbollah has been blamed include the following bombings and attacks against civilians and diplomats:

The 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires, killing 29, in Argentina.[202] Hezbollah operatives boasted of involvement.[206]
The 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish cultural centre, killing 85, in Argentina.[202] Hezbollah claimed responsibility.[206]
The 1994 AC Flight 901 attack, killing 21, in Panama.[207] Hezbollah claimed responsibility.[206]
The 1994 London Israeli Embassy attack, injuring 29, in the United Kingdom.[208]
The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, killing 19 US servicemen.[209]
In 2002, Singapore accused Hezbollah of recruiting Singaporeans in a failed 1990s plot to attack U.S. and Israeli ships in the Singapore Straits.[210]
The 15 January 2008, bombing of a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Beirut.[211]
In 2009, a Hezbollah plot in Egypt was uncovered, where Egyptian authorities arrested 49 men for planning attacks against Israeli and Egyptian targets in the Sinai Peninsula.[212]
The 2012 Burgas bus bombing, killing 6, in Bulgaria. Hezbollah denied responsibility.[213]
Training Shia insurgents against US troops during the Iraq War.[214] 

I wrote repeatedly about Obama turning a blind eye to Iranian, Shia and Hezbollah wrongdoing while simultaneously castigating Israel and the Saudis. Looks like I was probably right. Read the article.

Postscript: Interesting perspective on the Hezbollah question from Israel. A leading General, Nuriel, is doubtful that Obama pulled his punches. Worth reading.