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US govt to review Obama administration handling of Hezbollah drug
initiative
WASHINGTON, Dec 23, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on
Friday ordered an investigation into allegations that the Obama
administration undermined efforts to target Hezbollah drug trafficking.
The announcement comes after Politico reported that Project Cassandra, a
program targeting trafficking by Iran-backed Hezbollah that could have
undermined the push for a nuclear deal with Tehran, was “derailed” by the
administration of former president Barack Obama.
The review will “evaluate allegations that certain matters were not
properly prosecuted and to ensure all matters are appropriately handled,”
Sessions said in a statement.
“While I am hopeful that there were no barriers constructed by the last
administration to allowing DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) agents to fully
bring all appropriate cases under Project Cassandra, this is a significant
issue for the protection of Americans,” he added.
But Edward Price, a former CIA agent who served as spokesman for the
National Security Council for the Obama administration, told AFP: “The
narrative presented in this report in no way resembles reality.
“The Obama administration said time and again that the nuclear
negotiations with Iran were confined exclusively to that narrow issue. We did
not make concessions in other arenas, and we most certainly did not curtail
or attempt to influence any active investigations, including by the Drug
Enforcement Administration.
“Any allegations to the contrary are false, and those reflected in the
story appear to be from former low-level officials who have since gone on to
work for organizations ideologically opposed to the Iran deal, something
Politico failed to disclose.”
Trump has criticized the Iran nuclear agreement as “one of the worst and
most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
He refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the deal, but left its
ultimate fate up to the US Congress.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0912 hrs