Get tough on Hezbollah, fix Obama’s mistake: Revive Project Cassandra

One of the DEA's most successful strategies to combat the illicit drug trafficking of Hezbollah and its networks was Project Cassandra. A recent bombshell report revealed that the Obama Administration prevented these efforts from maturing in order to appease Iran into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The administration allowed Hezbollah's illicit activity, including both its terrorist activity and drug trafficking, to thrive. In his latest op-ed for The Hill, Emanuele Ottolenghi outlines the next steps to resolve the derailment of Project Cassandra and return to effectively countering Hezbollah. 

An excerpt from the op-ed follows:

“Until this week, few Americans knew of Project Cassandra, a decade-long operation run by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) through its Special Operations Division. Yet it was one of America’s most successful counter-terrorist campaigns, racking up numerous victories in the war against Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror organization, and its global crime and drug trafficking networks. A bombshell investigation published on Sunday by Politico’s Josh Meyer has now revealed that, for the sake of achieving a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed the DEA’s program to combat Hezbollah’s growing collusion with drug cartels, letting this nascent threat become a global menace.”

Read the complete piece from The Hill here. 

Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @eottolenghi.

Follow the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Twitter @FDD.