Terrorists linked to Iranian-backed Hezbollah were stockpiling bomb-making ingredients, including three tons of ammonium nitrate, in London in 2015 in what was described as a “secret British bomb factory,” the Daily Telegraph reported this week.
The 2015 case was kept “hidden from the public'' until now.
The Iran Nuclear Deal
On July 14, 2015, the United States, Russia, China, the UK, France, and Germany reached an agreement with Iran broadly known as the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, lifted economic sanctions and allowed Iran to access an estimated $120 billion in reserves held in banks abroad.Obama hailed the deal, claiming that, “Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off.” He also said he welcomed close inspection of the deal, saying, “I welcome scrutiny of the details of this agreement.” But at the same time, he warned Congress that he would veto any legislation that tried to prevent the deal’s implementation.
It was during this intervening period that Obama and his administration worked to sell the deal to members of Congress and U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe.
“The success of the JCPOA will depend not on whether it is legally binding or signed, but rather on the extensive verification measures we have put in place, as well as Iran’s understanding that we have the capacity to re-impose—and ramp up—our sanctions if Iran does not meet its commitments,” Frifield wrote to Pompeo.
2015 London Bomb-Making Plot
The political shakiness of the Iran nuclear deal, combined with ongoing scrutiny of its various flaws makes the news of the fall 2015 discovery of a huge cache of ammonium nitrate—a common ingredient in homemade bombs—particularly noteworthy.“Terrorists linked to Iran were caught stockpiling tons of explosive materials on the outskirts of London in a secret British bomb factory,” The Daily Telegraph reported. “Radicals linked to Hizbollah (also Hezbollah), the Lebanese militant group, stashed thousands of disposable ice packs containing ammonium nitrate—a common ingredient in homemade bombs.
“The plot was uncovered by MI5 and the Met Police just months after the UK signed up to the Iran nuclear deal.”
The discovery was considered so serious that both “David Cameron and Theresa May, then the prime minister and home secretary, were personally briefed on what had been found.”
For reasons unexplained in the article, the discovery of the explosives cache wasn’t made public at the time and was even kept hidden from other U.S. and UK politicians. The Telegraph noted that the disclosure of the 2015 explosives cache involved a three-month investigation “in which more than 30 current and former officials in Britain, America, and Cyprus were approached and court documents were obtained.”
Project Cassandra
According to a lengthy, detailed, and highly critical December 2017 Politico report, “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah off the Hook,” the Obama administration may have derailed a “campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah,” known as Project Cassandra.Begun in 2008, after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) amassed evidence that Hezbollah was engaging in drugs and weapons trafficking, along with other crimes, the investigation traced its way to the “innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.” According to the Politico report, “Hezbollah’s network moved metric ton quantities of cocaine [to] launder drug proceeds on a global scale, and procure weapons and … explosives.”
It was at this point that political roadblocks by the Obama administration began to appear.
“As Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way,” Politico reported. “When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests, and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered, or rejected their requests.”
“Under the Obama administration … these [Hezbollah-related] investigations were tamped down, for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.”
The Involvement of DOJ Official Bruce Ohr
As it turns out, there is also a tie to the ongoing scandal known as Spygate.Hezbollah Targeted by DOJ
Two weeks later, in early January 2018, Ohr was removed as the head of the OCDETF. Then, just days after Ohr’s removal, Sessions announced the creation of the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT):“In an effort to protect Americans from both threats, the Justice Department will assemble leading investigators and prosecutors to ensure that all Project Cassandra investigations as well as other related investigations, whether past or present, are given the needed resources and attention to come to their proper resolution. The team will initiate prosecutions that will restrict the flow of money to foreign terrorist organizations as well as disrupt violent international drug-trafficking operations.”
- Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)
- Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG
- Cártel de Sinaloa (the Sinaloa Cartel)
- Clan del Golfo (the Gulf Clan)
- Lebanese Hezbollah (also Hizbollah)
Sessions singled out Hezbollah for additional focus in his discussion and specifically noted the previously created HFNT task force:
“The subcommittee on Lebanese Hezbollah will be led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilan Graff of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. AUSA Graff is overseeing the prosecution of two alleged members of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization, the first such operatives to be charged with terrorism offenses in the United States.”