Why Do Some Israeli Politicians Want Obama to Return His Peace Prize?
Should Barack Obama return his Nobel Peace Prize? No doubt, President Donald Trump would enjoy a bit of schadenfreude. But that’s what some Israeli politicians think based on a report that the Obama White House stalled an inquiry into Hezbollah over alleged drug trafficking. The Democratic President may have wanted to protect Hezbollah to avoid jeopardizing negotiations to secure the nuclear deal with Iran; the government of Iran has been one of Hezbollah’s principal military and financial sponsors.
On December 15, Politico published an article claiming that Obama had terminated a 15-year-long Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation into Hezbollah money laundering and smuggling activities, including weapons and drugs. Politico claims that the DEA had built up a substantial case against Hezbollah, suggesting it had funneled several tons of cocaine loads, amounting to several millions of dollars. In turn, Hezbollah would use the funds to finance its “terrorist operations.” (Source: “The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook,” Politico, December 15, 2017.)
Project Cassandra
The investigation that Obama allegedly blocked is known by the code name “Project Cassandra” and started in 2008. That’s when the whole series of three-letter-name U.S. federal agencies (CIA, DEA, FBI, etc.), including several international agencies, started to gather evidence that placed Hezbollah leading an international crime syndicate, which, judging by the amounts Politico claims, could have amassed billions of dollars. (Source: Ibid.)
Politico claims the “blocked” investigation traced cocaine shipments along routes originating in Latin America, leading to North America, of course, but also West Africa. From there—perhaps along the same routes used by the human traffickers that help migrants reach Libya from countries like Nigeria, Gambia, and Senegal—the drugs were sent for sale in Europe and the Middle East. Many of the profits were then laundered as the Hezbollah-linked traffickers would buy cars in North America for sale to Africa.
Drug Trafficking Through West Africa Is a Well-Known and Honed Phenomenon
There’s no doubt that the Politico article describes an especially vicious phenomenon. However, there is one major issue: the network it describes is very well known. Long before the investigation allegedly began in 2008, it was known that Latin American drug producers, and cocaine itself, used West African routes. Guinea-Bissau, a West African country so poor and small that it lacks a proper police force, became a literal “narco-state.” (Source: “How a tiny West African country became the world’s first narco state,” The Guardian, March 9, 2008.)
The West African coke route has expanded to rely more on Ghana, Nigeria, and other states that are near the world’s main trafficking region, the Sahel. However, the Politico article’s claims are suspicious. (Source: “Sahel trade routes: Arms, people and drugs,” Deutsche Welle, last accessed December 21, 2017.)
It’s likely that Hezbollah has used a scheme like what the purported Project Cassandra investigation and Politico claim. However, the period in question also saw the rise of ISIS. Al-Qaida, and other groups, which would have used and needed such trade even more than Hezbollah, which receives significant financing from Iran and its oil industry.
To imply that Hezbollah was the only beneficiary, as Politico does, is disingenuous. Moreover, not all Lebanese are Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a political movement with elected representatives in the Lebanese parliament. It has a militia, perhaps the most powerful Arab armed force, but it operates legally within the unique context that is Lebanon, regardless of how unfortunate that situation might be.
There are powerful Lebanese merchant communities living in West Africa, in places like Ghana or Sierra Leone, for example.
Many of them are Shiites and some may have used their trading networks to participate in smuggling. But, not all Shiites are necessarily Hezbollah.
The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization, but the European Union has labeled only its military branch under pressure as such and did so under pressure. Meanwhile, there have been countless reports of the very American Central Intelligence Agency dabbling in a little drug and weapon smuggling of its own over the years, if not decades, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. (Source: “Afghanistan and the CIA Heroin Ratline,” Sputnik, August 25, 2017.)
Politico’s investigation wants to cast Hezbollah in a bad light, especially as this organization has played a crucial role in defeating ISIS alongside Syrian, Russian, and Iranian forces. Hezbollah, just as happened in the summer of 2006 after the July-August war with Israel, has emerged stronger. Many have an interest in sizing it down. Indeed, the most suspicious aspect of Politico’s hit piece is the timing.
Many Want to Shame Obama Over Iran Deal
It wants to shame Obama, but it comes during a time when relations between Iran and the United States are dismal and heading for worse. Trump’s Jerusalem declaration certainly hasn’t helped, while his UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, has made few friends in the Assembly carrying out the anti-Iran agenda. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel believe they have much to gain from ensuring Washington and Tehran fail to get along. They both hope Trump will scrap the nuclear deal, which would leave Iran vulnerable to a military strike.
Neither the Saudis nor the Israelis are ready to forgive Obama for having secured the Iran deal, one of the most significant international agreements of the past decade. Obama staked his whole international credibility on the Iran deal, which much of the Middle East—the world, in fact—praised. Finally, President Obama won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009 for his efforts in improving international diplomacy.
The Iran deal was signed in 2015; the two have nothing to do with each other. The world had witnessed the very disintegration of international relations between 2001 and 2009–the Bush/Cheney years. Things were so bad that even relations between the U.S. and France, one of the countries that inspired the U.S. Constitution itself, came to blows. Can you say “freedom fries?” Surely, had the Nobel committee waited a few years before considering Obama as a Laureate, it would have been better.
The Obama administration may or may not have blocked a criminal investigation into Hezbollah trafficking. However, it surely did much to harm the organization, as well as Iranian interests, by backing the Syrian rebels throughout the course of the so-called Arab Spring. It has long been argued that Obama’s policies favored the rise of ISIS, even if it was George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq that established its roots. By all means, should the Nobel Academy decide to take away Obama’s prize, there are far more compelling reasons than what Politico suggests.