The president often references the opioid crisis to justify the need for a wall on our southern border, but he rarely invokes what may be an even greater (related) justification for making the barrier a national security issue and utilizing the military budget for its construction — the presence of the Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s deep involvement in the drug trade is well known. They use it to finance their murderous activities throughout the Middle East, including the Syrian civil war with its endless carnage and massive refugee crisis. But it doesn’t end there — not even close. They have reached extensively into Latin America, exploiting a network of proxies and Lebanese ex-pats from Venezuela to Paraguay.
Like the ultra-violent Mexican cartels, with whom they collaborate, Hezbollah is among the world’s biggest drug pushers, managing marijuana and opium poppy farms across the globe. The fruits of their labor are sold to you-know-who while they employ some of the most sophisticated money-laundering methods extant.
Besides that, Hezbollah has the biggest non-state army in the world with an estimated full-time force of 25,000 and a similar number of reservists. Estimates of their rocket capability range from a 40,000 to 150,000 count, considerably more than most countries.
Nobody knows how many Hezbollah operatives have already infiltrated the U.S. through our porous southern border, but given the terror organization’s aforementioned extensive history in Latin America (detailed last June by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Emanuele Ottolenghi) it’s hard to be optimistic.
Despite this, a recent POLITICO article — “The secret backstory of how Obama took Hezbollah off the hook” — showed how our previous administration cynically and reprehensibly appeased Iran to preserve Obama’s feckless nuclear deal by deliberately undermining the DEA’s Project Cassandra. The intention of that undertaking was to weaken the mullahs’ beloved client Hezbollah. Wikipedia explains:
Project Cassandra is an effort led by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to undercut Hezbollah funding from illicit drug sources.[1] Launched in 2008, the project was said to be investigating the terrorist organization’s funding.[2] According to the DEA, Hezbollah has become increasingly involved with drug trafficking and organized crime as a method of funding its activities.[3][4] The investigation was tracking how large sums of money were being laundered from the Americas, through Africa, and to Lebanon into Hezbollah’s coffers. [5]
An investigative report published by Politico in December 2017, described how, during the Obama administration, national security concerns regarding the Iran nuclear deal took precedence over the DEA project.[2]
In January 2018, Fox News confirmed that Bruce Ohr has been fired as the head of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). As the head of OCDETF, Ohr was directly involved with Project Cassandra.[6]
Bruce Ohr — where have we heard that name before? Oh, yes!
The connections here are likely eye-rolling, but before we get off track, let’s stay with the main point. Given Hezbollah’s activities just to our south (and everywhere), a solid case can be made for building the border wall out of the military budget for national security reasons. The drug trade cum terrorist funding cum actual terrorism should easily suffice.
Of course this won’t mean much to the bien pensants of the Ninth Circuit, etc., but to the rest of us who remember world history the ties between Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Russia, North Korea, and, alas, China constitute a dire warning.
Trump has received considerable blowback from signing the omnibus budget bill. Some may be justified, some due to his having been poorly served, but whatever the case, he may be getting the message where the wall is concerned. Early Sunday he tweeted:
Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018
“M,” in this instance, we can assume stands for military. If this goes forward, and let’s hope it does, Ann Coulter, among others, can exhale.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media. His latest book is I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already. Find him on twitter @rogerlsimon
Join the conversation as a VIP Member