OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A report on Monday claimed that at least two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian military that the U.S. and Western allies have designated a terrorist group, have allegedly been scheming to assassinate John Bolton, former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
However, according to the Washington Examiner, while the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden “possesses indictable evidence against the Iranians…administration officials are resisting publicly indicting the men for fear it could derail their drive for a nuclear deal with Iran, currently nearing completion in negotiations in Vienna, Austria.”
“It is possible but unlikely that there are sealed indictments against the men,” the report continued, “but the DOJ source said the seriousness of the conspiracy and the evidence warranted public indictment without delay.
“Sealed indictments would be unusual and probably unnecessary in this case, as they are usually used to prevent the target evading justice,” the Examiner continued.
The outlet noted that the Iranian military was also involved in “significant…reconnaissance activity” related to the alleged plot, which included attempts to recruit a U.S.-based assassin.
The report also noted that there have been similar threats against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as other Trump administration officials who worked on Iran during his term. The report noted that threats against both Bolton and Pompeo “are continuing, specific, and highly credible.”
The Examiner also noted:
The intelligence community became aware of the plot at an early stage, and it prompted high-level concern and a full-time Secret Service protective detail being assigned to Bolton earlier this year or late in 2021. Significant FBI assets were also deployed to disrupt the plot and assist in protecting Bolton.
As the Washington Examiner reported in December 2020, Congress quietly extended Pompeo’s Diplomatic Security Service protective detail beyond his government tenure in response to these Iranian threats. That protective detail continues and has a high level of enhanced capability.
In a response to the Examiner, the Biden Justice Department said in a statement that “it would be categorically false to claim that these kinds of policy considerations would drive such a charging decision.”
That said, an earlier report alleged similar behavior from the Obama administration and for the same reason — to get Iran to sign off on a nuclear deal.
In 2017, Politico reported that former President Barack Obama ordered a major law enforcement operation shut down that targeted the Iran-sponsored terrorist organization Hezbollah in order to get Iran to sign off on the original deal.
The Daily Wire noted:
The operation, named Project Cassandra, launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had gathered a substantial amount of evidence that Hezbollah had grown from a “military and political organization” that operated solely in the Middle East into an international criminal enterprise that was earning approximately $1 billion per year from “drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities,” Politico reported.
Per the Daily Wire, here are some of the important takeaways from the Politico report:
— “Over a period of eight years, federal agents used a top-secret facility in Virginia to conduct undercover operations that aimed to chart Hezbollah’s massive criminal enterprise. The operation relied on assistance provided by 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.”
— “Project Cassandra tracked cocaine shipments from Latin America to West Africa where the shipments were then routed to Europe and the Middle East. The money from Hezbollah’s criminal activity was laundered by ‘buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa.'”
— Federal agents identified that the key players were the “innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.”
— “The Obama administration intentionally sabotaged Project Cassandra by throwing ‘increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way.'”
— The report also noted that Obama’s Justice Dept. refused to assist in Operation Cassandra by failing to file charges against key figures.
— “By refusing to help, the Obama administration allowed Hezbollah to traffic multi-ton quantities of cocaine into the U.S. and allowed hundreds of millions of dollars to flow from the U.S. to the terrorist organization.”
— Obama also “colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Lebanese terrorist Ali Fayad who was responsible for the deaths of Americans.”
