Hezbollah: Iran's Terror Group That Became an Empire of Crime
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By 2008, the US Drug Enforcement Administration had gathered enough evidence to prove that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a military and political organization into an international crime syndicate earning up to $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities. 'Project Cassandra' was the ambitious, top-secret project to stop them. This three part series tells the story of ‘Project Cassandra’, through the testimonies of DEA agents and other people involved. It’s a tale that helps explain the history and rise of Hezbollah, making a complex geopolitical story accessible to a larger audience. France has been the preferred country for Hezbollah militants to seek asylum since 2010. It offers several advantages: the potential to blend in with a large Lebanese community and free movement on European territory. Paris was chosen as a bridgehead for laundering money from cocaine trafficking. The D.E.A., the American anti-drug agency, alerted the French police. Together they opened a new chapter in Operation Cassandra, named “Operation Cedar” after the tree that symbolizes Lebanon.
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헤즈볼라: 범죄 제국이 된 이란의 테러 집단 요약
서론: 군사 조직에서 국제 범죄 신디케이트로의 변모
2008년경 미국 마약단속국(DEA)은 헤즈볼라가 단순한 군사·정치 조직을 넘어 연간 최대 10억 달러를 벌어들이는 국제 범죄 신디케이트로 진화했다는 증거를 확보하였다
프로젝트 카산드라와 초기 수사
수사는 콜롬비아 마약 카르텔을 추적하던 중 우연히 아랍어 대화가 도청되면서 급물살을 탔다
주요 인물 - 체리 하브(Chech Harb): 그는 콜롬비아산 코카인을 요르단, 시리아를 거쳐 레바논으로 운송하는 인물로, 이란 및 헤즈볼라 고위층과 직접 연결되어 있었다
. 침투 시도: DEA 위장 요원은 하브에게 접근하여 2,000만 달러의 돈세탁 계약을 따내는 등 성과를 올렸으나, 요르단 암만에서의 결정적인 만남을 앞두고 미 대사관과 정보 당국의 개입으로 수사가 중단되는 좌절을 겪었다
.
헤즈볼라의 역사적 배경과 무장 조직화
헤즈볼라는 1982년 이스라엘의 레바논 침공에 맞서기 위해 이란의 지원 아래 창설되었다
공포의 시작: 1983년 베이루트 미 해병대 막사 폭탄 테러와 TWA 847편 납치 사건 등을 통해 그들은 서구 세력에 강렬한 공포를 심어주었다
. 이마드 무그니예(Imad Mugniyeh): 헤즈볼라의 초기 테러 작전을 주도한 인물로, <유령>이라 불릴 만큼 철저히 자신을 숨기며 전설적인 군사 지도자로 군림하였다
.
이라크 전쟁과 전 세계적 범죄 네트워크 확대
2003년 미국의 이라크 침공 이후, 헤즈볼라는 이라크 내 시아파 무장 단체를 훈련시키고 미국을 공격하기 위한 정교한 급조폭발물(EFP) 기술을 제공하였다
금융 네트워크의 발견: 이라크 내 테러 자금을 추적하던 조사관들은 이 자금이 레바논의 환전소와 남미의 코카인 거래와 연결되어 있음을 밝혀냈다
. 베네수엘라와의 협력: 휴고 차베스 정권하의 베네수엘라는 헤즈볼라에게 안전한 피난처와 마약 밀매 경로를 제공하였다
. 베네수엘라 국영 항공사는 무기와 현금, 마약을 운송하는 도구로 활용되었다 .
주요 범죄 수법: 자동차 무역과 레바논 캐나다 은행
헤즈볼라는 합법적인 사업을 위장하여 대규모 돈세탁을 자행하였다.
중고차 무역: 미국에서 중고차를 사서 서아프리카로 보낸 뒤, 이를 팔아 얻은 <깨끗한 자금>을 레바논으로 송금하고 다시 남미 마약 구매에 사용하는 정교한 순환 구조를 구축하였다
. 이 과정에서 매달 약 2억 달러가 생성된 것으로 추정된다 . 레바논 캐나다 은행(LCB): 헤즈볼라는 이 은행의 지분 약 28%를 소유하며 수조 원대의 마약 자금을 세탁하는 거점으로 삼았다
. DEA는 2011년 미 재무부의 <311조> 권한을 사용하여 이 은행을 파산시킴으로써 강력한 타격을 입혔다 .
수뇌부 추적과 정치적 희생
프로젝트 카산드라 팀은 헤즈볼라의 자금줄인 <비즈니스 사무국>(Business Affairs Component)과 그 배후인 압둘라 사피에딘(Abdullah Safieddine)을 겨냥하였다
베이루트 항구 폭발과 깨지지 않는 면죄부
2020년 8월 4일 베이루트 항구에서 발생한 대규모 질산암모늄 폭발 사고는 레바논을 파멸로 몰아넣었다
배후 의혹: 조사 결과, 폭발의 원인이 된 질산암모늄은 시리아 정권과 연계된 껍데기 회사들을 통해 레바논에 반입되었으며, 헤즈볼라가 시리아 전쟁을 위해 이를 관리하고 사용했을 가능성이 제기되었다
. 정의의 부재: 이 사건을 추적하던 활동가 루크만 슬림(Lokman Slim)은 살해당했고, 국제적인 조사는 헤즈볼라의 조직적인 방해로 가로막혔다
.
결론: 국가 위의 국가
오늘날 헤즈볼라는 레바논 내에서 정치, 경제, 사법 체계를 장악한 <국가 안의 국가>로 군림하고 있다
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Transcript
0:1010 secondsHello.
0:2424 secondsAlways.
0:4040 secondsWhat the Oh my god.
1:081 minute, 8 secondsEverybody believed that the bomb exploded just next to him.
1:141 minute, 14 secondsSo we thought the same. I mean we went out looking where is a bomb and then there was no bomb and after some minutes
1:221 minute, 22 secondswe saw the smoke coming from the port.
1:441 minute, 44 secondsYou have to see it otherwise you will not believe it.
2:192 minutes, 19 secondsthat a massive explosion has shook Lebanon's capital, Beirut.
2:232 minutes, 23 secondsMore than 100 people have died. More than 4,000 have been injured.
2:372 minutes, 37 seconds750 tons of ammonium nitrate.
2:562 minutes, 56 secondsNo such passive.
3:273 minutes, 27 secondsThe Hezbollah is a political party that it is a social movement.
3:373 minutes, 37 secondsIt is also a massive militia, larger,
3:413 minutes, 41 secondsbetter armed, better trained than Lebanese armed forces.
3:563 minutes, 56 secondsInternational terrorist organization.
4:044 minutes, 4 secondsHezbollah made al Qaeda look like the minor leagues.
4:144 minutes, 14 secondsWe determined during Project Cassandra that Hezbollah was operating like a global drug cartel.
4:274 minutes, 27 secondsWe viewed them as one of the most significant transnational criminal organizations/cartel/mafia that we had ever come across.
4:514 minutes, 51 secondsHello. Hisbala is dangerous. Hisbala is big. Hisbala is not 10 ft tall.
5:215 minutes, 21 secondsThe shadow of Hezbollah lies over the Beirut port explosion and any investigation seems impossible.
5:285 minutes, 28 secondsIt's as if this Islamist organization had divine impunity.
5:355 minutes, 35 secondsFor 40 years, its members have infiltrated Lebanese politics and defied justice.
5:445 minutes, 44 secondsThese Shia Muslims dream of establishing religious law Sharia like in Iran.
5:555 minutes, 55 secondsYet in the mid-200s,
5:575 minutes, 57 secondsseveral agents from the DEA, the US Drug Enforcement Administration, tried to secretly bring down Hezbollah.
6:106 minutes, 10 secondsThey investigated across four continents, revealing the hidden face of what's called the Party of God before
6:176 minutes, 17 secondsalso coming up against its untouchable nature. Their operation's code name was Cassandra,
6:266 minutes, 26 secondslike the Greek goddess who forsaw misfortune, but whom nobody heeded.
6:356 minutes, 35 secondsTheir investigation started in the US in the still smoking ruins of the World Trade Center.
6:496 minutes, 49 secondsI'm a former agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration known as the DEA in the United States.
6:586 minutes, 58 secondsI worked in the DEA for 28 years.
7:027 minutes, 2 secondsThe Drug Enforcement Administration was formed to be the lead agency in America to go after the drug trafficking organizations.
7:227 minutes, 22 secondsI'm from New York. Obviously saw the devastation of 9/11. Uh my brother was in the United States Air Force. He went to Afghanistan to fight for the country
7:317 minutes, 31 secondsand he came back in a body bag because his helicopter crashed during Operation Enduring Freedom. So I'm very passionate about national security and public
7:387 minutes, 38 secondssafety. So I was actually given a golden opportunity to run the DEA special operations division post 911.
7:537 minutes, 53 secondsJack Kelly is a DEA agent.
7:577 minutes, 57 secondsWe recruited him to work at the special operations division. When he first got there, he was working in the Latin America section which was focusing on
8:068 minutes, 6 secondsColombia. So he became the leader of the team.
8:208 minutes, 20 secondsThere was a sense of jealousy from others. If if uh because you were in special operations division,
8:298 minutes, 29 secondsI couldn't say it is the elite, but this was the backbone of how we were taking out cartels in Colombia.
8:468 minutes, 46 secondsI applied to DEA uh right when I graduated. So all of a sudden you're carrying a gun, you got a badge, you're a federal agent, you're assigned in New
8:538 minutes, 53 secondsYork, and you're only 24 years old. So it was a pretty pretty amazing feeling. This is the battlefield.
9:039 minutes, 3 secondsAnd this is the enemy. It is a crack epidemic.
9:119 minutes, 11 secondsMost of the guys I was working with were older than me. It almost seemed like it I was a pitbull and they were un they would unleash me and say go get that
9:209 minutes, 20 secondsguy, you know, and I get on these uh foot chases in Manhattan, some some that lasted 3/4 of a mile. I don't think I ever failed catching my prey.
9:369 minutes, 36 secondsSo I'm a supervisor now at special operations division. The idea is to follow the money. So, us in an
9:449 minutes, 44 secondsundercover fashion is posing as criminals that know how to launder money. And we would do that for the cartel. And that would afford us to
9:529 minutes, 52 secondsinfiltrate cartels to the highest level because we're doing what their bosses consider the most important thing,
9:589 minutes, 58 secondsgetting the money back into their hands from the drugs that were sold in places like the Bronx, New York.
10:2410 minutes, 24 secondsAlhamdulillah.
10:3610 minutes, 36 secondsDuring the wiretap investigations in Colombia, we were intercepting a lot of Arabic conversations.
10:4410 minutes, 44 secondsThat was something new to me as the head of the special operations division. Like I didn't really understand it and I had
10:5210 minutes, 52 secondsto learn over the years like what was going on.
11:1011 minutes, 10 secondsThe information we're receiving is that Hezel as an organization has made a presence in Latin America
11:1711 minutes, 17 secondsspecifically to be involved in the cocaine trade and cocaine proceeded money launderer.
11:2811 minutes, 28 secondsOne of the top lieutenants is a guy that speaks Arabic and his name is Taliban.
11:3411 minutes, 34 secondsThey call him Taliban because they call every Arab guy down there Taliban after 9/11.
11:4411 minutes, 44 secondsWe do some searches, some quick searches in different databases and we find out that his name is Czech Harb.
11:5411 minutes, 54 secondsAnd Czech Harb was known to people in the United States government.
12:0412 minutes, 4 secondsCzech Harb was tied directly to Iran,
12:0712 minutes, 7 secondsHezbollah, and possible terrorist attacks.
12:1512 minutes, 15 secondsSo what happens is we introduce undercover agents. uh one of the undercovers is is so uh because he's of
12:2512 minutes, 25 secondsLebanese descent uh speaks Arabic fluently and is actually going to meet Czechri in Colombia.
12:3712 minutes, 37 secondsSo Czech Harb tells the undercover, I move multi-tonon loads of cocaine to Port Akaba in Jordan and then it gets moved through Syria into Lebanon.
12:5512 minutes, 55 secondssays, "Well, I imagine then you're you're must be pretty close to Hezbollah if you're going to be moving cocaine
13:0213 minutes, 2 secondsthrough Syria and Lebanon." Czech Harb just smiles widely and nods his head,
13:0713 minutes, 7 seconds"Yes, that yes, I am working with Hezbollah."
13:1613 minutes, 16 secondsSo, Czech Harvest says to the undercover, "We have a project for you.
13:2013 minutes, 20 secondsWe have $20 million that needs to be laundered. Can you do that for us?" The undercover says, "Certainly, we can do that for you."
13:2913 minutes, 29 secondsOur undercover agent did such a good job convincing them that he was this real
13:3713 minutes, 37 secondsbad guy. They offered him the contract to pick up $20 million, which he did.
13:4513 minutes, 45 seconds20 million is a lot of money. I'm not aware of too many, you know, undercover agents picking up $20 million from bad guys.
14:0114 minutes, 1 secondNow that the undercover appeared to be criminal superstars in the mind of Medí,
14:0714 minutes, 7 secondsperhaps could run operations in the Middle East. So basically this DEA undercover was going to become the Medí
14:1514 minutes, 15 secondslieutenant in charge of Middle East cocaine trafficking and money laundering.
14:3514 minutes, 35 secondsWe have found this incredible new definitive tie between Colombian cocaine trafficking,
14:4314 minutes, 43 secondsspecifically out of Medí,
14:4714 minutes, 47 secondsto an Islamic extremist terrorist organization that killed more Americans than anybody before 9/11.
14:5714 minutes, 57 secondsSo this was extraordinary. It was a novel idea, but I think to other people in the United States government, it seemed fanciful because they had never
15:0615 minutes, 6 secondsheard of anything like this. And basically the party line was that Hezbollah was too religious to be involved in drug trafficking.
15:5415 minutes, 54 secondsfor
16:1616 minutes, 16 secondsforch.
17:0017 minutesSaychech.
17:1617 minutes, 16 secondsWelcome.
17:3017 minutes, 30 secondsformulah.
18:0018 minutesfor
18:2818 minutes, 28 secondsheat.
18:4518 minutes, 45 secondsOn the tracks of the Hezbollah drug traffickers, the agents of the DEA plunged into the bloody chaotic history of Lebanon, birthplace of the party of God.
19:0519 minutes, 5 secondsAs of 1975, Beirut was torn by a civil and religious war between the different communities.
19:1319 minutes, 13 secondsChristians, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims,
19:1619 minutes, 16 secondsDrews, and Palestinians waged an endless war.
19:2619 minutes, 26 secondsIn June 1982, a new party joined the war, the Israeli army, which invaded Lebanon to fight the Palestinians.
19:4219 minutes, 42 secondsThe fighting threatened stability in the Middle East.
19:4519 minutes, 45 secondsFrench and American soldiers came to keep the peace.
19:5119 minutes, 51 secondsThey became the target of an unknown organization which had sworn to rid Lebanon of any foreign presence.
20:0220 minutes, 2 secondsThe dirty war began.
20:0620 minutes, 6 secondsfor
20:3620 minutes, 36 secondsAllahbar.
20:5520 minutes, 55 secondsGuarantee
21:1821 minutes, 18 secondsAmerica.
21:3121 minutes, 31 secondsMultinational for the Brit.
21:5421 minutes, 54 secondsWe figure it had to have at least 2,000 lbs of TNT.
21:5821 minutes, 58 secondsIt was observed uh coming at a high rate of speed from the south of the building.
22:0322 minutes, 3 secondsUh crashed through the gate and through the guard post and then detonated inside the lobby. There's a crater down there
22:1122 minutes, 11 secondsabout 30 ft deep and about 40 ft across.
22:2722 minutes, 27 secondsfor
22:5622 minutes, 56 secondsAmerica They're very
23:1723 minutes, 17 secondsand What to read?
23:4223 minutes, 42 secondsA suicide bombing is is is is a message is we will stop at nothing. We are
23:4923 minutes, 49 secondssmarter than you. You are a big bureaucracy and we can beat you.
23:5823 minutes, 58 secondsSo France and and the United States were on the same boat at this point. You know, we we're trying to figure out what is happening in Lebanon.
24:0824 minutes, 8 secondsWe want to know the names of our enemy.
24:1024 minutes, 10 secondsI want a picture. Want to know where they are and how we get to them. And once we find them, we have Delta Force,
24:1724 minutes, 17 secondswhich I work with very closely. We can go kill them. That was my orders.
24:2924 minutes, 29 secondsWar for an intelligence officer really it gets your adrenaline going.
24:3824 minutes, 38 secondsThis is in 1982 1983. I was on the border with Lebanon and that was a real fascination because we were at war.
25:0125 minutes, 1 secondYou're seeing the Israeli jets come down the Becca. You're driving down the road and the New Jersey is shelling above you.
25:1325 minutes, 13 secondsThese Navy bombs, they're as big as Volkswagens.
25:1825 minutes, 18 secondsSo that was my entree into the Middle East.
25:2925 minutes, 29 secondsHisbala as a name did not exist in 82. They bring all the desperate
25:3725 minutes, 37 secondsgroups, Shia groups together and created a unified resistance.
25:5325 minutes, 53 secondsWell,
26:1026 minutes, 10 secondsIslam
26:2126 minutes, 21 secondsSenate
26:4226 minutes, 42 secondsexplodes.
27:0527 minutes, 5 secondsRepublic Vietnam.
27:1027 minutes, 10 secondsRemember
27:2127 minutes, 21 seconds1982 is just not quite 3 years after the Iranian revolution. And for the radian revolution, one key pillar was the export of the revolution.
27:4627 minutes, 46 secondsThe Iranians came to Lebanon and said,
27:4827 minutes, 48 seconds"Look, we will help you if you help yourselves and put a fighting group together. You people know how to shoot guns. You know how to blow stuff up. We
27:5827 minutes, 58 secondswill give you the money. We will not interfere. You know how to do it. Go do it.
28:1628 minutes, 16 secondsHello fire.
28:4628 minutes, 46 secondsGood morning everyone. It's the third hijacking this week involving Beirut.
28:5028 minutes, 50 secondsAnd this time the plane and most of the passengers are from the United States.
28:5528 minutes, 55 secondsTWWA flight 847 was on route from Athens to Rome this morning when it was hijacked by suspected Shiite Muslims and forced to fly to Beirut.
29:1629 minutes, 16 secondsThey are beating the passengers. They are beating the passengers. They are threatening to kill them now. They are threatening to kill them now. We want the fuel now.
29:2729 minutes, 27 secondsWe're standing in front of the TWWA flight 847 only a few feet from the cockpit. I can see Captain John test freak next to one of the gunmen in the cockpit.
29:3929 minutes, 39 secondsHow do you feel?
29:4129 minutes, 41 secondsWe'll we'll ask you more questions when the engines are off.
29:4729 minutes, 47 secondsCaptain, can you tell me what has happened to you and what's happening to you now? Not very much is happening to us now.
29:5429 minutes, 54 secondsCan you talk to them? Do they speak English? Can you communicate with them?
29:5829 minutes, 58 secondsSometimes better than others. It depends on who's on board. Goodly. Goodly.
30:0230 minutes, 2 secondsCaptain, many people in America are calling for some kind of rescue operation.
30:0530 minutes, 5 secondsI think that we'd all be dead men if they did because we're continually surrounded by uh many many guards.
30:1330 minutes, 13 secondsDo you have any thoughts on whether or not the United States shootout on the cockpit
30:2230 minutes, 22 secondsTWWAN was the big point man for Hezbollah's early terrorist activities.
30:3330 minutes, 33 secondsHe was not a particularly religious person at first. He served as a bodyguard but went on to become uh the
30:4030 minutes, 40 secondshead of Hezbollah's terrorist operations in part by being involved in almost everything from the beginning.
30:5030 minutes, 50 secondsHere's a guy who was on the kill list of the Mossad, of the CIA for many years.
31:1031 minutes, 10 secondsMugnia was in the airplane. We found his fingerprint, but that was not Mugnia in the window. He'd never do that. never show his face in public. Never. Never.
31:2131 minutes, 21 secondsNever. Never. He never showed himself to the hostages cuz he knew one day he'd be released and
31:2831 minutes, 28 secondshe didn't want to be identified. He was a ghost and he knew how to remain a ghost.
31:3431 minutes, 34 secondsI plan to kill him.
31:5331 minutes, 53 secondsAllah. Allah 85
32:2332 minutes, 23 secondsaboard the American
32:4332 minutes, 43 secondsoversaw the most potent asymmetrical military force in modern history or ever.
32:5132 minutes, 51 secondsDon't forget the French and the Americans were run out by a guy who had about 20 people. In history, there's nothing to compare it with.
33:0533 minutes, 5 secondsImmad Mugnier and Hezbollah had won.
33:0933 minutes, 9 secondsThe Americans and French left Lebanon humiliated and scarred by constant suicide attacks and hostage taking.
33:1733 minutes, 17 secondsBut this dirty war of the 1980s left its mark.
33:2533 minutes, 25 secondsSince Washington labeled Hezbollah a terrorist organization and Imad Mugnier became a marked man.
33:3533 minutes, 35 seconds20 years later, when the agents of the DEA launched Operation Cassandra,
33:4033 minutes, 40 secondsthey thought they could avenge those who had died in Beirut and eliminate their old enemy, Immad Mukni.
33:5133 minutes, 51 secondsThe infiltration of Hezbollah's trafficking networks was organized in Jordan.
34:0034 minutesBut the agents from the CIA, the American Secret Services, were not happy to see these cowboys on their territory.
34:1434 minutes, 14 secondsJordanian anti-narcotics police go up on intercepts of numbers identified in Jordan linked to Czech Harb. And what
34:2434 minutes, 24 secondshappened was is that there was going to be a big meeting in Aman, Jordan. And at that meeting, Czech Harb was told to
34:3234 minutes, 32 secondsintroduce the DEA undercover to an extremely significant member or members of Hezbollah.
34:5934 minutes, 59 secondsWe were hearing and we believed for various reasons that Harb was under the guidance and protection of Magna.
35:1935 minutes, 19 secondsWe're under a time crunch now because the undercovers obviously can't move cocaine with Hezblah and wouldn't be able to launder money for Hezblah. So,
35:2935 minutes, 29 secondswe realize that whatever evidence we gain in this Aman Jordan meeting might be the last chance.
35:5235 minutes, 52 secondsand a day or two before the meeting was shut down by members of the US embassy in Jordan.
36:0236 minutes, 2 secondsThey did not allow uh the undercover agent to meet with the operatives on the ground in Jordan and there was no real explanation given which to be honest was
36:1036 minutes, 10 secondsvery very annoying and very disturbing.
36:2136 minutes, 21 secondsYou had folks in the intelligence community that had 30 years of knowledge on Hezbollah pretty much looking down at
36:2836 minutes, 28 secondsthe DEA like how does the DEA know about Hezbollah? DEA became like a fly in their soup.
36:5036 minutes, 50 secondsThe undercover reached out to Czech Harb.
36:5436 minutes, 54 secondsCzech Harb wouldn't talk to him. Czech Harb wouldn't respond.
36:5936 minutes, 59 secondsSo he had completely blown off. So we lost our undercover infiltration of uh of Czech Harb.
37:0637 minutes, 6 secondsSo the opportunity was lost. Burn.
37:2037 minutes, 20 secondsNot only was the opportunity burned, but our DEA undercover's life was now in big-time danger. As the head of the
37:2837 minutes, 28 secondsSpecial Operations Division, that pissed me off.
37:3737 minutes, 37 secondsThe CIA, the American Secret Services, had capsized Operation Cassandra,
37:4237 minutes, 42 secondsorganized by the DEA, the Anti-Drug Agency.
37:4737 minutes, 47 secondsThis interdep departmental war showed Washington's weakness. Faced with this enemy that had grown and mutated.
37:5537 minutes, 55 secondsIn the mid200s, Hezbollah was no longer a terrorist faction.
38:0038 minutesIt passed itself off as a respectable political party with representatives in the Lebanese parliament that defended the interests of the long ostracized Shia community.
38:1238 minutes, 12 secondsThey chose their new political leader,
38:1438 minutes, 14 secondsHassan Nashella, a cleric trained in Iran.
38:1938 minutes, 19 secondsIn the shadows, always clandestine, the military leader, Immad Mugnier,
38:2438 minutes, 24 secondscontinued leading the war against Israel that was known as resistance.
38:3138 minutes, 31 secondsBecause unlike the Westerners who had left the country, the Israeli army still occupied southern Lebanon.
38:5638 minutes, 56 secondsIslam.
38:5838 minutes, 58 secondsWell, Islam
39:1539 minutes, 15 secondsis
40:0540 minutes, 5 secondsprogress.
40:2340 minutes, 23 secondsCongratulations.
40:3540 minutes, 35 secondsCapt.
40:4540 minutes, 45 secondsHop is unique.
40:5740 minutes, 57 secondsYou have to look at Hisbala. I mean, whoever side you are on is Robin Hood.
41:0441 minutes, 4 secondsLook, if you're Lebanese and you're tired of being humiliated,
41:0941 minutes, 9 secondswho do you have? You've got Hisbala and that's it.
41:1741 minutes, 17 secondsSay you're Mr.
41:3541 minutes, 35 secondsforham.
42:2342 minutes, 23 secondsMatter
42:4242 minutes, 42 secondsYeah.
43:0043 minutesWell, I think
43:1143 minutes, 11 secondsI said
43:2943 minutes, 29 secondsback.
43:5943 minutes, 59 secondsYeah. Salam.
44:1244 minutes, 12 secondsI don't know Yeah.
44:4944 minutes, 49 secondsAllah done.
45:0645 minutes, 6 secondsForbah fighting politics, social welfare provision. They are all about creating a culture of resistance of mukawa.
45:2245 minutes, 22 secondsAmen.
45:4145 minutes, 41 secondsShore.
46:0446 minutes, 4 secondsI had to say it. Who are
46:3446 minutes, 34 secondsLong Arab. Perfect.
47:0047 minutesThink of Nasarella's Robus Pierre, unccorruptible,
47:0847 minutes, 8 secondstrying to create a revolution and has done the best he could.
47:1547 minutes, 15 secondsThe right wall. The right
47:3647 minutes, 36 secondsFore! Foreign! Foreign!
48:0048 minutesI almost have Mr. Mic.
48:4548 minutes, 45 secondsGlorious.
48:5748 minutes, 57 secondsYou sorted your garage, don't you?
49:2849 minutes, 28 secondsWhy haven't the Israelis killed him with a drone? Cuz they can't find him.
49:3249 minutes, 32 secondsHe knows about telephones. He knows about drones. He knows all this stuff.
49:3649 minutes, 36 secondsHe knows how to stay alive. He's a survivor like Magneia. Same mold.
50:0750 minutes, 7 secondsshould sort the
50:3550 minutes, 35 secondsIn the early 2000s, nobody in the West noticed Hezbollah expanding its grip on Lebanon.
50:4450 minutes, 44 secondsAt the time, the international community was focused on Iraq.
50:4950 minutes, 49 secondsThe US had just invaded the country and was facing fierce resistance from local militias.
50:5650 minutes, 56 secondsMany of them were Shiite, armed and financed by Iran.
51:0251 minutes, 2 secondsWhat America didn't know at the time was that Lebanese fighters from Hezbollah had come to help their Iraqi brothers in
51:1051 minutes, 10 secondsthe name of Shiite solidarity and the fight against their common enemy, the great Satan.
51:2851 minutes, 28 secondsIt started uh with the war in Iraq and uh my involvement as an adviser to US
51:3651 minutes, 36 secondsspecial operations command on the ground in Iraq uh against IEDs which were called explosively formed projectiles EFPs.
51:5251 minutes, 52 secondsThis weapon, the way it was designed,
51:5451 minutes, 54 secondshad extraordinary ferocity and explosive impact. Come here, Will. Check this out.
52:0052 minutesI think I found Yeah, those are like bombs. Look at that thing.
52:0552 minutes, 5 secondsA very small tube with a copper plate would yield a huge explosion. Enough to cut a M1 A1 tank almost in half, which
52:1352 minutes, 13 secondswe've never seen anyone build to do with any sort of normal explosive.
52:2452 minutes, 24 secondsIt was a signature weapon. So the fact that it was being used against American forces told me that Hezbollah had to be on the ground.
52:3552 minutes, 35 secondsHis below instructors trained approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time,
52:4252 minutes, 42 secondssending them back to Iraq, organized into these special groups. They're being taught how to use EFPs,
52:5052 minutes, 50 secondsmortars, rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper, and operations.
53:0753 minutes, 7 secondsGet off. Get off. You okay?
53:1253 minutes, 12 secondsThe explosive formed projectile that was being employed in Iraq against American forces was designed by Hezbollah. And
53:2153 minutes, 21 secondsthe man behind the creation of this weapon was Immad Mia.
53:3153 minutes, 31 secondsSo I started hearing about the president's man. They called him the president's man because he had worked directly for President Bush in the Bush White House.
53:4153 minutes, 41 secondsI was focusing on the finances and I was aware that a great deal of money
53:4853 minutes, 48 secondsinvolving the EFP networks in Iraq was being derived from cashouses in Lebanon.
54:0654 minutes, 6 secondssomething sort of remarkable happened.
54:0854 minutes, 8 secondsWe started to see phone selectors that were tied to the financing of IED attacks in Iraq that were then
54:1754 minutes, 17 secondsapparently in touch with numbers in South America.
54:3254 minutes, 32 secondsI was like, are they really me mean? Are they did they mean to call Colombia? I said, what what does this mean? I mean,
54:4054 minutes, 40 secondsit's like this is very bizarre. But this pattern kept happening.
54:4954 minutes, 49 secondsWhy are these people in contact? What are they talking about? What are they doing?
54:5654 minutes, 56 secondsAnd I realized suddenly, are these guys turning to Colombian
55:0355 minutes, 3 secondssources of narco financing to fund their operations on the ground in Iraq? Um, I mean, I was just a light went on my head because I was familiar with narcotics,
55:1355 minutes, 13 secondstrafficking, global money laundering for organized crime.
55:2555 minutes, 25 secondsDrug money at one level or another was making its way, the profits were making their way into the war in Iraq.
55:4355 minutes, 43 secondsWow. If we could track this money and we could tie it to drugs and then we were to pursue the drug trafficking and start
55:5055 minutes, 50 secondsto take down the drug business, we could start to really put a financial hit around Hezbollah's ability to operate in Iraq.
56:0856 minutes, 8 secondsMy orders were to attack this foggy situation and then to try to tie this
56:1556 minutes, 15 secondsinto the leadership and the leadership being Immad Mia.
56:2256 minutes, 22 secondsSo I wanted to go after Imad Mia.
56:2956 minutes, 29 secondsHezbollah was developing this worldwide capability and generating billions of dollars and we had to take action.
56:4156 minutes, 41 secondsFor them to turn to narcotics trafficking was the greatest gift we could ever be given. Suddenly we had a you a way of using lawfare not warfare
56:5056 minutes, 50 secondsto attack uh a terrorist organization's finances. And when I briefed it up the chain at at US Central Command to General Allen and through him to General
56:5956 minutes, 59 secondsPetraeus, they're like, "Hot shit. It's a great idea. What could we We couldn't dream of something better than this because like we can't fight those guys."
57:1357 minutes, 13 secondsWashington considered Hezbollah's involvement in the death of US soldiers in Iraq a declaration of war and relaunched Operation Cassandra.
57:2857 minutes, 28 secondsThe DEA had a free reign to attack the party of God in the name of national security.
57:3757 minutes, 37 secondsI wanted to go after their money. I wanted to go after their networks. I wanted to take down their finances. I wanted to go after their banks. They had
57:4457 minutes, 44 secondscriminalized themselves. We needed to reveal that to the world and to their own people.
58:1658 minutes, 16 secondsfor
58:3158 minutes, 31 secondsyellow.
58:4458 minutes, 44 secondsFore
59:0859 minutes, 8 secondsspeech.
59:2159 minutes, 21 secondsForeign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.
59:4959 minutes, 49 secondsParliament
1:00:081 hour, 8 secondsexplo.
1:00:091 hour, 9 secondsPremier
1:00:291 hour, 29 secondsMarty.
1:00:401 hour, 40 secondswas a threat to Syrian domination in Lebanon. Syria has been a close ally to Hezbollah.
1:00:511 hour, 51 secondsRafi Kirreri was pushing too hard on things that were going to undermine their position in Lebanon and that was not to be allowed.
1:01:341 hour, 1 minute, 34 secondspreublic.
1:01:441 hour, 1 minute, 44 secondsphysical
1:02:091 hour, 2 minutes, 9 secondsWe determined through our investigation that Hezbollah was operating like a global drug cartel. So we wanted to
1:02:161 hour, 2 minutes, 16 secondsapply the same logic that was successful going after the Italian organized crime families, going after the cartels in Colombia.
1:02:391 hour, 2 minutes, 39 secondsClearly they thought they could operate with impunity in Lebanon.
1:02:441 hour, 2 minutes, 44 secondsI mean the cartels are good but Hezbollah is another whole level.
1:03:151 hour, 3 minutes, 15 secondsThe assassination of Prime Minister Rafi Kreri sent a shock wave throughout Lebanon and the international community.
1:03:271 hour, 3 minutes, 27 secondsAll eyes were on Syria, which was accused of being behind the attack.
1:03:331 hour, 3 minutes, 33 secondsBasher al-Assad's army, which had partly occupied Lebanon for 30 years, had to withdraw, heranged by the people.
1:03:501 hour, 3 minutes, 50 secondsWith the Syrians withdrawal, Hezbollah lost a long-term ally and protector.
1:03:561 hour, 3 minutes, 56 secondsWorse still, Hezbollah found itself accused of being involved in Rafi Carreri's assassination.
1:04:081 hour, 4 minutes, 8 secondsUndermined, it resumed its violent activities.
1:04:121 hour, 4 minutes, 12 secondsFirst in Lebanon in a campaign against its political opponents,
1:04:171 hour, 4 minutes, 17 secondsthen beyond its frontiers by provoking its sworn enemy, Israel. Heat.
1:04:371 hour, 4 minutes, 37 secondsHeat.
1:04:481 hour, 4 minutes, 48 secondsfor
1:05:201 hour, 5 minutes, 20 secondsThe military exact
1:05:421 hour, 5 minutes, 42 secondsforic.
1:06:121 hour, 6 minutes, 12 secondsMean Lebanon here.
1:06:591 hour, 6 minutes, 59 secondsAlhamdulillah.
1:07:191 hour, 7 minutes, 19 secondsWho?
1:07:471 hour, 7 minutes, 47 secondsWe stayed the first days and hisbollah was coming. You have to leave. You have to leave. So I believe profoundly that Hispa expected what would happen later.
1:08:001 hour, 8 minutesThey expected this extremely heavy bombardments.
1:08:221 hour, 8 minutes, 22 secondsSince 20 years I'm living here in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are
1:08:281 hour, 8 minutes, 28 secondscalled the
1:08:431 hour, 8 minutes, 43 secondsSo we are really in a kind of ghetto here controlled by Hisba.
1:08:541 hour, 8 minutes, 54 secondsDuring the war, there was a group of Hispa fighters sitting in our garden discussing, in other words, having a
1:09:021 hour, 9 minutes, 2 secondskind of meeting. And I was panicking because I thought if uh the drones will capture his bowler sitting in our
1:09:111 hour, 9 minutes, 11 secondsgarden, they will bombard the whole house. And as there was this kind of tension,
1:09:181 hour, 9 minutes, 18 secondsI made a very bad joke. I just I don't know what took me, but I just said, "Do you would like to have a picture of
1:09:261 hour, 9 minutes, 26 secondsyou?" And somebody answers me, "If you take one, the Americans would pay you a million of dollar." So, I mean, I said,
1:09:371 hour, 9 minutes, 37 seconds"Sorry, sorry, sorry. It was a bad joke.
1:09:391 hour, 9 minutes, 39 secondsI will go up to the apartment. I need some closes and I will leave." So, I left. And two years later, uh,
1:09:511 hour, 9 minutes, 51 secondsthe Hispan commander Imat Morinir is assassinated.
1:09:571 hour, 9 minutes, 57 secondsAnd, um, all of a sudden there are this huge 3meter long posters everywhere in the street of Imat Moria.
1:10:101 hour, 10 minutes, 10 secondsAnd I'm telling myself, I have seen him.
1:10:141 hour, 10 minutes, 14 secondsAnd at one point it just made this click and I realized the guy who told me the
1:10:221 hour, 10 minutes, 22 secondsAmericans would have paid you a million of dollars was Imat Bona
1:10:411 hour, 10 minutes, 41 secondsafter 33 days of Israeli bombings.
1:10:441 hour, 10 minutes, 44 secondsHezbollah obtained a ceasefire without releasing the two hostages.
1:10:501 hour, 10 minutes, 50 secondsIn Beirut, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasella, celebrated the victory of the resistance over the historical enemy.
1:11:051 hour, 11 minutes, 5 secondsHassan Nashah strengthened his hero status throughout the Arab world. He was the first to humiliate Israel, the little Satan.
1:11:191 hour, 11 minutes, 19 secondsMoney was needed to finance Lebanon's reconstruction.
1:11:271 hour, 11 minutes, 27 secondsThis was the moment the DEA had been waiting for.
1:11:321 hour, 11 minutes, 32 secondsIts agents in Washington were monitoring all the movements of funds arriving in Beirut.
1:11:401 hour, 11 minutes, 40 secondsIn the funds coming from around the world, they searched for drug money.
1:11:521 hour, 11 minutes, 52 secondsIn 2006, Israeli Air Force destroyed every major bridge in Lebanon. They destroyed many of the road systems. Airport was impacted.
1:12:011 hour, 12 minutes, 1 secondThe place was chaos. The Lebanon was in deep trouble financially.
1:12:071 hour, 12 minutes, 7 secondsUm, normally, you know, somebody bombs a country, their credit rating goes down.
1:12:121 hour, 12 minutes, 12 secondsYou know, money doesn't flood into their country. Okay, I'm a finance guy. This is not how things normally work. But in Lebanon, miracles happen. They need the money and lo and behold, what happens?
1:12:251 hour, 12 minutes, 25 secondsThis amazing amount of money was rushing into Lebanon. I remember well, the war ended at 7:00,
1:12:311 hour, 12 minutes, 31 seconds8:00 in the morning. Hisba was present everywhere. People were able to go
1:12:381 hour, 12 minutes, 38 secondssomewhere to complain that they had lost their house. A member of the family was killed.
1:12:461 hour, 12 minutes, 46 secondsThousands of families had lost everything.
1:12:551 hour, 12 minutes, 55 secondsHis bowler was offering compensation.
1:13:061 hour, 13 minutes, 6 secondsPeople were receiving around $10,000.
1:13:161 hour, 13 minutes, 16 secondsThe money was of course coming from Iran.
1:13:351 hour, 13 minutes, 35 secondsIran.
1:13:471 hour, 13 minutes, 47 secondsAlsign.
1:14:201 hour, 14 minutes, 20 secondsHezbollah makes plenty of money through business activity. It makes money through donations, but at the end of the day, they're reliant on Iran for their big bucks.
1:14:351 hour, 14 minutes, 35 secondsAnd how much money more or less does it represent? Hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
1:14:391 hour, 14 minutes, 39 secondsHundreds of millions of dollars a year in cash.
1:14:531 hour, 14 minutes, 53 secondsfraud.
1:15:001 hour, 15 minutesIn 2007, the Lebanese banking system began to explode in growth.
1:15:131 hour, 15 minutes, 13 secondsWe realized and what I realized as I started to look into it, a huge amount of that money was drug money.
1:15:231 hour, 15 minutes, 23 secondsBut the key thing is who organized this scheme? Well, ultimately Immad McNeia himself
1:15:361 hour, 15 minutes, 36 secondsleaders have made public statements that the drug industry is forbidden. Um,
1:15:411 hour, 15 minutes, 41 secondssometimes the bad guys lie and uh they look the other way.
1:15:591 hour, 15 minutes, 59 secondsThe US Treasury Department is the finance ministry of the United States.
1:16:031 hour, 16 minutes, 3 secondsAnd we knew we had power. We knew we had tools. We knew we had authorities to reach into Beirut, to reach into the Lebanese financial system and put our
1:16:111 hour, 16 minutes, 11 secondsfinger on the skull a little bit and say, "Okay, now we're going to start impacting your ability to feel comfortable where you thought you were the safest.
1:16:411 hour, 16 minutes, 41 secondsThe US government went on the offensive.
1:16:441 hour, 16 minutes, 44 secondsThe agents of the DEA received the order to infiltrate the illicit financial circuits woven by Imad Mugnier, the Party of God's military strategist.
1:16:571 hour, 16 minutes, 57 secondsWiretaps allowed them to identify international money laundering circuits and the organization of Hezbollah's hidden networks that dealt with the South American drug cartels.
1:17:151 hour, 17 minutes, 15 secondsSo the team identifying the network, we identified what we called the super facilitators, like the biggest members
1:17:231 hour, 17 minutes, 23 secondsof the organization. Like in an organized crime family, these were the bosses, right? Or in a cartel we call them cell heads, right? With Hezbollah,
1:17:311 hour, 17 minutes, 31 secondsit was the super facilitators.
1:17:371 hour, 17 minutes, 37 secondsPretty quickly we identified a Latin American
1:17:491 hour, 17 minutes, 49 secondsdrug lord tied to Medí but operating in Lebanon and and looked like Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
1:18:001 hour, 18 minutesa Lebanese male called Iman Juma.
1:18:051 hour, 18 minutes, 5 secondsIman Juma was far far above a guy like Czechri because he's a very powerful man.
1:18:261 hour, 18 minutes, 26 secondsHe's the bridge between the Colombian cartels money and Hezbollah.
1:18:351 hour, 18 minutes, 35 secondsI mean, he was like the only guy who was a Sunni who was living in the hardest course Shia area of southern Beirut, you
1:18:431 hour, 18 minutes, 43 secondsknow, in a beautiful apartment, I believe, on the beach guarded by Hezbollah guards and things. Very unusual.
1:18:571 hour, 18 minutes, 57 secondsSo our entire focus was on Juma and how we can possibly infiltrate his network right in Lebanon.
1:19:091 hour, 19 minutes, 9 secondsI'm in Juma wanted to meet with us.
1:19:121 hour, 19 minutes, 12 secondsSometimes our our top international targets, they get wind of the indictment uh or we let them know uh sort of in a
1:19:201 hour, 19 minutes, 20 secondsquiet way, hey, you know, you're indicted. And what often happens is uh through through a lawyer they have
1:19:271 hour, 19 minutes, 27 secondsum or maybe even directly it could start with a direct conversation is that uh the bad guy wanted to see if he could work out some sort of deal.
1:19:381 hour, 19 minutes, 38 secondsIt was under the guise that I'm in and Juma was going to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which I was never going to let that happen if I
1:19:451 hour, 19 minutes, 45 secondscould. In my mind, this is the guy that we need to put in jail, not to cooperate. So, we set up a meeting. It was actually at the Trump Tower in uh Panama City.
1:20:021 hour, 20 minutes, 2 secondsThe agents and the prosecutors and the lawyer were all wearing um really nice clothes. and I decided to just go in my shorts and um a t-shirt into the Trump
1:20:101 hour, 20 minutes, 10 secondsTower. And I was the only guy wearing shorts and t-shirt, but I I think I was doing on purpose cuz I didn't want to give Juma any idea that I thought uh
1:20:201 hour, 20 minutes, 20 secondslike I'm doing anything special for the guy.
1:20:291 hour, 20 minutes, 29 secondsfrom my 20 years of experience working with criminals and mafiosis that he appeared to me to be a hardcore mafia member. So, anytime we caught each
1:20:381 hour, 20 minutes, 38 secondsother's glance, he he had this look of uh if I get the chance, I'm going to kill you.
1:20:451 hour, 20 minutes, 45 secondsHe's a mob boss. No doubt.
1:20:581 hour, 20 minutes, 58 secondsI stayed real quiet through most of the meeting and then finally I said this is you haven't given us shit there. There's absolutely nothing that you've given us
1:21:061 hour, 21 minutes, 6 secondsthat we don't already know. So we went our separate ways.
1:21:121 hour, 21 minutes, 12 secondsIt does appear that both inside and outside the Trump Tower they were seritiously taking pictures of us. It was basically certain that Hezblah had
1:21:201 hour, 21 minutes, 20 secondslaunched an intelligence investigation on um Asher and myself. basically the Cassandra task force.
1:21:301 hour, 21 minutes, 30 secondsThey tried to contract other criminal groups including cartels so they would pay if these people would kill us.
1:21:411 hour, 21 minutes, 41 secondsAre you scared?
1:21:421 hour, 21 minutes, 42 secondsNo, definitely not scared. No, I I I mean I took it as um you took it as a compliment and then you
1:21:501 hour, 21 minutes, 50 secondsalso felt like wow, we must really be doing our job because they're so pissed off at us. They're so angry.
1:21:571 hour, 21 minutes, 57 secondsYou have to ask Dave Aster if he was scared. I don't know. I I wasn't scared, but who knows?
1:22:201 hour, 22 minutes, 20 secondsWhen I started Project Cassandra with my partner Jack Kelly and our fearless leader Derek Maltz, they knew I had another job, but I don't think they quite realized where I worked. You know,
1:22:311 hour, 22 minutes, 31 secondsI worked at 375 Park Avenue in New York on the 33rd floor for one of the for two billion dollar hedge fund where I was a
1:22:381 hour, 22 minutes, 38 secondspartner. This is my side project, you know. So, you know, half the day I'm managing billions of dollars in loans
1:22:461 hour, 22 minutes, 46 secondsand uh equity investments, and the rest of the day I'm hanging out with guys like Jack Kelly and and others inside,
1:22:531 hour, 22 minutes, 53 secondswhich was like, you know, I'd fly from New York on the on a plane, you know,
1:22:581 hour, 22 minutes, 58 secondsriding into Dallas. And I'd like be dressed like this. I', you know,
1:23:021 hour, 23 minutes, 2 secondsbusiness suit. These guys were wearing blue jeans and, you know, like t-shirts and shit and, you know, acting like bunch of baboons. And I'm like, "Hey, I
1:23:101 hour, 23 minutes, 10 secondsjust met with uh you know, George Soros." You know, I mean, like
1:23:171 hour, 23 minutes, 17 secondsthe DEA finally decided to charge Juma with drug trafficking and money laundering,
1:23:241 hour, 23 minutes, 24 secondsbut he had already fled.
1:23:341 hour, 23 minutes, 34 secondsOperation Cassandra was stepped up. A 100 agents were now working to find Iman Juma's accompllices.
1:23:461 hour, 23 minutes, 46 secondsThe investigation focused on Venezuela,
1:23:481 hour, 23 minutes, 48 secondsa South American country hostile to the US.
1:23:551 hour, 23 minutes, 55 secondsIts president, Hugo Chavez, opened its frontiers to the historical foes of the great Satan.
1:24:021 hour, 24 minutes, 2 secondsfirst and foremost the Islamic Republic of Iran and its protetéé Hezbollah.
1:24:121 hour, 24 minutes, 12 secondsI come from a family that believes in uh government service and uh serving society and it was a path to maybe try to do a little bit of good in the world.
1:24:251 hour, 24 minutes, 25 secondsWe were out of DEA special operations division and we were called the bilateral investigative unit.
1:24:371 hour, 24 minutes, 37 secondsSo, originally we were uh focused on kingpins, kind of the untouchables in the world, but um we quickly started to
1:24:451 hour, 24 minutes, 45 secondsto really see a big nexus between a lot of these groups um involved in terrorism uh and how they're being financed through the narcotics trade.
1:24:581 hour, 24 minutes, 58 secondsDerek Maltz was our special agent in charge for most of my tour there. Derek's the best.
1:25:051 hour, 25 minutes, 5 secondsAnd we started realizing how Hezbollah was moving operations into Venezuela in an opportunity to generate, you know,
1:25:141 hour, 25 minutes, 14 secondsmillions and millions of dollars to help them fund their operations. It was very apparent uh after the war in 2006 with
1:25:221 hour, 25 minutes, 22 secondsIsrael uh Aman Juma and the network of Hezbollah operatives were very closely aligned with the corrupt military and
1:25:291 hour, 25 minutes, 29 secondscorrupt government officials at the highest level of Venezuelan government.
1:25:371 hour, 25 minutes, 37 secondsWhat happened was the majority of Colombian cocaine entering the United States and Europe comes out of Venezuela. It's not Venezuelan cocaine,
1:25:441 hour, 25 minutes, 44 secondsbut Venezuela became is the gateway. And through our penetrations in Venezuela,
1:25:491 hour, 25 minutes, 49 secondswe also started to learn a lot about Hezbollah.
1:25:581 hour, 25 minutes, 58 secondsWe did learn through our investigations that a Venezuelan official went over to a meeting in Damascus, Syria, and uh was offered the assistance of Hezo.
1:26:151 hour, 26 minutes, 15 secondsThere has been reporting that it was NASA at the meeting. Um I think it was much more likely that it was Igmad McNeia, the head of uh military operations for Hezbollah.
1:26:291 hour, 26 minutes, 29 secondsClearly both um were very contrary to the national security policies of the United States. They believe they shared a common enemy and Hezbollah is
1:26:381 hour, 26 minutes, 38 secondscertainly offering their expertise in resistance in creating malicious systems.
1:26:541 hour, 26 minutes, 54 secondsSome of the other I think interesting connections that came out were example there's a airline out of Venezuela called Kviasa. Some have called it Aerot
1:27:021 hour, 27 minutes, 2 secondsterror. And we started to learn there's a weekly flight to Tyrron. Um, very often it stopped over in Damascus.
1:27:131 hour, 27 minutes, 13 secondsPlanes loaded with weapons, you know,
1:27:161 hour, 27 minutes, 16 secondsRPGs, surfacetoair missiles, AK rifles into Venezuela from these flights. And also they were picking up large sums of
1:27:241 hour, 27 minutes, 24 secondscash, you know, cocaine, bringing that stuff back into the Middle East.
1:27:361 hour, 27 minutes, 36 secondsYou get 7 to 10 tons coming out of Venezuela a week. Okay. 7 to 10 tons is a lot of coke.
1:27:561 hour, 27 minutes, 56 secondsThis partnership, this naroterrorist partnership is emerging between the government of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez and the Iranians and Hezbollah.
1:28:121 hour, 28 minutes, 12 secondsVenezuela.
1:28:341 hour, 28 minutes, 34 secondsDrugs became part of the resistance.
1:28:371 hour, 28 minutes, 37 secondsNarco resistance. Trafficking the dr erodess the infidels, hurts their youth,
1:28:431 hour, 28 minutes, 43 secondsspoils their power.
1:28:501 hour, 28 minutes, 50 secondsWe started to see some really higher level Venezuelan officials, persons like Tarq Alasami, who's the former minister
1:28:571 hour, 28 minutes, 57 secondsof interior and I believe the former vice president. Um he's of Lebanese Syrian descent, ties back to that part of the world.
1:29:091 hour, 29 minutes, 9 secondsTK is is one of those really powerful officials who has so much influence in a country that he allows the system to operate.
1:29:201 hour, 29 minutes, 20 secondsHe allows the drug traffickers to be protected. He allows flights to leave without people doing their job and inspecting it. He allows uh travel
1:29:281 hour, 29 minutes, 28 secondsdocuments to be issued for persons in other countries that otherwise might not be eligible for receiving those travel documents. and he allows massive amounts
1:29:371 hour, 29 minutes, 37 secondsof monies to be laundered through formal financial institutions.
1:29:471 hour, 29 minutes, 47 secondsUh yesterday, the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, known as OFAC, designated
1:29:521 hour, 29 minutes, 52 secondsVenezuelan national TK Alami as a specially designated narcotics trafficker pursuant for playing a
1:30:011 hour, 30 minutes, 1 secondsignificant role in international narcotics trafficking.
1:30:151 hour, 30 minutes, 15 secondsHezblah wanted to get closer and closer to being involved in the distribution and laundering. So they became sort of an end to end element in the drug
1:30:241 hour, 30 minutes, 24 secondstrafficking. You know, not something you normally see a terrorist organization do. When it came to the drug business,
1:30:301 hour, 30 minutes, 30 secondsthese guys were eager to make a buck and and very aggressive. and not necessarily that careful.
1:31:011 hour, 31 minutes, 1 secondUS and Israeli teams put together a very very small explosive. Ultimately, one night coming out of Syrian military intelligence, Mad Mugnia got into his
1:31:101 hour, 31 minutes, 10 secondsinto his vehicle uh and the explosive was detonated uh killing him instantly.
1:31:321 hour, 31 minutes, 32 secondsThe man whose existence was denied during life but in death embraced.
1:31:421 hour, 31 minutes, 42 secondsHe and only he held this mystique. The removal of Immad Mugnia, I think,
1:31:531 hour, 31 minutes, 53 secondswas a very significant takedown for the organization.
1:32:021 hour, 32 minutes, 2 secondsWith Immad Mugnier's death, Hezbollah didn't just lose a military legend. It lost the man who controlled the organization's illicit finances.
1:32:141 hour, 32 minutes, 14 secondsThis weakened its power within Lebanon.
1:32:191 hour, 32 minutes, 19 secondsBut the party of God is most dangerous when threatened.
1:32:241 hour, 32 minutes, 24 secondsHassan Nasha took the ultimate risk. A coup to tighten his grip on the country.
1:32:451 hour, 32 minutes, 45 secondsForeign
1:33:041 hour, 33 minutes, 4 secondsspeech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.
1:33:161 hour, 33 minutes, 16 secondsFrance. Repost.
1:33:361 hour, 33 minutes, 36 secondsAmen. capital.
1:33:481 hour, 33 minutes, 48 secondsExact.
1:34:231 hour, 34 minutes, 23 secondsWho can
1:34:381 hour, 34 minutes, 38 secondsme? Absolutely.
1:35:141 hour, 35 minutes, 14 secondsYeah. and
1:35:481 hour, 35 minutes, 48 secondsthey have been building up over the years a parallel system. So Yan, you can
1:35:551 hour, 35 minutes, 55 secondsgo here to a supermarket controlled by Hisba where you find Iranian products.
1:36:091 hour, 36 minutes, 9 secondsThere are hospitals under the control of Hisba. There are banks under the control of Hispa.
1:36:181 hour, 36 minutes, 18 secondsI mean, Iran has a longterm strategy. Stay away.
1:37:031 hour, 37 minutes, 3 secondsThanks to Iran's unfailing support,
1:37:061 hour, 37 minutes, 6 secondsHezbollah has considerable control over Lebanese political, economic, and judicial life.
1:37:141 hour, 37 minutes, 14 secondsBut in its impossible investigation, the DEA had a significant advantage. It had unlimited means.
1:37:241 hour, 37 minutes, 24 secondsBy tracing Hezbollah's narco dollars,
1:37:271 hour, 37 minutes, 27 secondsthe DEA reached the Shiite Empire's outpost, Africa, which is home to a large Lebanese community.
1:37:361 hour, 37 minutes, 36 secondsSo during Project Cassandra, we actually identified probably one of the biggest trade-based moneyaundering schemes that
1:37:441 hour, 37 minutes, 44 secondsI'm aware of to support terrorist organization like Hezbollah. West Africa was a hub for global cocaine trafficking
1:37:511 hour, 37 minutes, 51 secondsaround the world. And so we started putting a lot of resources into West Africa.
1:37:591 hour, 37 minutes, 59 secondsWe had aerial photos in 2006 and the land was completely vacant along the coastline. There's just these big stretches of beach. And then in 2007,
1:38:091 hour, 38 minutes, 9 secondsyou start to see these used car lots started emerging. By 2008, they're full of cars. like 30 40,000 cars a week are going through these car lots.
1:38:221 hour, 38 minutes, 22 secondsWe didn't really understand it. I mean,
1:38:241 hour, 38 minutes, 24 secondsnothing wrong with importing cars and doing, you know, international car business. It's a legal business.
1:38:351 hour, 38 minutes, 35 secondsWho owned those car lots? Well, quite a few of them were owned by Lebanese who were supporters of Hezbollah.
1:38:471 hour, 38 minutes, 47 secondsAli Kurubi was living in Benin. He was one of the main guys that established working with Aman Juma and all of these
1:38:551 hour, 38 minutes, 55 secondsguys that were establishing Hezbollah's operations in Africa.
1:39:011 hour, 39 minutes, 1 secondThey would take the drug money, buy used cars, send those used cars to West Africa, sell the used cars, then send
1:39:101 hour, 39 minutes, 10 secondsthe money, the clean money back to Lebanon,
1:39:181 hour, 39 minutes, 18 secondsand then it would go make its way back to South America to buy more cocaine. And this thing would continue.
1:39:321 hour, 39 minutes, 32 secondsAnd the beauty of it is there were legitimate business owners that were making money that people in West Africa were getting cars.
1:39:401 hour, 39 minutes, 40 secondsSo they were happy, right? And Hezbollah under the radar was getting their cut of the profits to develop the cash flow that they needed to carry out their global agenda.
1:40:181 hour, 40 minutes, 18 secondsWe estimated about $200 million a month was being generated from this scheme.
1:40:241 hour, 40 minutes, 24 secondsThat's over, do the math, right? 200 billion times 12, right? That's $2.4 billion annually.
1:40:391 hour, 40 minutes, 39 secondsFiguring that out was enough of a challenge. Let me tell you, it was complicated. And you know, the money moves back to buy more narcotics.
1:40:481 hour, 40 minutes, 48 secondsAnd this thing keeps repeating. Except,
1:40:511 hour, 40 minutes, 51 secondsyou know, as it repeats, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
1:40:561 hour, 40 minutes, 56 secondsAnd that's when we started to see our opportunity to try to choke it.
1:41:031 hour, 41 minutes, 3 secondsAs had a plan in place and then that was let's take over a bank and the easiest way to do that was in Lebanon.
1:41:141 hour, 41 minutes, 14 secondsBy 2009 2010 when we started to look at the Lebanese Canadian bank seriously
1:41:241 hour, 41 minutes, 24 secondswe wanted to figure out what this bank was doing and then I wanted to penetrate the bank and get inside it and we were Colombian drug traffickers.
1:41:361 hour, 41 minutes, 36 secondsNot me, my guys and money launderers.
1:41:421 hour, 41 minutes, 42 secondsAnd what was the relationship between Lebanese Canadian Bank and Hasba? We later learned that in effect
1:41:491 hour, 41 minutes, 49 secondshad about a 28% ownership of Lebanese Canadian Bank.
1:41:581 hour, 41 minutes, 58 secondsFor us, it it was the smoking gun uh because it backed up all the analysis and the other evidence we had been gathering.
1:42:221 hour, 42 minutes, 22 secondsYou know, they take hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. They literally bring it on in on pallets, dump it in the bank, and suddenly it's inside the Lebanese banking system.
1:42:341 hour, 42 minutes, 34 secondsHow much? Billions. Billions of dollars a year.
1:42:431 hour, 42 minutes, 43 secondsHezbollah accounts through credits and debits moved $5 billion in 18 months just through Lebanese Canyan bank
1:42:521 hour, 42 minutes, 52 secondsaccounts. That shows you the significant amount of money
1:43:001 hour, 43 minutesand I wanted to target that bank and then I wanted to bankrupt that bank and that's exactly what we did.
1:43:201 hour, 43 minutes, 20 secondsSection 311 is often described as the atomic bomb of Treasury authorities. So the the practical result means that you lose as a matter of law your access to the US financial system. In this case,
1:43:311 hour, 43 minutes, 31 secondsLebanese Canadian Bank. it becomes much much more difficult to engage in any dollar transactions uh informally. Um
1:43:391 hour, 43 minutes, 39 secondsyou'll probably lose almost all of your financial relationships anywhere in the world.
1:43:511 hour, 43 minutes, 51 secondsI like to think of it as a big bowl of yarn and as you pulled the string of yarn more and more and more cases came
1:43:581 hour, 43 minutes, 58 secondsout. Authorities are still today pulling at the strings of the Lebanese Canadian Bank and finding cases from North
1:44:061 hour, 44 minutes, 6 secondsAmerica to Africa and Europe and across the Middle East.
1:44:131 hour, 44 minutes, 13 secondsIt was a tremendously insightful window into a very very broad range of Hezbollah activities.
1:44:291 hour, 44 minutes, 29 secondsThe dismantling of the Lebanese Canadian Bank was a precious victory for the DEA in its global war on the financing of Hezbollah.
1:44:431 hour, 44 minutes, 43 secondsThe vice was tightening on the Shiite Islamist organization.
1:44:501 hour, 44 minutes, 50 secondsAfter several years of obstruction, the inquiry into Rafi Krer's assassination was reopened.
1:44:581 hour, 44 minutes, 58 secondsThe UN established the special tribunal for Lebanon.
1:45:041 hour, 45 minutes, 4 secondsFor the first time, the divine impunity of the party of God was publicly questioned.
1:45:131 hour, 45 minutes, 13 secondsThe creation of the special tribunal from for Lebanon is the result of a tragedy. the killing of a former prime minister and of 22 other persons.
1:45:241 hour, 45 minutes, 24 secondsThe STL is the first international anti-terrorist tribunal.
1:45:311 hour, 45 minutes, 31 secondsThe creation of the tribunal was a political decision.
1:45:361 hour, 45 minutes, 36 secondsIts operation, however, is and must remain above politics.
1:45:451 hour, 45 minutes, 45 secondsThe special tribunal for Lebanon is now in session. Please be seated.
1:46:101 hour, 46 minutes, 10 secondscream connect.
1:46:351 hour, 46 minutes, 35 secondsI'm busy.
1:46:531 hour, 46 minutes, 53 secondsSpecial with some aid.
1:47:061 hour, 47 minutes, 6 secondsOkay,ch.
1:47:341 hour, 47 minutes, 34 secondsfor
1:48:151 hour, 48 minutes, 15 secondsNearly six years on and the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafi Herreri remains officially unsolved.
1:48:241 hour, 48 minutes, 24 secondsIt is not for lack of evidence. Evidence which points directly and indirectly to Hezbollah.
1:48:311 hour, 48 minutes, 31 secondsForeign
1:48:481 hour, 48 minutes, 48 secondsspeech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. speech.
1:49:241 hour, 49 minutes, 24 secondsfor
1:49:551 hour, 49 minutes, 55 secondsI've seen the evidence and it's very good. It was his Bala who killed Herreri.
1:50:031 hour, 50 minutes, 3 secondsYou cannot fake this evidence. And if any Lebanese say, "Oh, they made this shit up. The CIA did." They're stupid.
1:50:101 hour, 50 minutes, 10 secondsThey're liars. Stupid are liars.
1:50:151 hour, 50 minutes, 15 secondsThe indictment charges each of the four accused.
1:50:201 hour, 50 minutes, 20 secondsThat's Mr. Salim Jam Ayash, Mr. Mustapa Amin Badrin,
1:50:271 hour, 50 minutes, 27 secondsMr. Hussein Hassan Oni, and Mr. Assad Hassan Sabra with four crimes
1:50:361 hour, 50 minutes, 36 secondscontrary to Lebanese law. We then decided to proceed to trial in absentia.
1:50:471 hour, 50 minutes, 47 secondsfor
1:51:151 hour, 51 minutes, 15 secondsit was a warning to the Lebanese state and journalists don't come after us for Harreri cuz we'll kill you.
1:51:231 hour, 51 minutes, 23 secondsYou I tell you you go to Nasarala's office knock on the door and say I'm doing some ask I want to doing a film about his killing Herreri and you probably not come out of Lebanon alive.
1:51:341 hour, 51 minutes, 34 secondsThey don't joke around with this.
1:51:591 hour, 51 minutes, 59 seconds15 years after Rafi Krer's assassination, the SDL delivered its verdict.
1:52:061 hour, 52 minutes, 6 secondsThree members of Hezbollah received life sentences. They've never been arrested.
1:52:141 hour, 52 minutes, 14 secondsThe fourth defendant, a top ranking Hezbollah member, is presumed dead.
1:52:201 hour, 52 minutes, 20 secondsImpunity continues whilst its clandestine financing
1:52:271 hour, 52 minutes, 27 secondsnetworks are recreated on other continents.
1:52:351 hour, 52 minutes, 35 secondsThey were looking for places where they could operate.
1:52:421 hour, 52 minutes, 42 secondsEurope is important for Hezbollah for lots of reasons. It is a place where Hezbollah can raise a lot of money. It is a place where it can carry out operations.
1:52:531 hour, 52 minutes, 53 secondsIt is close to Lebanon.
1:53:011 hour, 53 minutes, 1 secondFrance appears in some ways to be their command and control center for their activities in the rest of Europe.
1:53:171 hour, 53 minutes, 17 secondsAllah. Oh yeah.
1:53:341 hour, 53 minutes, 34 secondsSyrian protest control.
1:53:521 hour, 53 minutes, 52 secondsSo
1:54:161 hour, 54 minutes, 16 secondsveneer
1:54:291 hour, 54 minutes, 29 secondsIran
1:54:441 hour, 54 minutes, 44 secondsat first isn't so happy about it, but when the message comes from the office supreme leader, that's the end of the conversation. And they go
1:55:051 hour, 55 minutes, 5 secondsfor Where?
1:55:431 hour, 55 minutes, 43 secondsIt's completely a new Hisbala because it's a regular army with surfaced missiles and units.
1:55:531 hour, 55 minutes, 53 secondsThey become a real military.
1:56:031 hour, 56 minutes, 3 secondsProject Cassandra identified a component known as the business affairs component.
1:56:091 hour, 56 minutes, 9 secondsTheir primary role was to establish the drug trafficking operations to generate the revenue.
1:56:161 hour, 56 minutes, 16 secondsThey had the conflict in Syria. They had to have the money.
1:56:291 hour, 56 minutes, 29 secondsWe had a really successful 2014 against the Hezel culminating over the course of 3 weeks of a season over eight tons of cocaine out of the port in Roderdam.
1:56:451 hour, 56 minutes, 45 secondsSuddenly, Hezbollah is not resisting Israel. It's just butchering fellow Muslims. Suddenly, it's involved in a deeply sectarian conflict.
1:57:001 hour, 57 minutesThese people are like the mafia, like the guys who sit around the table with Tony Soprano.
1:57:291 hour, 57 minutes, 29 secondsAs of 2010, France became the favored asylum of Hezbollah operatives.
1:57:361 hour, 57 minutes, 36 secondsIt provided several advantages.
1:57:391 hour, 57 minutes, 39 secondsA large Lebanese community that reduced their visibility and freedom of movement throughout Europe.
1:57:511 hour, 57 minutes, 51 secondsParis was chosen as the beach head to launder drug money.
1:57:571 hour, 57 minutes, 57 secondsThe US Drug Enforcement Administration alerted the French police.
1:58:041 hour, 58 minutes, 4 secondsTogether they opened a new chapter in Operation Cassandra known as Operation CEDA after the national symbol of Lebanon.
1:58:171 hour, 58 minutes, 17 secondsOperation CEDA was a spin-off investigation under the umbrella of Project Cassandra. Operation CEDA
1:58:241 hour, 58 minutes, 24 secondsfocused on the European network.
1:58:361 hour, 58 minutes, 36 secondsThe leaders of now our operations in Europe is is really Captain Mug and his team.
1:59:021 hour, 59 minutes, 2 secondsetc.
1:59:321 hour, 59 minutes, 32 secondsSo really I think within 24 hours they identified that phone as belonging to Muhammad Nuraldin.
1:59:421 hour, 59 minutes, 42 secondsfor
2:00:012 hours, 1 secondtelephone.
2:00:202 hours, 20 secondsYou don't collect
2:00:492 hours, 49 secondsMercedes
2:01:162 hours, 1 minute, 16 secondsPark participate
2:01:252 hours, 1 minute, 25 secondsto your cigar.
2:01:472 hours, 1 minute, 47 secondsCommerce
2:02:022 hours, 2 minutes, 2 secondsPhilip
2:02:302 hours, 2 minutes, 30 secondsHe was a guy who was trusted to move very large amounts of money and oversee couriers who were carrying back money
2:02:382 hours, 2 minutes, 38 secondssometimes just in Samsonites on you know planes flying out of shel. the Gul back to Beirut, you know, Air France literally these guys carry these
2:02:472 hours, 2 minutes, 47 secondsSamsonites with millions of dollar, you know, couple million dollars in each Samsonite in cash. Cash not, it wasn't always like that,
2:02:552 hours, 2 minutes, 55 secondsbut sometimes it was that ridiculous.
2:02:572 hours, 2 minutes, 57 secondsUm, he was a super facilitator for drug money. Make it way from Europe back to Lebanon. No doubt.
2:03:332 hours, 3 minutes, 33 secondsFrance appears in some ways to be their command and control center for their activities in the rest of Europe.
2:03:442 hours, 3 minutes, 44 secondsWhile the French police traced Muhammad Nuredin's network,
2:03:492 hours, 3 minutes, 49 secondsOperation Cassandra's American agents tracked the laundered money in Lebanon.
2:04:002 hours, 4 minutesIt led them to Eastern Europe in the footsteps of arms traffickers.
2:04:082 hours, 4 minutes, 8 secondsThe former socialist republics were full of armaments inherited from the Soviet Union.
2:04:142 hours, 4 minutes, 14 secondsAnd among the gun dealers, the DEA targeted the key man in the traffic, a Lebanese citizen who had opened doors in Ukraine and Russia.
2:04:272 hours, 4 minutes, 27 secondsThe agents call me up and they go, "Hey,
2:04:292 hours, 4 minutes, 29 secondshave you ever heard of this uh Ali Fed guy?" And I go, "Have I ever heard of Ali Fed?" Yeah, that guy's the guy's
2:04:362 hours, 4 minutes, 36 secondsreally significant. He's moving weapons for Iran and Hezbollah into the Middle East.
2:04:442 hours, 4 minutes, 44 secondsAli Fed was a well-known, well doumented arms dealer who was working with Russians and Ukrainian arms dealers to
2:04:522 hours, 4 minutes, 52 secondsprovide Hezbollah weapons, right? And these guys, you know, they were going to provide, you know, RPGs, AK rifles,
2:05:002 hours, 5 minutessurfacetoair missiles.
2:05:042 hours, 5 minutes, 4 secondsThey had access to the most sophisticated weapon systems in the world.
2:05:172 hours, 5 minutes, 17 secondsOnce you get the charges against a guy like Fed, you have to figure out what country can we arrest them and that country also has to have an extradition
2:05:242 hours, 5 minutes, 24 secondstreaty with the United States and uh we identified Prague in in the uh Czech Republic.
2:05:502 hours, 5 minutes, 50 secondsWe infiltrated the network with our informants who portrayed themselves as members of the FARC in Colombia that
2:05:572 hours, 5 minutes, 57 secondsneeded weapons to kill Americans. And of course, Ali Fed and his conspirators were looking to get cocaine also.
2:06:102 hours, 6 minutes, 10 secondsSo, we had a cocaine for weapons deal.
2:06:132 hours, 6 minutes, 13 secondsSo, the operational plan was to do the arrest as he exited the room in the hallway of the hotel.
2:06:242 hours, 6 minutes, 24 secondsSo, the room was wired up for uh video and audio. And then at one point, one of the sources says, you know, we want anti-aircraft missiles to kill Americans
2:06:322 hours, 6 minutes, 32 secondsin Colombia. and then after we kill these Americans, I'll I'll cut off one of the Americans heads and and I will present it to you Ali Fied as a present.
2:06:412 hours, 6 minutes, 41 secondsAnd Ali Fed jumped up from the couch and went over and hugged the undercover.
2:07:162 hours, 7 minutes, 16 secondsIf we get this guy to the States, then he's going to be maybe our main witness to take out Hezbull's drug cartel.
2:07:332 hours, 7 minutes, 33 secondsThere's only one thing that could get in the way of u of his extradition is if Czech military intelligence gets involved.
2:07:462 hours, 7 minutes, 46 secondsmilitary intelligence is very much under the influence still of of Russia and Putin and that could cause a major problem in the extradition of Fiad.
2:08:052 hours, 8 minutes, 5 secondsThe arrest of Ali Fiad was the biggest success of the American anti-drug agency. The arms dealer knew all the secrets of the war in Syria.
2:08:172 hours, 8 minutes, 17 secondsHe was at the heart of the military alliance concluded between Hezbollah,
2:08:222 hours, 8 minutes, 22 secondsIran, and Russia to save Basher al-Assad.
2:08:302 hours, 8 minutes, 30 secondsBut the DEA was stepping into a minefield. The criminal networks of the party of God were protected by Moscow.
2:08:412 hours, 8 minutes, 41 secondsThe longer the war lasted, the more indispensable Hezbollah fighters became and the more their need for weapons increased.
2:08:502 hours, 8 minutes, 50 secondsThe price to pay for this headlong rush was counted in the number of coffins that returned to Lebanon.
2:08:582 hours, 8 minutes, 58 secondsWhen the first Hispa fighters were killed, a cemetery opened for the
2:09:052 hours, 9 minutes, 5 secondsso-called Matias who were falling in Syria.
2:10:172 hours, 10 minutes, 17 secondsThis one.
2:11:082 hours, 11 minutes, 8 secondsMayad is jihad.
2:11:142 hours, 11 minutes, 14 secondsMelia
2:11:432 hours, 11 minutes, 43 secondsForeign
2:12:102 hours, 12 minutes, 10 secondsspeech. Foreign speech.
2:12:312 hours, 12 minutes, 31 secondsa part of the mothers who were crying over their sons. I mean uh I'm sure they
2:12:392 hours, 12 minutes, 39 secondswere convinced but I also believe that others must have doubts
2:12:502 hours, 12 minutes, 50 secondshow far indoctrination can go but from history we also know it can go very far.
2:13:022 hours, 13 minutes, 2 secondsAbel.
2:13:332 hours, 13 minutes, 33 secondsAbadan
2:13:452 hours, 13 minutes, 45 secondsHezbollah should know that Iran will fight to the last Hezbollah member. You know, look what happened in Syria. All the Hezbollah members died. How many Iranians died? Not many.
2:13:572 hours, 13 minutes, 57 secondsWhat did they get in return? Not much.
2:14:002 hours, 14 minutesThey come back to their bankrupt economy, bankrupt banking system,
2:14:122 hours, 14 minutes, 12 secondstheir ports explodes. I mean, it's like Dante's gates of hell,
2:14:202 hours, 14 minutes, 20 secondsyou know, but we could go further down the uh cycle, you know. We there's more gates that we can approach here in the future.
2:14:372 hours, 14 minutes, 37 secondsThe war in Syria was profoundly changing the image of Hezbollah among many Lebanese.
2:14:462 hours, 14 minutes, 46 secondsYesterday, considered as heroes, the fighters lost their aura of resistance fighters and were perceived as an army of mercenaries.
2:14:552 hours, 14 minutes, 55 secondsParty leaders also changed.
2:14:592 hours, 14 minutes, 59 secondsIn their telephone tapping, the French and American investigators heard only about drugs, weapons, and money, just like in the mafia.
2:15:332 hours, 15 minutes, 33 secondsshould not be on board.
2:16:082 hours, 16 minutes, 8 secondsetc. You need to unblock.
2:16:352 hours, 16 minutes, 35 secondsWe found out that the the cocaine proceeds that Nuraldine was coordinating at that time was the main funding mechanism to provide
2:16:442 hours, 16 minutes, 44 secondsfinancial support to Hezbollah's purchase of arms out of Eastern Europe and Russia to send to Syria basically.
2:17:082 hours, 17 minutes, 8 secondsAfter 8 years of investigations, the Operation Cassandra agents reached their goal. They discovered a secret
2:17:152 hours, 17 minutes, 15 secondsorganization within Hezbollah in charge of coordinating funding for the war in Syria and more broadly all
2:17:232 hours, 17 minutes, 23 secondsthe clandestine military operations led by the party.
2:17:292 hours, 17 minutes, 29 secondsWe were receiving information about this shadowy group within Hezbollah and we'd hear things like, "Oh, they're called the financial unit. Um, they're called
2:17:392 hours, 17 minutes, 39 secondsthe uh the the the banking unit." Jack Kelly and the team at Project Cassandra identified a component known as the business affairs component.
2:17:512 hours, 17 minutes, 51 secondsSo we started like putting together the pieces of the puzzle using all the experts that we had in the US government.
2:18:022 hours, 18 minutes, 2 secondsWhat's going on here? How do you connect all these dots? You know, it's like trying to solve a mystery.
2:18:112 hours, 18 minutes, 11 secondsAnd remember, we have to provide evidence.
2:18:162 hours, 18 minutes, 16 secondsBasically, the business affairs components had different things they want to do. They want to move cocaine.
2:18:212 hours, 18 minutes, 21 secondsThey want to launder money. They want to sell or buy weapons.
2:18:292 hours, 18 minutes, 29 secondsThis business at Ferris phones got hundreds of companies. And we mapped out, we know where those companies are.
2:18:342 hours, 18 minutes, 34 secondsThey're all over the world, even some in the United States.
2:18:412 hours, 18 minutes, 41 secondsIt functioned as this uh funnel to control all these secret bank accounts all over Lebanon and all over the world actually Switzerland,
2:18:512 hours, 18 minutes, 51 secondsLikenstein, Luxembourg, Paris
2:19:102 hours, 19 minutes, 10 secondsbusiness affairs component makes probably over a billion dollars a year in uh criminal proceeds.
2:19:172 hours, 19 minutes, 17 secondsWe have that backed up by records that we got out of Lebanese game bank.
2:19:242 hours, 19 minutes, 24 secondsThis is the financing of terror.
2:19:332 hours, 19 minutes, 33 secondsWe found out that the the cocaine proceeds that Nuraldine was coordinating was under the leadership uh directly of Adam Tabaja.
2:19:452 hours, 19 minutes, 45 secondsAdam Tabaja was one of the main guys involved with the business affairs component.
2:20:072 hours, 20 minutes, 7 secondsgroup construction
2:20:152 hours, 20 minutes, 15 secondsis one of the lead financers of the rebuilding of uh Hezbollah neighborhoods
2:20:222 hours, 20 minutes, 22 secondsand infrastructure in Lebanon after the 2006 war.
2:20:312 hours, 20 minutes, 31 secondsAnd who's the guy who's the money master for them? Well, Dallas Den.
2:20:402 hours, 20 minutes, 40 secondsWe'll call him the financial godfather. Certainly the business godfather. Awesome.
2:20:522 hours, 20 minutes, 52 secondsAbdullah Safi was Hezbollah's ambassador to Iran. Obviously Abdullah Safi had
2:21:002 hours, 21 minutesconnections in very high levels of the Iranian government.
2:21:032 hours, 21 minutes, 3 secondsWhat Tran needs Hezblah to do, Abdalah Safi runs it.
2:21:112 hours, 21 minutes, 11 secondsHis clan is basically Hezbollah royalty.
2:21:182 hours, 21 minutes, 18 secondsAbdullah Safi Dean has a brother who is the executive director of Hezbollah and there's rumors that he would be a successor to Nazala.
2:21:322 hours, 21 minutes, 32 secondsOnce you get to their level, you're above being a Hezblah member. I mean, I know that sounds strange because people literally say, "Where's their membership
2:21:392 hours, 21 minutes, 39 secondscard?" I'm like, "They don't need a membership card." you know, when they someone sees their face, they're like, "Come right on in." You know, I mean,
2:21:512 hours, 21 minutes, 51 secondsso when you find, as US investigators did, Abdullah Safiaden involved in illicit financial activities from Iraq
2:21:592 hours, 21 minutes, 59 secondsto South America to Europe coming up over and over again. Like that gets your attention.
2:22:092 hours, 22 minutes, 9 secondsIt appeared viable that we could actually make a case against Abdal Safi Alan and perhaps arrest him. We We could do this if people let us do that.
2:22:242 hours, 22 minutes, 24 secondsOperation Cassandra was approaching its moment of truth.
2:22:282 hours, 22 minutes, 28 secondsIf US investigators got the green light to arrest Abdullah Safiadin,
2:22:332 hours, 22 minutes, 33 secondsthey would be able to decapitate the hidden leadership of Hezbollah.
2:22:412 hours, 22 minutes, 41 secondsAt the same time, they were hearing a new tune.
2:22:462 hours, 22 minutes, 46 secondsThe United States was starting negotiations on nuclear power with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
2:22:522 hours, 22 minutes, 52 secondsYet, Iran was Hezbollah's historical sponsor.
2:23:002 hours, 23 minutesPhilosophically project Cassandra became a problem. Um, our actions became a problem.
2:23:082 hours, 23 minutes, 8 secondsVery good and productive but still we have lots of work to do. So tomorrow we will continue. Yes.
2:23:242 hours, 23 minutes, 24 secondsIranians started to complain about it in the talks. I've heard this from people who are there. They complained. They said, "These DEA people are pest. You should control them. They're they
2:23:312 hours, 23 minutes, 31 secondsthey're out of control." That's usually what you do. Want to shut somebody down.
2:23:472 hours, 23 minutes, 47 secondsToday, after two years of negotiations,
2:23:512 hours, 23 minutes, 51 secondsthe United States, together with our international partners, has achieved something that decades of animosity has
2:23:572 hours, 23 minutes, 57 secondsnot. A comprehensive, long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
2:24:062 hours, 24 minutes, 6 secondsThis deal demonstrates that American diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change. change that makes our country and the world safer and more secure.
2:24:182 hours, 24 minutes, 18 secondsBarack Obama chose to sign peace with tan, an agreement hailed by the international community.
2:24:302 hours, 24 minutes, 30 secondsThe ink was barely dry when the Iranian president began a triumphant tour of Europe and stopped in Paris.
2:24:432 hours, 24 minutes, 43 secondsAfter the dirty war of the 80s, he came to celebrate the return of business.
2:25:072 hours, 25 minutes, 7 secondsThe same day, Special Agent Jack Kelly landed in Paris to celebrate the dismantling of Muhammad Nuredin's money laundering network.
2:25:182 hours, 25 minutes, 18 secondsAn official ceremony was organized at the French Police Headquarters.
2:25:242 hours, 25 minutes, 24 secondsThe DEA was about to reveal the existence of the Corporate Affairs Bureau, a secret organization within Hezbollah.
2:25:352 hours, 25 minutes, 35 secondsIt it was going to be what I really thought was a fitting end to Cassandra.
2:25:402 hours, 25 minutes, 40 secondsThe top French law enforcement official was going to um give us a champagne toast as a success for this this incredible um operation uh Cedar under Project Cassandra.
2:25:502 hours, 25 minutes, 50 secondsSo, I'm there for that. And then um I'm kind of looking at the judge and the prosecutors and the cops and it's like
2:25:592 hours, 25 minutes, 59 secondswhat's going on? They're mentioning yeah we think the the press conference definitely was cancelled but and the press release was postponed.
2:26:372 hours, 26 minutes, 37 secondsI'm watching it on TV at the bar of uh the Truckado uh hotel and
2:26:442 hours, 26 minutes, 44 secondsI'm getting these calls and text messages saying, "Yeah, everything's cancelled."
2:26:542 hours, 26 minutes, 54 secondsThat was a horrible day. I just I couldn't believe you.
2:27:222 hours, 27 minutes, 22 secondsRight at the same time, I'm getting information that either Ali Fed had been released from the Czech Republic to Lebanon.
2:27:382 hours, 27 minutes, 38 secondsAli,
2:27:452 hours, 27 minutes, 45 secondsAli Fed, he went back to Lebanon. We never got him in America. The US government system failed.
2:27:532 hours, 27 minutes, 53 secondsThere was no engagement. So, how do you explain that?
2:27:572 hours, 27 minutes, 57 secondsI know what my investigative gut feeling is telling me. He was a member of Hezbollah and they were in the middle of a Iran deal. That's my opinion. I don't
2:28:072 hours, 28 minutes, 7 secondshave the smoking gun, but I have an opinion. I've been doing this a long time.
2:28:162 hours, 28 minutes, 16 secondsI think the entire project Cassandra scared many people around the world.
2:28:222 hours, 28 minutes, 22 secondsIt has been sacrificed for politics.
2:28:302 hours, 28 minutes, 30 secondsNice to see you again. Nice to see you.
2:28:332 hours, 28 minutes, 33 secondsDid you see When I met Asher in ' 08, he told me
2:28:432 hours, 28 minutes, 43 secondsreally from the beginning, "Jack, I want to tell you right now, ultimately, I can guarantee you that somewhere along the way,
2:28:512 hours, 28 minutes, 51 secondsthe White House, whoever's White House it is, is going to shut us down because if we get to where I think we're going to get, it's going to be too much for
2:28:592 hours, 28 minutes, 59 secondssome people." And that's exactly what happened to me. and his prediction was true.
2:29:052 hours, 29 minutes, 5 secondsYou know, I told Jack, "The higher up you go, the more people know, the more they're going to want to stop us."
2:29:132 hours, 29 minutes, 13 secondsRight when we were in the jaws of victory, victory was snatched from us.
2:29:192 hours, 29 minutes, 19 secondsAnd I also knew at right at the same time that I just been transferred via memo out of Special Operations Division
2:29:272 hours, 29 minutes, 27 secondsoff of Project Assigner to a desk job at headquarters. So, I decided to um go to my uh favorite cafe and uh drink red wine.
2:29:432 hours, 29 minutes, 43 secondsHezbollah had won. Operation Cassandra, led by the American Anti-drug Agency,
2:29:492 hours, 29 minutes, 49 secondswas buried, sacrificed on the altar of rail politique.
2:29:542 hours, 29 minutes, 54 secondsThe United States had favored the hope of peace with Iran rather than the dismantling of the hidden face of Hezbollah.
2:30:082 hours, 30 minutes, 8 secondsCassandra was part of Greek mythology is that she was warning leaders of of impending catastrophes and disasters and
2:30:162 hours, 30 minutes, 16 secondsher warnings would always get ignored and then the disasters and catastrophes would eventually happen. So Cassandra was always right, but nobody paid
2:30:242 hours, 30 minutes, 24 secondsattention to her and they would dismiss her and they were skeptical.
2:30:322 hours, 30 minutes, 32 secondsWhat if Operation Cassandra sounded like the final warning,
2:30:362 hours, 30 minutes, 36 secondsthe missed opportunity to end the impunity of the party of God until August 4th, 2020?
2:30:512 hours, 30 minutes, 51 secondsThe day of the explosion of the Port of Beirut, the ground zero of the Lebanese.
2:31:082 hours, 31 minutes, 8 secondsIn the aftermath of the catastrophe, the people turned against their leaders,
2:31:122 hours, 31 minutes, 12 secondsespecially against the all powerful historic leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nazela.
2:31:192 hours, 31 minutes, 19 secondsThe Lebanese demanded truth and justice for once.
2:31:382 hours, 31 minutes, 38 secondsCool.
2:32:042 hours, 32 minutes, 4 secondsThis hunger was controlled by the Hispa.
2:32:072 hours, 32 minutes, 7 secondsThis everybody knows as well as the airport is controlled by.
2:32:142 hours, 32 minutes, 14 secondsOh my god. Oh my god.
2:32:262 hours, 32 minutes, 26 secondsFore
2:32:362 hours, 32 minutes, 36 secondsnegligence personally,
2:32:532 hours, 32 minutes, 53 seconds215 dead, 6,5 500 injured. The day after the explosion, Beirut was scarred and devastated.
2:33:042 hours, 33 minutes, 4 secondsBut Beirut was also angry.
2:33:082 hours, 33 minutes, 8 secondsWho was responsible for this catastrophe? The official story is short and simple.
2:33:182 hours, 33 minutes, 18 secondsThere is a ship that came from Georgia to Lebanon. It was supposed to carry on to Mozambique, but it couldn't make it.
2:33:272 hours, 33 minutes, 27 secondsSo they removed the ammonium nitrate and they kept it in the warehouse.
2:33:362 hours, 33 minutes, 36 secondsThis is the story, the official story.
2:33:422 hours, 33 minutes, 42 secondsAmmonium nitrate is usually used either as a
2:33:492 hours, 33 minutes, 49 secondsfertilizer or as an explosive. You know the shipment that came to Lebanon, it was clear even on the backs that it was high density. It was written on the
2:33:582 hours, 33 minutes, 58 secondsbacks. So it was meant to be used as an explosive.
2:34:222 hours, 34 minutes, 22 secondsSo this shipment stayed in the port for 7 years. Unfortunately, everybody knew about it,
2:34:312 hours, 34 minutes, 31 secondsbut nobody took any action.
2:34:362 hours, 34 minutes, 36 secondsWhat I discovered during my investigations is first of all that Savaro was the company that in the beginning appeared to be the owner of the ammonium nitrate.
2:34:482 hours, 34 minutes, 48 secondsThis company is kind of a shell company which means it's a company where you don't know the real owner. Later on I
2:34:572 hours, 34 minutes, 57 secondsdiscovered that there are many links between Savaro and Syrian businessman
2:35:052 hours, 35 minutes, 5 secondsand huri his brother and George Hwani Fore!
2:35:172 hours, 35 minutes, 17 secondsForeign! Foreign!
2:35:402 hours, 35 minutes, 40 secondsGeorge Hasswani met several times.
2:35:432 hours, 35 minutes, 43 secondsSyrian president andal and had several companies and factories in Syria and in Russia. uh in those two countries it's
2:35:512 hours, 35 minutes, 51 secondsnot easy to reach the level where those guys reached in their business and in their wealth without being close to
2:35:582 hours, 35 minutes, 58 secondsthose in power whether in Syria or in Russia.
2:36:062 hours, 36 minutes, 6 secondsMost probably this shipment was meant to reach in one way or another Syria
2:36:132 hours, 36 minutes, 13 secondsin the time when the war was at its peak.
2:36:342 hours, 36 minutes, 34 secondsAllahbar. Allahbar.
2:36:492 hours, 36 minutes, 49 secondsStudies done by the FBI actually said that the according to the calculations they had done what exploded in the port
2:36:572 hours, 36 minutes, 57 secondsof Beirut was somewhere between 500 to 700 tons of ammonium nitrates.
2:37:352 hours, 37 minutes, 35 secondsI don't want to get involved in anything political. I hinted for possible links.
2:37:422 hours, 37 minutes, 42 secondsOkay. I was not killed at least until now
2:37:522 hours, 37 minutes, 52 secondsalso hinted
2:38:142 hours, 38 minutes, 14 secondsLman made his responsible for transporting the ammonium nitrat to Syria.
2:38:232 hours, 38 minutes, 23 secondsYeah. He was putting the puzzle together.
2:38:282 hours, 38 minutes, 28 secondsToday everybody is saying it. In January Lman was the first to say it.
2:38:352 hours, 38 minutes, 35 secondsFore puzzle.
2:39:142 hours, 39 minutes, 14 secondsDo you know how Lachman was killed?
2:39:172 hours, 39 minutes, 17 secondsYes, but I cannot. Yes, he was killed by six shots.
2:39:232 hours, 39 minutes, 23 secondsIt seems they were have been very professional.
2:39:322 hours, 39 minutes, 32 secondsHello. Happy to see you.
2:39:482 hours, 39 minutes, 48 secondsI came several time but you were
2:40:022 hours, 40 minutes, 2 secondsI want justice and I need to know who did it, who planned it and who gave the order.
2:40:132 hours, 40 minutes, 13 secondsWith the port explosion and the execution of Lman, there is something which is broken. No, you cannot go back
2:40:222 hours, 40 minutes, 22 secondsto normal life. You cannot go back and let the political game win. No, we need for both. We need accountability.
2:40:442 hours, 40 minutes, 44 secondsWill we ever know the truth behind the Beirut port explosion?
2:40:502 hours, 40 minutes, 50 secondsTwo Lebanese magistrates tried to investigate.
2:40:532 hours, 40 minutes, 53 secondsThey were threatened and their inquiries suspended.
2:40:582 hours, 40 minutes, 58 secondsAs for Hezbollah, in spite of popular protest, it opposes any international inquiry.
2:41:092 hours, 41 minutes, 9 secondsWhether the Lebanese people will be able to know the complete truth, I doubt.
2:41:222 hours, 41 minutes, 22 secondsDon't even try. It'll never happen.
2:41:252 hours, 41 minutes, 25 secondsYou'll be long in the grave centuries from now and there will not be an answer to it.
2:41:422 hours, 41 minutes, 42 secondsLesbian
2:42:152 hours, 42 minutes, 15 secondsMcron put it well. So long as Hezbollah continues to engage in international terrorism,
2:42:242 hours, 42 minutes, 24 secondsacts of assassination in Lebanon,
2:42:272 hours, 42 minutes, 27 secondsillicit financial activity undermining the stability of the Lebanese financial system. So long as Hezbollah engages in
2:42:342 hours, 42 minutes, 34 secondsall those activities, it is an outlaw actor and needs to be treated as such.
2:42:432 hours, 42 minutes, 43 secondsIs history doomed to repeat itself?
2:42:472 hours, 42 minutes, 47 secondsIs the divine impunity of Hezbollah's leaders really eternal? 40 years ago, it dreamed of imposing Sharia, Islamic law,
2:42:562 hours, 42 minutes, 56 secondsin Lebanon.
2:42:582 hours, 42 minutes, 58 secondsInstead, it created a state within the state. Hezbollah land more powerful than the official state and sway the country
2:43:072 hours, 43 minutes, 7 secondsin a black veil that tastes of ashes.
2:43:132 hours, 43 minutes, 13 secondsWe are living here in Lebanon in a culture of impunity. You can kill, you can commit massacres, you can commit
2:43:222 hours, 43 minutes, 22 secondscrimes, you can do whatever you want. In the end, nothing is happening.
2:43:312 hours, 43 minutes, 31 secondsWhat happened to Chry Harbor?
2:43:332 hours, 43 minutes, 33 secondsHe's out of jail. I know he was in South America and I think he uh might have went back to Lebanon, but I'm not sure.
2:43:432 hours, 43 minutes, 43 secondsAman Juma,
2:43:442 hours, 43 minutes, 44 secondshe's never been caught. So, he's in he's in Lebanon. I'm sure he travels to other places. We just don't hear about it.
2:43:552 hours, 43 minutes, 55 secondsAli Karubi Ali Kobi I don't think uh never arrested not jailed
2:44:052 hours, 44 minutes, 5 secondsAli fed Ali Fed he's certainly not in jail
2:44:122 hours, 44 minutes, 12 secondsAdam Tbaja not in jail never indicted never captured never arrested
2:44:202 hours, 44 minutes, 20 secondsstill the Hezbollah ambassador to Tran as far as I Heat. Heat.
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