Posted on 06/17/2016 10:29:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last fall, amid concerns that the Iran deal would result in a financial windfall for Iran’s proxy terror organization, Hezbollah, Congress passed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act. It mandated new, stringent sanctions against banks and other financial institutions doing business with Hezbollah.
The bill passed unanimously in both the Senate and the House, leaving President Obama little choice but to sign it into law on December 18.
Though less in the spotlight recently than the Islamic State, Lebanese-based Hezbollah has killed more Americans than any terror organization except al-Qaeda; has a vast global reach encompassing Europe, Africa, and Central and South America; engages in drug trafficking and money laundering on a massive scale; and is the spearhead of Iran’s expansionist ambitions in the Middle East and worldwide.
As Michael Braun, former operations chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), recently told the House Financial Services Committee:
[Hezbollah] metastasized into a hydra with international connections that the likes of [the Islamic State] and groups like al-Qaeda could only hope to have.
Asharq Al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, reports on the effects of the congressional sanctions:
[Sanctions] led to the freezing of several [Hezbollah] accounts belonging to ministers, lawmakers and anyone who is in direct contact with, or close to the organization.
Asharq Al-Awsat and other sources also report that Lebanon’s treasury has started paying Hezbollah officials their salaries in cash in an effort to get around the sanctions.
On May 26-27, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser visited Lebanon, and met with officials to discuss further ways of cutting into Hezbollah’s finances.
Jonathan Schanzer, a former terror-finance analyst for the State Department, says:
[Sanctions] led to a purge in Lebanon’s banking system; banks are dumping Hezbollah accounts. ... One report suggests that as many as 10,000 accounts have been closed.
Schanzer warns, however, that Hezbollah still has massive military power, including 150,000 rockets for a prospective war with Israel:
[W]ithout a broader strategy to tackle Hezbollah’s foreboding forces, even the most valiant efforts to squeeze its finances will fall short.
However, Hezbollah is also running into tough challenges in the military sphere. A Washington Institute for Near East Policy report by terror expert Matthew Levitt and associate Nadav Pollak describes the organization’s current travails in Syria.
Last month’s assassination in Syria of Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah commander, has “left the group reeling,” say Levitt and Pollak, “but not for the reason most people think.” Despite surmises that Israel was behind it, Levitt and Pollak believe Sunni rebel groups carried out the hit, which indicates just how deeply Iran’s proxy has sunk into the Syrian mud.
Levitt and Pollak note that since 2012, Hezbollah has “lost well over 1,000 fighters in battles against fellow Arabs and Muslims” in Syria -- more than in all its wars and battles with Israel to date.
Whereas Hezbollah was lionized throughout the Middle East for its 2006 war with Israel, by now its “standing has fallen precipitously.” The Gulf Cooperation Council has blacklisted it, and the Arab League and even the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have denounced it. Once celebrated for heroic “resistance” to Israel, these days “the group is seen throughout the region as a sectarian weapon in Iran’s arsenal.”
While Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah keeps insisting that the Arab world backs Hezbollah, that is not the case:
Polling data from September 2015 paint a different picture, with 86 percent of Jordanians holding a negative view of Hizbullah, and the group scoring just 13-15 percent approval ratings in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Almost a year after the Iran deal, instead of reaping a windfall Hezbollah is caught in a whirlwind. With Congress targeting finances, the Sunni world bent on fighting it in Syria (and elsewhere, particularly Yemen), and its hold on Lebanon shakier than in the past, Hezbollah is in difficult straits.
The larger lesson: with resolve and action on multiple fronts, terror can be fought effectively. Even the Islamic State -- despite the atrocities it keeps inspiring or committing in Western countries and elsewhere -- is in battlefield retreat as the pounding continues.
The Syrian civil war is mostly the Islamic State vs. the Islamic Republic (Iran). A pox on both of them.
“The larger lesson: with resolve and action on multiple fronts, terror can be fought effectively.”
Color me skeptical. On one hand, maybe Hezbolleh is getting pummeled. We would, of course, know this(/s) because with the penetration of HRC’s private server, certainly half or more of whatever operatives we may have had in the region that might have provided us good intel are undoubtedly dead.
But where Hez is weakened, ISIS is strengthened. Or Al Queda is strengthened.
Besides, if it becomes apparent Hezbolleh is weakening, that’s just a cue for 0bama to send them more money. Or to send Iran, their sponsor, more money. Temporary setback, is all this is.
But you know he very much WANTED to break out his veto pen.
Schanzer warns, however, that Hezbollah still has massive military power, including 150,000 rockets for a prospective war with Israel... However [double however, so, sic], Hezbollah is also running into tough challenges in the military sphere. A Washington Institute for Near East Policy report by terror expert Matthew Levitt and associate Nadav Pollak describes the organization’s current travails in Syria. Last month’s assassination in Syria of Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah commander, has “left the group reeling... but not for the reason most people think.” Despite surmises that Israel was behind it, Levitt and Pollak believe Sunni rebel groups carried out the hit... since 2012, Hezbollah has “lost well over 1,000 fighters in battles against fellow Arabs and Muslims” in Syria -- more than in all its wars and battles with Israel to date. Whereas Hezbollah was lionized throughout the Middle East for its 2006 war with Israel, by now its “standing has fallen precipitously.” The Gulf Cooperation Council has blacklisted it, and the Arab League and even the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have denounced it. Once celebrated for heroic “resistance” to Israel, these days “the group is seen throughout the region as a sectarian weapon in Iran’s arsenal.”
only because they are not the CORRECT muzzie terrorists that Obama wants to win
Islamic jihadists operate around the world under 100 different names, but they all are following the Koran and the example of their prophet.
Islam has been at war with the rest of humanity since 622 A.D. and they are required to continue that war until there are only muslims.
Mad Mo made it so.
Our only choice under Islam is submit or die.
The other choice is erradicate Islam.
No one has the stomach to ponder the only path to survival.
“leaving President Obama little choice but to sign it into law”
Traitor.
0bama really wanted to KEEP FUNDING HEZBOLLAH, but 100% of those jerks in Congress really put him in a bind.
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