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y

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what

the oh my God

everybody believed that the bomb

exploded just next to

him so we thought the same I mean we

went out looking where is a bomb and

then there was no bomb and after some

minutes we saw the smoke coming from the

port

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you have to see it otherwise you will

not believe it

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a massive explosion That Shook lebanon's

Capital Bay route more than 100 people

have died more than 4,000 have been

injured

2750 tons of ammonium nitrate

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the Hezbollah is a political party that

it is a social

movement it is also a massive militia

larger better armed better trained than

Lebanese Armed

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Forces it is an international terrorist

organization

Hezbollah made Al Qaeda look like the

minor

leagues we determined during project

Cassandra that Hezbollah was operating

like a global drug

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cartel we viewed them as one of the most

significant transnational criminal

organizations SL cartel Mafia that we

had ever come

across hisb is dangerous hisb is big

hisb is not 10 ft tall

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the shadow of Hezbollah Lies Over the

barut port explosion and any

investigation seems

impossible it's as if this islamist

organization had Divine

impunity for 40 years its members have

infiltrated Lebanese politics and defied

Justice these Shia Muslims dream of

establishing religious law Sharia like

in

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Iran yet in the mid 2000s several Agents

from the DEA the US Drug Enforcement

Administration tried to secretly bring

down

Hezbollah they investigated across four

continents revealing the hidden face of

What's called the party of God before

also coming up against its Untouchable

nature their operation's code name was

Cassandra like the Greek goddess who

forsaw Misfortune but who nobody

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heeded their investigation started in

the US in the still smoking ruins of the

World Trade

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Center I'm a former agent with the Drug

Enforcement Administration known as the

DEA in the United

States I worked in the DEA for 20 8

years The Drug Enforcement

Administration was formed to be the lead

agency in America to go after the drug

trafficking

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organizations I'm from New York

obviously saw the devastation of 9/11 uh

my brother was in the United States Air

Force he went to to Afghanistan to fight

for the country and he came back in a

body bag because his helicopter crashed

during Operation uring Freedom so I'm

very passionate about National Security

and Public Safety so I was actually

given a golden opportunity to run the

DEA Special Operations Division post

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911 Jack Kelly is a DEA

agent we 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 Colombia so he became the leader of

the

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team there was a sense of jealousy from

others if if uh because you were in

Special Operations Division

I couldn't say it is the elite but this

was the backbone of how we were taking

out cartels in

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Colombia I 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

York and you're only 24 years old so it

was a PR pretty amazing feeling

this is the

battlefield the RO and this is the

enemy it is a crack

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epidemic most 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 guy 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

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prey so I'm a supervisor now at Special

Operations Division the idea is to

follow the money so Us in an undercover

fashion is posing as criminals that know

how to laer money and we would do that

for the cartel and that would afford US

to infiltrate cartels to the highest

level because we're doing what their

bosses consider the most important thing

getting the money back into their hands

from the drugs that were sold in places

like the Bronx New York

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during the wiretap investigations in

Colombia we were intercepting a lot of

Arabic

conversations that was something new to

me as the head of the Special Operations

Division like I didn't really understand

it and I had to learn over the years

like what was going

on hello hello

the information we're receiving is that

hezel as an

organization has made a presence in

Latin America specifically to be

involved in the cocaine trade and

cocaine proceed money

laer one of the top lieutenants is a guy

that speaks Arabic and his name is

Taliban they call him Taliban because

they call every Arab guy down there

Taliban after

911 we do some searches some quick

searches in different databases and we

find out that his name is czechy

har and cheze harb was known to people

in the United States government

Trey har was tied directly to Iran

hollah and possible terrorist

attacks so what happens is we introduce

undercover agents uh one of the

Undercovers is is so uh because he's of

lanese descent uh speaks Arabic fluently

and

is actually going to meet czechy in

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Columbia so cze harb tells the

undercover I move multi-ton loads of

cocaine to port akaba in Jordan and then

it gets moved through Syria into

Lebanon says well I imagine then you're

you're must be pretty close to head

if you're going to be moving cocaine

through Syria and leban cheze harb just

smiles widely and nods his head yes that

yes I am working with

Hezbollah so cheze har say to the

undercovered we have a project for you

we have $20 million that needs to be

laer can you do that for us the

undercover says certainly we can do that

for you

our undercover agent did such a good job

convincing them that he was this real

bad guy they offered him the contract to

pick up $20 million which he

did 20 million is a lot of money I'm not

aware of too many you know undercover

agents picking up $20 million from bad

guys

now that the undercover appeared to be

criminal superstars in the mind of

medine perhaps could run operations in

the Middle East so basically this DEA

undercover was going to become the

medine lieutenant in charge of Middle

East cocaine trafficking and money

laundering

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we have found this incredible new

definitive tie between Colombian cocaine

trafficking specifically out of

medine two an Islamic extremist

terrorist organization that killed more

Americans than anybody before

911 so 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

heard of anything like this and

basically the party line was that

Hezbollah was too religious to be

involved in drug trafficking

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am

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be

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spe

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with the

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call for

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on 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

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as of 1975 bero was torn by a civil and

religious war between the different

communities Christians Sunni Muslims

Shia Muslims Drews and Palestinians

waged an endless

war in June 1982 a new party joined the

war the Israeli Army which invaded

Lebanon to fight the

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Palestinians the fighting threatened

stability in the Middle

East French and American soldiers came

to keep the

peace they became the target of an

unknown organization which had sworn to

rid Lebanon of any foreign presence

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the Dirty War

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began for

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round

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BR we figur it had to have at least

2,000 lbs of

TNT it was observed uh coming at a high

rate of speed from the south of the

building uh crashed through the gate and

through the guard post and then

detonated inside the lobby there's a

crater down there about 30 ft deep and

about 40 ft

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across

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for America is

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sh

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a suicide bombing is is is is is a

message is we will stop at nothing we

are smarter than you you are a big

bureaucracy and we can beat

you so France and and the United States

were on the same boat at this point you

know we we were trying to figure out

what is happening in

Lebanon we want to know the names of our

enemy I want a picture want to know

where they are and how we get to them

and once we find them we have Delta

Force which I work with very closely we

can go kill

them those was my orders

War for an intelligence officer

really it gets your adrenaline

going this is in 1982 1983 I was on the

border with Lebanon and that was a real

Fascination because we were at War

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you're seeing the Israeli Jets come down

the Bea you're driving down the road and

the New Jersey is shelling above

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you these Navy bombs they were as big as

Volkswagens so that was my entree into

the Middle East

his

Bala as a name did not exist in 82 they

bring all the

disperate groups Shia groups together

and created a

unified resistance

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me

the

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remember 1982 is just not quite 3 years

after the Iranian Revolution and for the

Iranian Revolution one ke

was the export of the

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Revolution the Iranians came to Lebanon

and said 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

will give give you the money we will not

interfere you know how to do it go do it

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good morning everyone it's the third

hijacking this week involving Beirut and

this time the plane and most of the

passengers are from the United States

pwa flight 847 was on route from Athens

to Rome this morning when it was

hijacked by suspected Shiite Muslims and

forced to fly to

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Beirut they 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

F

now we're standing in front of the tww

flight 847 only a few feet from the

cockpit I can see Captain John test frak

next to one of the gunmen in the

cockpit how do you

feel we'll we'll ask you more questions

when the engines are

off Captain distri can you tell me what

has happened to you and what's happening

to you now not very much is happening to

us now can you talk to them do they

speak English can you communicate with

them sometimes better than others it

depends on who's on board quickly

quickly Captain many people in America

are calling for some kind of rescue

operation or I think that we'd all be

dead men if they did because we're

continually surrounded by uh many many

guards do you have any on whether or not

the United

States dwa

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was the big Point man for hezbollah's

early terrorist

activities he was not a particularly

religious person at first he served as a

bodyguard but went on to become uh the

head of hezbollah's terrorist operations

in part by being involved in almost

everything from the

beginning here's a guy who was on the

kill list of the mosad of the CIA for

many years

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mugia was in the airplane we found his

fingerprint but that was not mugia in

the window he'd never do that never show

his face in public never never never

never he never showed himself to the

hostages cuz he knew one day he'd be

released and he didn't want to be

identified he was a ghost and he knew

how to remain a

ghost I plan to kill him

hisbah

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the Iranians oversaw the most potent

asymmetrical military force in modern

history or

ever don't forget the French and the

Americans were run out by a guy who had

about 20 people in history there's

nothing nothing to compare it

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with Imad muger and Hezbollah had

won the Americans and French left

Lebanon humiliated and scarred by

constant suicide attacks and hostage

taking but this dirty war of the 1980s

left its

Mark since Washington labeled Hezbollah

a terrorist

organization and Imad mug became a

Marked

Man 20 years later when the Agents of

the DEA launched operation

Cassandra they thought they could avenge

those who had died in barut and

eliminate their old enemy Imad

mugni the infiltration of hezbollah's

trafficking networks was organized in

Jordan

but the agents from the CIA the American

secret Services were not happy to see

these Cowboys on their

territory Jordanian anti-narcotics

police go up on intercepts of numbers

identified in Jordan linked to Czech

harb and what happened was is that there

was going to be a big meeting in Aman

Jordan and at that meeting cheer harb

was told to introduce the DEA undercover

to an extremely significant member or

members of hez

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we were hearing and we believed for

various reasons that harb was under the

guidance and protection of

Maga we're under a time crunch now

because the Undercovers obviously can't

move cocaine with Hezbollah and wouldn't

be able to launder money for hezb so we

realize that whatever evidence we gain

in this Aman Jordan meeting might be the

last

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chance and a day or two before the

meeting was shut down by members of of

the US Embassy in

Jordan they 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 very very

annoying and very

disturbing you had folks in the

intelligence community that had 30 years

of knowledge on Hezbollah pretty much

look looking down at the DEA like how

does the DEA know about

Hezbollah DEA became like a fly in their

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soup the undercover reached out to Czech

re

harb Czech reh harb wouldn't talk to him

Czech reh harb wouldn't respond

so he had completely blown off so we

lost our undercover infiltration of uh

of Czech

har so the opportunity was lost

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burn Not only was the opportunity burn

but our DEA Undercovers life was now in

Big Time Danger as the head of the

Special Operation division that pissed

me

off the CIA the American secret Services

had capsized operation Cassandra

organized by the DEA the anti-drug

agency this interdepartmental war showed

Washington's weakness faced with this

enemy that had grown and

mutated in the mid 2000s hez was no

longer a terrorist

faction it passed itself off as a

respectable political party with

representatives in the Lebanese

Parliament that defended the interests

of the long ostracized Shia

Community they chose their new political

leader Hassan nashrah a cleric trained

in

Iran in the shadows always clandestine

the military leader Imad mug continued

leading the war against Israel that was

known as

resistance because unlike the westerners

who had left the country the Israeli

Army still occupied Southern

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Lebanon ISL

Islam

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VI

for

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is

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you have to look at his Bola I mean

whoever side you are is Robin

Hood look if you're Lebanese and you're

tired of being

humiliated who do you have you've got

his balla and that's it

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Allah allaham mm

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muhamad

fore

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foree foree

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foreign speech

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Allah

spe

forah fighting politics social welfare

provision they are all about creating a

culture of resistance of Muk

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and

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s say

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Islam

think of nsta robis

Pierre uncorruptible

trying to create a revolution and he's

done the best he could

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spee

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fore had me

for Fore

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for

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for

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why haven't the Israelis killed him with

a drone because they can't find

him he knows about telephones he knows

about drones he knows all this stuff he

knows how to stay alive he's a Survivor

like Mia same mold

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Li

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in the early 2000s nobody in the west

noticed Hezbollah expanding its grip on

Lebanon at the time the International

Community was focused on

Iraq the US had just invaded the country

and was facing Fierce resistance from

local

militias many of them were Shiite armed

and financed by

Iran what America didn't know at the

time was that Lebanese fighters from

Hezbollah had come to help their Iraqi

Brothers in the name of Shiite

solidarity and the fight against their

common enemy The Great Satan

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War it started uh with the war in Iraq

and uh my involvement as an advisor to a

US Special Operations Command on the

ground in Iraq uh against IEDs which

were called explosively form projectiles

efps this weapon the way it was designed

had extraordinary ferocity and explosive

impact come here man check this out I

think I found something yeah those are

like bombs look at that thing a very

small tube with a copper plate would

yield a huge explosion enough to cut a

M1 A1 tank almost in half which we've

never seen anyone build to do with any

sort of normal

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explosive it was a signature weapon so

the the fact that it was being used

against American forces told me that

Hezbollah had to be on the

ground hisbah instructors train

approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time

sending them back to Iraq organized into

these special

groups they're being taught how to use

efps mortars Rockets as well as

intelligence sniper Ander

get out get out okay okay the

explosively formed projectile that was

being employed in Iraq against American

forces was designed by Hezbollah and The

Man Behind the creation of this weapon

was Imad mcnea

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so I started hearing about the

president's man they called him the

president's man because he had worked

directly for President Bush and the bush

White

House I was focusing on the finances and

I was aware that a great deal of money

involving the efp networks in Iraq was

being derived from uh cash houses in

Lebanon

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something sort of remarkable happened we

started to see phone selectors that were

tied to the financing of IED attacks in

Iraq that were then apparently in touch

with numbers in South America

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[Laughter]

I was like are they really me mean are

they did they mean to call Colombia I

said what what does this mean I mean I

like this is very bizarre but this

pattern kept

happening why are these people in

contact what are they talking about what

are they doing

and I realized suddenly are these guys

turning to

Colombian sources of Narco financing to

fund their operations on the ground in

Iraq um I mean I was like just a light

went on my head because I was familiar

with narcotics trafficking Global moneya

laundering for organized

crime Drug Money at one level or another

was making its way the prophets were

making their way into the war in

Iraq wow if we could track this money

and we could tie it to drugs and then we

were to pursue the drug

trafficking and start to take down the

drug business we could start to really

put a financial hit around has ability

to operate in

Iraq

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it my orders were to attack this foggy

situation and then to try to tie this

into the leadership and the leadership

being Imad

Mia so I

wanted to go after

Hezbollah was developing this worldwide

capability and generating billions of

dollars and we had to take

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action for them to turn to narcotics

trafficking was the greatest gift we

could ever be given suddenly we had a a

way of using lawfare not Warfare to

attack uh a terrorist organization's

finances and when I briefed it up to

chain at at us Central Comm man to

General Allen and through him to General

Petraeus 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

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guys Washington considered hezbollah's

involvement in the death of US soldiers

in Iraq a declaration of

war and relaunched operation Cassandra

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the DEA had a free reign to attack the

party of God in the name of National

Security and I 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 criminalized themselves

we needed to reveal that to the world

and to their own people

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d

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for