Dr. E contributed reporting to this story
(Editor Note: This is Part 3 of an exclusive TWP exposé series on the coordinated media disinformation campaign to incorporate Turkey into the existing Trump-Russia and Ukraine conspiracy theories as first reported by TWP on Oct. 13th 2020)
Let’s recap: In Part 1 of this series we demonstrated how the geniuses in our media were following the exact same pattern of reporting they used in 2016 to roll out the Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax. But some details went unnoticed, which is the subject of this series. Within the stories on Trump Russia collusion, they rolled out the equally absurd conspiracy theory that Turkey was secretly laundering billions in funds to Iran, its major geopolitical adversary. Iran could build a nuclear weapons program it could then turn around and use to nuke Turkey … makes sense.
In Part 2, we demonstrated how politicized the Department of Justice, Southern District of New York (SDNY) has become, making any investigation into Trump emanating from that district court highly questionable, to say the least.
Here, in Part 3, we will explain what we’ve discovered the legacy media and SDNY are attempting to cover-up. You are probably familiar with Congressman Devin Nunes saying,
Whatever the Left accuses you of doing; they’re the ones doing it.
~ Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)
This case proves to be no different.
As exclusively reported by TWP back on October 13th, Left Wing media propagandists were engaged in a well-coordinated smear campaign building up to a “bombshell” article involving Trump and Turkey. We correctly predicted that a New York Times (NY Times) article would be published sometime in late October near Election Day attempting to link Trump to nefarious dealings in Turkey. TWP was proven correct and the NY Times published their article, like clockwork, on October 29th.
The Oct. 29th NY Times article Turkish Bank Case Showed Erdogan’s Influence With Trump is an obvious attempt to package up a litany of Biden, Clinton, and Obama scandals and turn them back on Trump in an attempt to cover them up by redirecting the reader.
Nothing to see here. But look …
The first glaring example of making mountains out of mole hills, involves SDNY’s ‘concern’ over Trump’s DOJ granting immunity. The hero of the NY Times fable, former US Attorney for the SDNY Geoffrey S. Berman was shocked at the mere thought of grants of immunity without getting something in return. Berman and NY Times didn’t seem nearly as concerned when the DOJ granted immunity to 5 close Clinton aides for no good reason, during the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s classified emails that were being stored on her personal, unsecured server.
The NY Times then goes on to resurrect Fiona Hill, of “Ukraine Impeachment Hoax” fame, to lob new accusations of “Interagency Consensus” violations at President Trump, this time in relation to President Erdogan and Turkey. Are we the only ones who didn’t realize Hill also oversaw Turkish policy at the National Security Council (NSC)?
Once the NY Times starts getting into the details of “The Halkbank Campaign”, the deflection kicks into overdrive. The article claims that, during an August 2016 official visit to Turkey, Vice President Biden had a private conversation with Erdogan where the Turkish President pressured Biden to remove former SDNY US Attorney Preet Bharara from handling the Halkbank investigation. This is a fairly obvious deflection from Biden’s infamous quid pro quo to get Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired for investigating Burisma, the company that paid his son Hunter Biden millions to sit on their board despite having no experience in Ukraine or the energy industry.
There’s an interesting hole in the story that we should point out. The NY Times article claims that Erdogan’s government was frantically trying to get the Obama administration to drop the Halkbank case “in the weeks before he left office in January 2017”. That’s kind of odd considering the entire gist of the NY Times article is Erdogan has Trump tied around his finger. So why would the Turkish government be scrambling to get the Obama administration to drop the case if the fix was already in when Trump was taking over in just a few days? How does that make any sense?
Really when has anything the NY Times put out in the last four to five years made any sense? They’ll probably award themselves another Pulitzer for this “deeply sourced” nugget of brilliance.
There’s quickly another Biden-Burisma deflection where The Times implies a “pay for access” scheme selling access to the Vice President’s office and other government officials, just as was alleged that Hunter Biden arranged with his VP father on behalf of top Burisma executives.
There are various other allusions sprinkled throughout the articles possibly referencing the Clinesmith case as well as the Flynn case and Judge Emmet Sullivan’s refusal to allow for its dismissal against Flynn despite a motion from the DOJ to dismiss.
So all the NY Time’s prior greatest hits are being replayed.
However, there appears to be some new scandal on the horizon worrying the Left and they are trying to get ahead of it. When you break down the critical elements of the NY Times article Turkish Bank Case Showed Erdogan’s Influence With Trump, you can begin to piece together what they’re trying to cover up:
- Political corruption at the Department of Justice Headquarters in DC (i.e. “Main Justice”) and the SDNY interfering in criminal investigations.
- Illegal money laundering funneling billions of dollars to Iran to help fund their nuclear weapons program.
3. Cover-up of a major Democrat scandal
Based on TWP’s in depth investigation, we believe the answer is what is referred to as “Project Cassandra”.
Project Cassandra, which is described in detail below, will likely become synonymous with Operation Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS Targeting, Crossfire Hurricane, and all the other operations in Obama’s “scandal free” administration.
This 3 part Politico exposé from 2017 details a nearly decade-long US government campaign started during the George W. Bush administration, lead by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The story details a scheme by the Iranian-backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, that has funneled countless tons of cocaine into the United States for years, raising billions of dollars to help fund Iran’s nuclear weapons program and terrorist activity around the globe. The Obama administration obstructed and eventually derailed the law enforcement operation as part of its efforts to appease Iran’s ‘Radical Mullahs’ and secure the Iranian Nuclear Deal (eg. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or “JCPOA”).
The Politico exposé lays out the elaborate scheme of how Hezbollah worked with criminal elements in Colombia as well as the Chavez and now Maduro governments in Venezuela to manufacture, ship, and distribute cocaine into the United States via Mexico, and into Europe through West Africa. Additionally, there was an audacious scheme whereby hundreds of Hezbollah-linked dealerships in the US purchased used cars that were then shipped to the West African country of Benin to be sold. The illicit funds from the drug and car sales were then laundered through Lebanese banks and the cycle repeated itself continuously.
Hezbollah has always been involved in nacro-terrorism dating back to its founding in the 1980’s. They allow black-market suppliers to operate in territories under their control and collect tariffs from the proceeds. But the strategy shifted post-9/11 when the United States began cracking down on their sources of financing. Hezbollah became directly involved with the drug trade realizing they could use their sprawling criminal operations to take direct control of the trade and rake in vast profits for themselves.
It was like they flipped a switch … All of a sudden, they reversed the flow of all of the black-market activity they had been taxing for years, and took control of the operation.
Quote from DEA agent John “Jack” Kelly from the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“ who oversaw the Project Cassandra task force
For 8 years, a DEA-led task force based out of Chantilly, Virginia, ran operations to map out the organization and infiltrate Hezbollah’s nacro-terrorist networks. The DEA was able to penetrate into the innermost circle of Hezbollah and identify targets for criminal indictment, including Lebanese bank executives, Hezbollah’s high-profile envoy to Iran Abdallah Safieddine, and individuals associated with the Iranian government, including the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards Quds Force.
The 2017 Politico article described in detail how the Obama administration hindered and ultimately ended Project Cassandra’s efforts to shutdown the Hezbollah scheme. The project actually got its name “Cassandra” under the Obama administration after a figure from Greek mythology who’s warning about the future went unheeded.
Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way … When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury [D]epartments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests. … The Justice Department declined requests by Project Cassandra and other authorities to file criminal charges against major players
Quote from the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
This policy of appeasement of Iranian-backed Hezbollah was seemingly implemented based on 2013 policy advice from John Brennan, White House counterterrorism adviser at the time and later CIA Director. Brennan called Hezbollah,
“[A] very interesting organization” … [that] had evolved from “purely a terrorist organization” … into a political party with representatives in the Lebanese Parliament and Cabinet.
Quotes from former CIA John Brennan and the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
Brennan also gave some very misguided policy recommendations to the Obama administration on their strategic approach Lebanon.
“[S]et a new course for relations between the two countries … [promote] greater assimilation of Hezbollah into Lebanon’s political system.” and [look] or ways to build up “moderate elements” within Hezbollah.”
Quotes from former CIA Director John Brennan and the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
The damage done from shutting down Project Cassandra extends well past combating Hezbollah and their massive nacro-terrorism scheme. The US also lost invaluable sources and methods that could have been used to combat some of America’s biggest adversaries.
As a result, the U.S. government lost insight into not only drug trafficking and other criminal activity worldwide, but also into Hezbollah’s illicit conspiracies with top officials in the Iranian, Syrian, Venezuelan and Russian governments — all the way up to presidents Nicolas Maduro, Assad and Putin, according to former task force members and other current and former U.S. officials.
Quote from the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision … [The Obama administration] serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down.
Quote from Dept. of Defense finance expert and Project Cassandra task force member David Asher from the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
And would you care to guess which DOJ office the Obama administration used to run their political interference of Project Cassandra? (Wait for it) ……….. The Southern District of New York (SDNY).
[A]ccording to [DEA agent John “Jack”] Kelly, “Right now, we have 50 FBI agents not doing anything because they know their Iran cases aren’t going anywhere,” including investigations around the U.S. into allegedly complicit used-car dealers.
Quote from the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
Justice Department officials involved, including then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara [SDNY] and other prosecutors, declined requests to discuss the bank case or others involving Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the size and scope of the illicit scheme has only continued to grow unimpeded. It is likely the Trump administration was aware of the operation and has been working to salvage and rebuild what was lost by the Obama administration’s shutdown of Project Cassandra. But given the bureaucratic resistance Trump continues to experience from within DOJ, the FBI, and the US State Department, it is likely those efforts are also being hampered.
That won’t be easy, according to former Project Cassandra members, even with President Donald Trump’s recent vow to crack down on Iran and Hezbollah. They said they tried to keep the project on life support, in hopes that it would be revived by the next administration, but the loss of key personnel, budget cuts and dropped investigations are only a few of many challenges made worse by the passage of nearly a year since Trump took office.
“You can’t let these things disintegrate,” said [DEA agent John “Jack”] Kelly. “Sources evaporate. Who knows if we can find all of the people willing to testify?
Quote from the 2017 Politico article “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off The Hook“
That is what is being covered up. The Obama administration foolishly obstructing and finally ending the investigation into a massive drug trafficking operation, pouring countless tons of cocaine into the United States, run by one of the most dangerous Radical Islamic terrorist organizations that is funneling billions of dollars into the Iranian nuclear weapons program and funding terrorist operations for the sake of securing the ill-conceived Iranian Nuclear Deal; a scandal of enormous proportions that further tarnishes Obama’s legacy.
The NY Times article is concocting another hoax meant to be used to attack Trump and those associated with him, while at the same time providing cover for the Democrats from a much larger scandal.
So you may ask yourself, “Why Turkey?” Given what will happen if SDNY gets its way and slaps a massive fine on Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, it would have tremendous repercussions for the Turkish economy. Halkbank would likely have to close and would plunge Turkey (which was already suffering through a pre-Covid recession) into a depression with the failure of its state-owned bank. That’s quite a cost to inflict on a key NATO ally just to cover-up your own misdeeds. So what gives?
We will explore the reason for targeting Turkey in our next article in this exclusive TWP exposé series; Part 4: Terror In The Poconos
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