(Freedom Outpost) Unlike the Obama Administration's dealing with the United Arab Emirates concerning the designation of the Council on America-Islamic Relations as a terrorist organization, the administration has rather quietly removed Iran and Hezbollah as terrorist threats to the United States.
According to the Times of Israel:
An annual report delivered recently to the US Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, removed Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terrorism threats, after years in which they featured in similar reports. The unclassified version of the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities, dated February 26, 2015 (PDF), noted Iran's efforts to combat Sunni extremists, including those of the ultra-radical Islamic State group, who were perceived to constitute the preeminent terrorist threat to American interests worldwide.
A January 2014 report from Clapper listed both Hezbollah and Iran in the "Terrorism" section, stating that both "continue to directly threaten the interests of U.S. allies. Hizballah [sic] has increased its global terrorist activity in recent years to a level that we have not seen since the 1990s." In fact, in 2011, 2012 and 2013, Iran was given its own "Regional Threats" subheading in the section of "Terrorism." Though Iran has been removed from being considered a "threat assessment," it is still listed by the State Department as a state-supporter of terrorism. How exactly does that work?
Newsweek adds:
Yet in the latest report, Clapper omits both Iran and Hezbollah from this section, only mentioning the Shiite Muslim militant group once in reference to the threat it faces from radical Sunni groups - such as ISIS and the al-Nusra Front - on Lebanon's borders. In regard to Iran, the report names it as both a cyber and regional threat to the U.S. because of its support for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
However, the report speaks of Tehran's assistance in preventing "ISIL [another term for ISIS] from gaining large swaths of additional territory" in Iraq. It adds that the Islamic Republic has "intentions to dampen sectarianism, build responsive partners, and deescalate tensions with Saudi Arabia".
The report fails to mention that Hezbollah is labelled as a terrorist organisation by both the U.S. and the European Union, while it receives the majority of its funding from Tehran. The omission comes as Washington and other world powers continue to negotiate with Iran to strike a deal over its nuclear program and capabilities. The assessment adds that Iran has "overarching strategic goals of enhancing its security, prestige, and regional influence [that] have led it to pursue capabilities to meet its civilian goals and give it the ability to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons, if it chooses to do so."
What's going on here? According to professor of political science at Northeastern University and member at the Council of Foreign Relations Max Abrahms, the administration is involving itself in a "quid pro quo." "I think that we are looking at a quid pro quo, where Iran helps us with counter-terrorism and we facilitate their nuclear ambitions and cut down on our labelling of them as terrorists," said Abrahms. "The world has changed. The Sunni threat has gotten worse, the Islamic State is a greater danger than al-Qaeda ever was, and the Iranians have really come up big in terms of helping us out in combating the Islamic State."
So, let's get this straight: An Islamic nation, who engages in jihad, calls America "The Great Satan," has threatened our allies and mocks us want to trade counter-terrorism information with us in exchange for our assistance in facilitating their nuclear program by not labeling them terrorist? After all, they are fighting the Islamic State, too, right? On top of that we are to trust the leadership of an alleged member of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose eligibility to hold the office of the president of the United States is incredibly questionable, whose brother is a known financier of the Muslim Brotherhood and whose close personal adviser in everything he does is an Iranian born woman, who was raised by parents and grandparents with deep Communist ties? I think not.
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