If this isn't dangerous appeasement, I don't know what is. According to a report in The Times of Israel, the National Intelligence Agency delivered a report to Congress that scraps Iran and Hezbollah from the terrorism list, citing the country's work against ISIS as one of the reasons why.
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.
According to one Israeli think tank, the removal of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah from the list of terror threats, where they featured in previous years, was directly linked to the campaign against the Islamic State.
“We believe that this results from a combination of diplomatic interests (the United States’ talks with Iran about a nuclear deal) with the idea that Iran could assist in the battle against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and maybe even in the battle against jihadist terrorism in other countries,” the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said in an analysis of the report (Hebrew PDF). It also noted the Iran and Hezbollah were both listed as terrorism threats in the assessment of another American body, the Defense Intelligence Agency.
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@stephenfhayes 2014, Iran/Hezbollah given own subheading under "Terrorism"; not mentioned in 2015 "Terrorism" section pic.twitter.com/5QgUOp7efm
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) March 16, 2015@stephenfhayes Just checked... Iran singled out with subhed in Terrorism section in 2013, 2012 and 2011 also.
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) March 16, 2015Is ISIS a threat? Absolutely. Should we align ourselves with or appease Iran because of their work against ISIS? Absolutely not.
As a reminder Hezbollah, funded by Iran, is the largest terror organization in the world. Before 9/11, Hezbollah, not Al Qaeda, was responsible for the majority of U.S. terrorism deaths, including the 1983 bombings of U.S. Marine barracks and U.S. embassy in Beirut, in addition to a series of attacks in the '80s. Hezbollah is also responsible for countless attacks on Israel. In 1992, Hezbollah, with help from Iran, bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. In 1994 they bombed the Jewish community center in the same South American city. Those are just a handful of examples that don’t even account for the thousands of rockets Hezbollah has launched into Israel throughout the years.
So what's going on here? Why strip Hezbollah and its funding parent Iran, from their terrorism label? Especially now? It all points back to getting President Obama his deal with Iran at all costs. This reclassification of Iran and Hezbollah without the terrorism label is a certain warning sign the deal the White House is working on to appease the rogue regime doesn't have the best interests of the United States as a top priority.
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