Argentina

President Fernández de Kirchner: Terrorists used Nisman and then killed him

Argentina investigates security officers over AMIA prosecutor death

Alberto Nisman, the late Argentinean prosecutor of the 1994 AMIA bombing case. (File photo)

Ten Argentine police forces assigned to protect the AMIA bombing case prosecutor are under investigation for their activities on the day he was found dead.

The officers, together with two supervisors, are being questioned as part of an internal police probe into the handling of Alberto Nisman’s death, a source close to the investigation said.

According to the source, the officers are not considered suspects, but they have all been suspended from duty during the probe.

The body of Nisman was discovered on January 18 in the bathroom of his apartment in a neighborhood of the capital, Buenos Aires, with a bullet wound in his head.

The initial police report said Nisman had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

On Thursday, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner refused allegations that prosecutor Nisman committed suicide.

“I’m convinced that it was not suicide,” said the president in a statement posted on her Facebook page.

Nisman’s death happened hours before he was to testify in a congressional hearing about AMIA.

The “real move against the government was the prosecutor’s death… They used him while he was alive and then they needed him dead. It is that sad and terrible,” the Buenos Aires Herald quoted Kirchner as writing in a letter on Thursday.

In July 1994, a car bomb exploded at the building of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, also known as AMIA, in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people died and hundreds more were injured.

The Israeli regime accuses Tehran of masterminding the terrorist attack. The Islamic Republic of Iran has strongly denied any involvement in the incident.

January 26, 2015 0 comments

Argentina

Argentine Diplomat: MKO Testimony to AMIA Case Unacceptable

TEHRAN (FNA)- Argentina’s Charge D’affaires in Tehran Mario Enrique Quinteros blasted the western media for using the testimonies given by the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to the case of a 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Diplomat: MKO (Washington backed Mojahedin Khalq) Testimony to AMIA Case Unacceptable

Western and Israeli media reports claimed that a number of Iranian officials are wanted by Interpol in connection with the AMIA case, which left 85 dead and wounded more than 300 others.

Iran has strongly denied the allegations, saying Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor of the case, has received huge sums of money from Jewish lobby groups in Argentina to accuse Tehran of the bombing.

"It is a question to me why a large number of international media have based their reports on the remarks and testimonies of a number of the members of this group, and why certain countries have used these testimonies to ruin Iran’s face," Quinteros said in a meeting with Hasheminejad, Secretary General of Habilian Association.

Habilian is an association formed of the families of martyrs of terror attacks.

During the meeting, Hasheminejad termed the documents presented by the MKO members in the AMIA case "fake", and said, "Whenever the MKO feels there is tension between Iran and other countries, it misuses the opportunity and does its best to impair the relations between Tehran and that given country."

He further presented a number of documents on MKO’s involvement in terrorist attacks in Iran which were well received by the Argentinean diplomat.

The MKO has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons.

November 3, 2009 0 comments

Argentina

MKO implicated in AMIA bombing

Argentine envoy pledges justice for AMIA bombing

MONTREAL — The Argentine government is determined to finally get to the bottom of the notorious bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires 14 years ago, the country’s consul general in Montreal said.

Pictured at the AMIA [Association Mutual Israelita Argentina] commemoration Pictured at the AMIA commemoration are, from left, Argentine Consul General Guillermo Tagino, Cote St. Luc Mayor Anthony Housefather, Hampstead Mayor William Steinberg, D’Arcy McGee MNA Lawrence Bergman and Israeli Consul General Yoram Elron.

“Our AMIA victims have imposed on us a moral mandate to respect their memory and ensure our commitment and efforts to pursue, locate and condemn those responsible,” Guillermo Tagino said at a community commemoration at Congregation Dorshei Emet, held a day before the July 18 anniversary of the attack.

“In spite of the difficulties presented by the passage of time, our will to solve this brutal crime has not diminished.”

No one has ever been convicted for the crime, but in October, 2006, Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman formally charged the Iranian government, accusing it of directing Hezbollah to carry out the suicide bombing, which nearly razed the AMIA building, killing 85 and injuring several hundred.

Last March, two former Argentine government figures held a press conference implicating members of MEK – the People’s Mujahedin of Iran – in the bombing.

Yet those events seemed to serve as a reminder of the years of alleged incompetence, obfuscation, cover-up and corruption tied to the attack’s investigation under the governments of former Argentine presidents Carlos Menem and Nestor Kirchner (the current president is Kirchner’s wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner).

At one point, Menem was even accused of accepting a $10 million (US) bribe from the Iranian government to block the investigation, a charge that was adamantly denied by Menem.

A few years ago, Nestor Kirchner himself acknowledged his government’s culpability, calling it a “national disgrace.” Over the years, those allegedly linked to the bombing have ranged from Iran and Hezbollah to members of Buenos Aires’ own provincial police, La Bonaerense.

At the synagogue, Tagino said that the Argentine government “has recognized… the state’s responsibility for the consequences resulting from the cover-up of the facts and grave failure in the process of investigation.”

That government declaration to that effect, he said, was deemed “historic” by Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, particularly because it produced “a series of steps… to fully remove obstacles which hindered the investigation.”

Tagino continued: “In this way, the national state made a political decision to reach a definitive clarification of the attack and put forward all necessary resources towards this goal.”

He added that the country’s intelligence archives have been opened and “state secrecy lifted,” all of which is allowing access to documents that are crucial to the investigation.

He also lauded the Argentine justice department for welcoming the collaboration of Interpol in investigating the bombing, and he noted that Memoria Activa, a group committed to keeping the memory of the victims alive and lobbying for justice, has “recognized the progress made” over the last few months.

“The attack was against the entire Argentinian people, and there will be no respite” until justice is done,” Tagino pledged.

Among others paying tribute to the AMIA victims at the commemoration – co-sponsored by B’nai Brith Canada, Quebec region – were Israeli consul-general Yoram Elron, Liberal MNA Lawrence Bergman and B’nai Brith’s Moise Moghrabi. The names of the 85 victims were read aloud and the path from the synagogue’s doors to the speaking hall was marked by 85 yahrzeit candles.

Also supporting the event were Argentinian Jews of Montreal (JALOM), and the YM-YWHA.

By DAVID LAZARUS, Staff Reporter

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15110&Itemid=86

December 14, 2008 0 comments

Argentina

AMIA and the Role of MKO

A group of Argentinian political, social, religious and human rights personalities, as well as syndicates, artists, and ethnic groups have in a letter to IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad voiced solidarity with Iranian nation and government against George Bush’s militarist, occupying regime’s threats.

The letter is signed by Luis Dalian, Ebb Pasture, D. Bona Fannie, Priest Lois Farinello, Oswaldo Bayer, Alejandro Corona, Alejandro Frnandez, Paulovski Edwardo, Carlos Aznares, Nora D. Cortinas, Fernando Solanas, and Ricardo Langini.

The letter a copy of which was faxed to IRNA on Monday reads in part: As Argentinian citizens we denounced the court verdict issued on involvement of Iran in attack against AMIA Jewish Center in July 1994 in Buenos Aires.

We believe the said verdict has not been issued in order to find the real culprits behind that horrendous crime, but in a bid to serve the interests of the officials of the time and under the pressure of the United States, and that it has been highlighted today to justify a probable US attack against Iran today.

The letter elsewhere reads: Just like the case of the criminal occupation of Iraq on the pretext of existence of weapons of mass destruction there, non of which were found there later and revealing of the lies of US administration later on, this move today can be used as a new pretext for another military invasion against Iran.

The Argentinian elites have reiterated, "We strongly believe fact finding regarding the death of 84 victims of AMIA terrorist attack must be entirely led by the Argentinian people and their concerned legal organs and therefore we strongly denounce trampling upon our national sovereignty by Bush government and the Zionist regime by launching judiciary investigations here."

The letter stresses, "How could they rely on the accusations brought up by disgraced Judge Juan Jose Calleano who lost his judiciary position for having received bribes from Israel to distort the judiciary process, while the Interpol and the EU have announced that the findings of that court are null and void?

The Argentinian elites have stressed, "The US and Israeli officials are not ethically qualified for leading any campaign against terrorism and the Argentineans should not permit them to find pretexts or launching attacks against other nations resorting to pretexts that have phony roots in this land."

IRNA – 2007/02/28

March 1, 2007 0 comments