Mario | The Saker | 23 Jan 2015
How it starts:
1987–88 Iran signed three agreements with Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commission. The first Iranian-Argentine agreement involved help in converting the U.S. supplied Tehran Nuclear Research Centre (TNRC) reactor from highly enriched fuel to 19.75% low-enriched uranium, and to supply the low-enriched uranium to Iran.
December 1992: The US Embassy in Buenos Aires informs the Argentine government that a continuation of the Iran-Argentine nuclear cooperation agreement is not acceptable to Washington.
In March 1992 the Israel Embassy and in July 1994 the Jewish AMIA building blew up, allegedly caused by car bombs.
Independent Argentine investigations and the initial Charles Hunter (FBI) report shows that both explosions, based on the surrounding damage, is inconsistent with the alleged car bomb theory.
Contrary to all material evidence, the Israeli government and thereafter Washington pressure President Carlos Saul Menem to insist that the alleged car bombs were placed by Iranians in cooperation with Hezbollah.
The judicial process ends nowhere until President Nestor Kirchner appoints judge Nisman in 2005 to start a fresh investigation. Nisman has close contacts with the US Embassy, US attorneys dealing with anti-terrorism investigations and some members of Argentine’s SIDE (Intelligence Secretariat).
In 2013 Nisman instructs Interpol to issue warrants against a myriad of notable Iranians and a Lebanese:
– Hashemi Rafsanjani, then President of Iran
– Ali Akbar Velayati, then Foreign Minister
– Ali Fallahijan, then Chief of Intelligence
– Mohsen Rezai, then Commander of the Revolutionary Guard
– Imad Mougnieh, Chief of the External Security Service of Hezbollah
– Ahmed Vahidi, then Commander of the “Al Quds” (Jerusalem) Forces
– Mohsen Rabbani, former diplomatic representative in Argentina
– Ahmad Ashagri, former diplomatic representative in Argentina
– Hadi Soleimanpour, former Ambassador of Iran in Argentina.”
President Cristina de Kirchner expressed several times her disbelieve in the Iranian connection (some US officials have publicly questioned whether there was evidence for Iranian involvement [James Cheek]) and used Washington’s recent opening of consultations with Iran as an opportunity to negotiate an Iran-Argentine “truth commission” to be made up of five independent judges, none of whom will be from the two countries.
The opposition and the Jewish lobby challenged this agreement.
Finishing touch:
There will be elections in Argentina soon and Cristina de Kirchner cannot be re-elected and there is a wide polarization of candidates contesting the mandate, but the polls show that Kirchner’s supported Scioli could win on the second round.
Enter Judge Nisman: He files a complaint that President Cristina de Kirchner had conducted secret negotiations with Iran through non-diplomatic channels, offering to cover up the involvement of Iranian officials (dropping the Interpol warrants) so Argentina could start swapping grain for much-needed oil from Iran. He orders the freezing of all assets of Cristina de Kirchner.
The complaint is based on “alleged evidence” given by (Stiuso who allegedly had good contacts with MOSSAD) the recently fired boss of counter-intelligence of SIDE and other obscure agents.
The opposition media circulates this complaint widely, ignoring the official statement of Interpol that there was never a request from the Argentine government to drop warrants against the Iranians.
The complaint has no legal base if there was an “intend” to cover up. Argentine law penalizes the act and not the intend, this is being ignored again by the opposition media.
The day judge Nisman is invited by the opposition to appear in Congress, he is found dead in his apartment.
While Nisman’s complaint would not have lasted few days, his death (suicide or not) will elevate him as a victim of Government conspiracy, the media will insist on this.
Social networks did quickly convert the “Je suis Charlie” to ‘Yo soy Nisman’ and public demonstrations are being organized daily and numbers are increasing.
Missing still is somebody from the US Embassy distributing cookies.
——-
Note from the Saker:
For context, please see:
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2008/01/hezbollah-didnt-do-argentine-bombing.html
Argentina’s President Says Prosecutor Killed In Plot
AFP-Al Jazeera | 22 Jan 2015
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has said she believes a prosecutor who died under suspicious circumstances was murdered in a plot to implicate her government in a cover-up of a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre.
Alberto Nisman, the lead prosecutor in the two-decade-old case, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in his home on Sunday – one day before he was to go before a congressional hearing to accuse Kirchner of shielding Iranian officials implicated in the attack, which left dozens dead.
Investigators have said Nisman appeared to have committed suicide, but have not ruled out homicide or an “induced suicide.”
In a post on her Facebook page on Thursday, Kirchner contended that Nisman was killed to immerse her government in scandal after he had been “used” to publicly accuse her of involvement in the cover-up, the AFP news agency reported.
“I’m convinced that it was not suicide,” Kirchner said.
“Prosecutor Nisman’s charges were never in themselves the true operation against the government. They collapsed early on. Nisman did not know it and probably never knew it.
“The true operation against the government was the prosecutor’s death after accusing the president, her foreign minister, and the secretary-general of (her political faction) of covering up for the Iranians accused in the AMIA attack,” she said.
Kirchner did not say who she thought was behind Nisman’s death, but aides in recent days have pointed to former intelligence officials who were recently fired, including the former chief of operations of the Intelligence Secretariate, Antonio Stiusso, who worked closely with Nisman.
The mystery over Nisman’s death has only deepened since he was found in the bathroom of his 13th floor apartment, with a .22-caliber revolver beside his body.
Although it appeared to be a suicide, a test detected no powder residue on his hands. Nisman’s mother, Sara Garfunkel, who found the body, and his ex-wife have said they do not believe he committed suicide.
Viviana Fein, the prosecutor investigating his death, said it was still classified as “doubtful.”
Opposition criticism
Before his death, Nisman had filed a 280-page complaint charging that Kirchner had issued an “express directive” to shield a group of Iranian suspects in the bombing.
Nisman contended that the government had agreed to swap grain for oil with Tehran in exchange for withdrawing “red notices” to Interpol seeking the arrests of the former and current Iranian officials accused in the case.
He backed it up with information gleaned from intercepted telephone conversations and reports by two supposed intelligence agents, who the Intelligence Secretariat said did not work for them and dismissed as “influence peddlers.”
Opposition leaders denounced Kirchner’s charges as an opportunistic about-face.
“It’s very serious. To go from supporting the thesis of a suicide, to an assassination, she must assume the consequences,” said Senator Ernesto Sanz, a member of the opposition.
Deadly bombing
The attack on the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, or AMIA killed 84 people and injured more than 300 when a van loaded with explosives was detonated in front of the building.
Since 2006, Argentinian courts have demanded the extradition of eight Iranians, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former defence minister Ahmad Vahidi and Iran’s former cultural attache in Buenos Aires, Mohsen Rabbani, for the bombing.
But in 2013, Kirchner signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran agreeing to set up a “truth commission” to investigate the bombing and allowing Argentine prosecutors to question the suspects in Iran.
The rapprochement was vehemently opposed at the time by Jewish community leaders, who charged it was “unconstitutional.”
