Prosecutor: Argentinian President Plotted to Cover Up Iranian Role in AMIA Bombing

President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at the UN
AP Photo

An Argentinian prosecutor is suing Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and the Argentinian government for allegedly covering up Iranian involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the Algemeiner reports.

According to Argentine newspaper La Nacion, Argentinian special prosecutor Alberto Nisman uncovered a plot designed by the President to overlook Iran’s role in the terrorist attack. The motivation behind the plan was to “make a geopolitical move closer to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to establish full economic ties” and to help alleviate “Argentina’s energy crisis through a ‘grain for oil’ deal.”

Nisman claims that President Kirchner created a backdoor channel with Iran to collude on the plot. Other major figures have also been accused of engaging in secret talks with Iran on the matter, including members of the Argentinian intelligence services, a parliamentarian, pro-government activists and Jorge “Yussuf” Khalil, a major figure in Argentina’s Muslim community who reportedly maintains close relations with Iran.

“Every message from the President was communicated in detail to the fugitive Mohsen Rabbani, who was Iran’s Cultural Attache in Buenos Aires at the time of the attack,” according to La Nacion.

Some of the evidence was derived from phone taps. Nisman’s formal complaint “presents irrefutable evidence that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner ordered Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido to meet with D’Elia [former member of Kirchner’s cabinet], and through him, to transmit the government’s interest in swapping grain for oil.”

Eamonn MacDonagh, a Buenos Aires based political analyst, told The Algemeinerabout the significance of Nisman’s phone records acquisition.

“If he has hundreds of pages of phone taps, that can only indicate that some part of Argentina’s vast and unaccountable intelligence system is assisting him,” said Macdonagh.

These developments come two years following the memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran regarding a “truth commission” into the AMIA terrorist attacks which killed 85 and injured many more.

These allegations would demonstrate that the President of Argentina and other senior officials are directly responsible for attempting to cover up the worst terrorist attack in Argentina’s history.

This post originally appeared at the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

 

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