Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Argentina's lesson
The Hezbollah attacks on Argentina back in the '90s were, according to an Argentinian prosecutor, retaliation for Argentina having withdrawn support for Iran's nuclear program:
Iran orchestrated two bombings in Buenos Aires in the mid-1990s, killing more than 100 people, primarily because it was furious over Argentina's cessation of nuclear cooperation with the Islamic Republic, a top Argentinean prosecutor said Tuesday, offering chilling confirmation of the ruthlessness with which Iran has pursued its quest for nuclear capability.
Dr. Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who has secured Interpol backing for the arrests of several leaders in Teheran, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires, also urged the international community to pressure Iran into giving up the wanted men for trial.
Nisman said the AMIA blast, in which 85 people were killed, and the bombing of the Israeli Embassy two years earlier, in which 29 people were killed, had been "ordered, planned and financed" by Iran's top leadership. Teheran, he said, was incensed that Argentina, under former president Carlos Menem, had suspended and ultimately stopped what had been close cooperation with the Iranian nuclear program, including the training of nuclear technicians and the transfer of nuclear technology. At first Teheran tried to cajole Argentina into reconsidering, he said. Then it issued threats. And finally, it employed terrorism.
Read the whole thing.
3 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Dec 19, 02:22:00 PM:
So much for Rafsanjani being the friendlier, kinder mullah.
Personally I prefer Ahmadinejad. At least in his case there is no doubt what we are up against.
By , at
Wed Dec 19, 03:08:00 PM:
La Presidenta Evita III de Kirchner’s response to the recent arrests in Miami- “garbage”- shows that she considers Argentina aligned with Chavez. Chavez has aligned Venezuela with Iran. Example:
"I feel I have met a brother and trench mate after meeting Chávez."
-Ahmadinejad on Chávez
By implication, Argentina has thus aligned itself with Iran. Lesson: Terrorism works.
There is another angle on terrorism and Argentina. The Kirchners were not Montoneros, but influential members of their team were Montoneros. Jorge Taiana, Evita III’s foreign minister and Nestor’s deputy foreign minister, was a Montonero. Rafael Bielsa, foreign minister and recently an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, was a Montonero. Carlos Kunkel, Nestor’s deputy chief of staff and currently a legislator, was a Montonero.
Today the former Montoneros paint themselves as having been guerrillas in order to oppose the military. In truth, the bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings the Montoneros and others committed while Argentina had a democratically-elected government were what brought on the military regime and the “dirty war.”
The Kirchner administration has been plagued with corruption and lack of transparency. While corruption and lack of transparency were an issue for Argentina before the Kirchners, they have gotten worse under their administrations. The Montonero style segued into the manner of governing Argentina without missing a beat. Guerrillas robbing banks, and kidnapping for ransom, became corrupt officials. Conspiring guerrillas became government officials who never reveal what they do.
Presidenta Evita III's response to the arrests in Miami shows that not much has changed. It's as if Juan Perón and Evita I or Evita II were still around. Thievery, blaming the US, lack of transparency in governing: happy days are here again! Is Evita III de Kirchner going to take a triumphal tour of Europe, just like Evita I?
It's no wonder that Evita III and Hugo get along so well. Just keep writing the checks, Hugo. Evita III doesn’t need a trip to Europe and the Pope’s blessing: she has Hugo’s checkbook, the best indulgence money can buy.
By 
A Jacksonian, at
Wed Dec 19, 07:32:00 PM:
When you think of those blasts, think Monzer al-Kassar as he was instrumental in helping to stage not only the nuclear deal but the Condor II deal, and then was able to worm his way into the Argentinian arms business. He was also instrumental in forming the first hard connections between his narcotics operation out of the Bekaa and those of the Cali and Medellin cartels. And you need go no further than his calling in Imad Mugniyah and coordinating the attacks against the Israeli Embassy and AMIA cultural center to find Hezbollah starting to build its structure in South America. From the reports pre-9/11, it is also relatively suspicious that al-Kassar has co-located with Mogilovech in Marbella, plus the unexpected crashing of an al Qaeda bagman sent to meet with them. Kassar, himself, had dealings with bin Laden via his Imperial activities and his work in the Balkans for arms shipments during the 1990's. That one man has been able to get witnesses killed and intimidated across the globe to the point where no one can properly indict him for anything... the Spanish found that out trying to get him on the Achille Lauro killings as a prime mover to cover the tracks of it, but one witness had a bad drunk and fell out of his apartment window... he lived in Marbella... one witness in Brazil got dead, in jail... and one witness in Spanish custody recanted. The charges? Unproven. Funny how that happened with folks turning up dead who were going to testify against you.
He is currently being held in Spain for the US based on a sting operation to send SAMs and other equipment to FARC. His family has run some of the major drug rings in the US since the 1950's and Imad Mugniyah set up a lovely Hezbollah ring stretching from Toronto to North Carolina.... any bets on the life expectancy of witnesses if we can actually extradite him?
