Argentina, AMIA and ... the expanding Middle East war?

With Israel and the US and various Middle East governments and militias bracing for Iran’s retaliation against Israel for their strike on Iranian officials in Damascus, the timing may be entirely coincidental. Or not. But in any case, an Argentine court just announced a finding that Iran and Hezbollah were behind the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Yes, after 30 years, the announcement came just now:

Argentina’s highest criminal court reported a new development Thursday in the elusive quest for justice in the deadliest attack in the country’s history — the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center headquarters — concluding Iran had planned the attack and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group had executed the plans.

In a ruling obtained by The Associated Press, Argentina’s Court of Cassation deemed Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, responsible for the bombing in Buenos Aires that leveled the community center, killing 85 people, wounding 300 and devastating Latin America’s biggest Jewish community. The court said the attack came in retaliation for Argentina reneging on a nuclear cooperation deal with Tehran. (1)

There is an excellent fictional TV thriller series starring Natalia Oreiro, a popular Uruguayan singer and actress who is very popular in Argentina, based on the AMIA bombing: Iosi, la espía arrepentido (Yosi, the Regretful Spy). The villains in the series are hardcore rightwing radicals, not Iranians.

The AMIA case is reminiscent of the JFK assassination: decades after it occurred, there is still speculation and legal action around it.

And this is by no means a definitive answer to who was really behind the attack. The AP’s report also notes:

What some said they found shocking, rather, was the court’s failure to provide concrete evidence of Iran’s direct involvement or shed new light on the case after 30 years of setbacks and scandals.

“I would never rule Iran out, it’s certainly on the list of suspects, but let’s do something specific to rule it in,” said Joe Goldman, who co-authored a book about the winding investigations into the Jewish community center attack as well as bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed more than 20 people in 1992. “That would be a serious investigation that we haven’t seen.”

“It’s politically opportune,” added Jorge Knoblovits, the president of Argentina’s umbrella Jewish organization, pointing to renewed scrutiny of Iran’s support for militant groups following Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel. [my emphasis]

Two judges on a three-court panel made definite findings, with judge dissenter.

Raúl Kollmann, who has been reporting on this case for years, describes the seemingly flimsy basis for this decision:

The two judges maintain that Iran should be sued internationally for the attacks, that everything was plotted in Beirut, and that the motive for the attacks was that President Carlos Menem failed to comply with three agreements for the provision of nuclear technology signed by Raúl Alfonsín /2) [Argentine President 1983-1989] in his time [as President]. The Radical President [Alfonsín], in fact, made an agreement with Tehran with provisions that related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and the agreement had American approval at the time. It was always a hypothesis, just as there were others related to the provision of Condor missile technology for Libya or Syria.

The accusations against Iran were always based on intelligence reports and witness statements by opponents of the ayatollahs' regime. No conclusive evidence was ever found, especially since it was not possible to find those who participated: neither those who provided the explosive, nor those who bought the truck, nor those who assembled the car bomb, nor who drove the [truck with the explosives] to the AMIA. (3) [my emphasis]

So far as the public is concerned, this case remains unsolved. Kollmann also notes that the court’s strange decision with so little credibility happens to align with the politics of Argentina’s current President Javier Milei, the far-right “anarcho-libertarian” authoritarian crackpot whose mission is to turn Argentina into a paradise for the country’s oligarchy and a nightmare for everyone else.

[T]wo of the three judges … said – essentially based on intelligence reports – that Iran ordered the attacks on the AMIA and the Israeli Embassy [a separate bomb attack around that time]. The judges in the majority overlooked the utter lack of evidence, including that it was never determined: where the explosives came from; who bought the vans used as car bombs; who the accomplices were; how they entered Argentina; and, how they left after the attacks. (4) [my emphasis]

Those certainly seem like important gaps in the evidence!

In line with of Javier Milei's government’s alignment with the United States and Israel, they drafted a ruling that will no doubt be used for the US and Israeli offensive against (the retrograde) regime in Tehran. Totally differently from her [two] colleagues, Judge Angela Ledesma rejected making any consideration about the responsibility of Hezbollah or Iran, "taking into account that this topic is not part of the object of the appeals presented." Ledesma was also the only one condemned the judge, prosecutors and other officials for covering up the so-called "Syrian trail" of the attack.

None of this means that it’s excluded from reasonable consideration that Iran or Hezbollah may have been involved. It means, as Kollmann notes, that “no conclusive evidence was ever found“ to resolve the case.


Notes:

(1) Rey, Débira & Debre, Isabel (2024): Argentine court blames Iran and Hezbollah for deadly 1994 Jewish center bombing. AP News 04/12/2024. <https://apnews.com/article/argentina-1994-jewish-center-bombing-iran-investigation-36b4f9cbe20900d39d8f28477589a444> (Accessed: 2024-12-04).

(2) Alfonsín was President of Argentina 1983–89, the first elected President after the brutal eight-year military dictatorship. He was successful in re-establishing democracy in the face of active opposition by the military, which is a major accomplishment. His party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR, Unión Cívica Radical), is a social-democratic party and a member of the Socialist International, the near-moribund international umbrella group of Social Democratic parties, including the major European ones. But the last time the UCR was actually “radical” left was 1930 at the latest.

(3) Kollmann,Raúl (2024): AMIA: Sin pruebas, dos jueces dicen que Irán fue culpable. Página/12 12.04.2024. <https://www.pagina12.com.ar/728543-amia-sin-pruebas-dos-jueces-dicen-que-iran-fue-culpable> (Accessed: 2024-12-04). My translation from the Spanish.

(4) Kollmann,Raúl (2024): AMIA: Casación confirmó las penas contra los principales investigadores del atentado. Página/12 12.04.2024. <https://www.pagina12.com.ar/728472-amia-casacion-confirmo-las-penas-contra-los-principales-inve> (Accessed: 2024-12-04). My translation from the Spanish.