Argentina’s Betrayal
Last week, Argentina and Iran jointly agreed to establish a “truth commission” that will investigate the 1994 Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) bombing. Imagine if Franklin Roosevelt had partnered with the Japanese to investigate the truth about Pearl Harbor. Or if George W. Bush had partnered with al-Qaeda to investigate the truth about 9/11. Now you understand the absurdity and moral repugnance of Argentina’s decision.
There is no serious question about who masterminded and carried out the AMIA attack, which left 85 dead and hundreds injured: It was a Hezbollah bombing planned by Iranian agents and approved by the theocracy in Tehran. Six years ago, Interpol issued “red notices” (the nearest thing to global arrest warrants) for several Iranian officials — one of whom, Ahmad Vahidi, is currently serving as Iran’s defense minister. For that matter, the Argentine government itself urged Interpol to issue those red notices. When Argentina made that request, its president was Néstor Kirchner, the late husband of the current Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner. In other words, by agreeing to whitewash the Iranian atrocity, Kirchner is betraying her husband’s legacy, in addition to the victims, their families, the Argentine Jewish community, the state of Israel, and anyone who cares about justice being served.
By the way, the AMIA bombing was not the only Iranian-sponsored terrorist attack in Buenos Aires during the early 1990s. In March 1992, the Iranians planned a bombing at the Israeli embassy that killed 29 people and injured more than 240. One of victims of this attack was an American-born Israeli diplomat named David Ben-Rafael. In February 1998, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle found Tehran guilty of orchestrating the embassy massacre and ordered the Iranian government to pay Ben-Rafael’s family roughly $63 million.
The 1992 and 1994 Buenos Aires bombings confirmed that Iran poses a deadly extraterritorial threat to civilized countries around the world. For that matter, in between the two Argentina attacks, Iranian-backed gunmen went to a Berlin restaurant and assassinated three senior members of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, plus their translator. Like the Buenos Aires bombings, the Berlin murders were approved and facilitated by the Iranian government. All told, high-level officials of the post-1979 Iranian regime “have been linked to the assassinations of at least 162 of the regime’s political opponents around the world,” according to a November 2008 report from the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.
When Néstor Kirchner demanded justice for the bombings and pushed Interpol to take action, he won praise from Washington and generated lots of goodwill with U.S. policymakers. Now his wife has thrown it all away. At a moment when the United States is eager to isolate the Iranian regime diplomatically, Argentina is effectively helping the regime to avoid responsibility for one of its worst crimes. Not surprisingly, the “truth commission” was rejected by AMIA president Guillermo Borger: “We do not accept Iran as a partner to trust, and much less when it comes to signing deals.” Meanwhile, the Israeli foreign ministry expressed “astonishment and disappointment at the Argentine government’s decision to collaborate with Iran,” and it further slammed “the unacceptable attitude of the Argentine government.”
To make matters worse, Argentina has dramatically increased its bilateral trade with Iran. The online business journal Latinvex has estimated that Argentine exports to the Islamic Republic grew by a whopping 937 percent in 2011, reaching $1.2 billion. And in the third quarter of 2012, Argentina accounted for nearly 64 percent of Iranian soy-oil imports, according to the German consultancy Oil World. So while the United States has been squeezing Iran economically and calling for tougher global sanctions, Argentina has been helping the Iranians to withstand the pressure.
It is now painfully clear that Kirchner has decided to join the Chávez bloc — the collection of autocratic leftists (including Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega) who have adopted stridently anti-U.S. foreign policies and have provided either diplomatic cover or outright diplomatic support for Tehran. As I have argued elsewhere, Argentina no longer deserves to be a “major non-NATO ally” (MNNA) of the United States, nor does it deserve to be a member of the G-20. After all, it now has a government that will abruptly nationalize a Spanish-owned oil company, a government that will randomly and inexplicably seize materials from a U.S. military aircraft, a government that will threaten one of America’s closest allies (Britain), and a government that will whitewash the murderous depredations of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Thus far, Kirchner has suffered no real diplomatic punishment for her actions. It is time for the Obama administration to (1) revoke Argentina’s MNNA status and (2) push for its expulsion from the G-20. This would not deliver justice for the Buenos Aires bombing victims. But it would send a forceful, unambiguous message.
(You can read this article in Spanish here.)
This is no great surprise. After all, the Argentinian government allowed runaway Nazis to settle and live in Argentina, where an Israeli team actually caught one of the top ex-Nazi officers involved in carrying out the Holocaust (second only to Himmler himself),Adolf Eichmann,living peacefully,under an assumed name,Werner Klempt,kidnapped him,and took him to Israel to face justice.For decades,Argentina was run by a succession of morally bankrupt dictators,and they are probably cozying up to Iran because they want something Iran has,likely oil, and perhaps to prevent Iranian terrorists from being sent to attack Argentinian targets. Still, it’s despicable of them, and I would hope that the people of Argentina put in a new government soon.
It is a well known fact that Argentina allowed approximately 5,000 Nazi war criminals to settle in their country after WW2.
It is interesting to note a few things about present day Argentina:
(i) the government’s official statistics office INDEC is still showing inflation at 10.8% when independent analysts believe the figure is 26% – hence the action being taken by the IMF
(ii) the country is down in 102nd place in the World’s CPI Transparency Index
cpi.transparency.org/ Transparency is all about being truthful.
(iii) Argentina has increased its trade volumes with Iran by 200% in the past 5-years.
Obama tried to call the Falklands Malvinas, thus siding against Great Britain.
(He said Maldives, but that’s because he is brilliant)
The book is long closed on this incident and this will not change a thing except to highlight the despicable Argentine government.
More relevant and important is EU whitewashing of the Bulgarian bus bombing of Israeli tourists.
Bulgaria has now issued an official report proving that Hezbolla (and hence Iran) was behind the attack which occured on EU soil. The EU refuses to blacklist Hezbolla which operates freely in Europe. The reason which has appeared in statements to reporters is that the euros are afraid that Hezbolla will expand it’s operations into the continent. They have crossed that line now but nothing will change. After all, only one Bulgarian, the bus driver, was killed. The rest were just Jews on vacation.
Iran is doing what Islam always does. It partners with a non-muslim nation and thus is able to guide that nations leaders to the “correct” decision which always favors Islalm. Islam is successful because socialist/marxist countries have devolved to such a weakened state that they cannot protect themselves from very many predators and Islam is now the worlds premier preditor. The socialist/marxist leadership thinks they can partner with Islam and lead the unwashed masses on to greater glory. That is, until Islam takes over and begins to slaughter the elite leadership that is no longer needed along with a great number of the unwashed masses. Western civilization is heading for a long dark hellish existance if the current leadership is not turned around and soon.
I had an Argentine born teacher once explain the difference between the U.S. and Argentine experience.
As I recall the explanation went something like:
At the end of the 19th and opening of the 20th Centuries, Argentina was the richest nation in the Western Hemisphere. It and the U.S. were faced with massive waves of immigraton from southern and eastern Europe. The Argentines tried to get ahead of the curve by activly recruiting and selecting the Cream of the Crop, i.e. educated, urban, professionals with money of their own. And within two generations they managed to convert these immigrants decendats into a population of pennyless, illiterate peasants. While the U.S. threw open her doors to a generation of pennyless, illiterate peasants and within two generations converted them into a population of Doctors, Lawyers, Judges, Teachers……..Americans.
I don’t see much change between the two. Except maybe that the U.S. is going more to the old Argentine model these days.
No, the US has been the richest nation since it passed the UK in the 1880s. Argentina was probably the richest Latin American country. Big difference.