Iranian Terror and the Death of Alberto Nisman By Joseph Puder
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/joseph-puder/iranian-terror-and-the-death-of-alberto-nisman/print/
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not only a nuclear power aspirant, but a nation seeking regional Middle Eastern hegemony. The Ayatollahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) are the sponsors of worldwide Islamic terrorism. Recently, the world was gripped by the savage attack of Sunni Muslim jihadists who murdered 17 French people, including four Jews in a kosher supermarket in Paris. Yet, the world has forgotten the Shiite-Muslim Iranian regime sponsored 1994 van bombing of the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation or AMIA in Buenos Aires, that left 85 people dead and 300 others wounded. It has been the worst Islamic terrorist attack to date of its kind in South America.
Alberto Nisman, 51, the Argentine prosecutor charged with investigating the Buenos Aires bombing by Iran, which the Argentine governments of President Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and Cristina Fernandez Kirchner (2007-present) deliberately obstructed, was found dead hours before he was to testify on the collusion between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Cristina Kirchner government. He was due to address an Argentine Congressional hearing on Monday (1/19/2015) to provide evidence of his assertions.
Nisman was also expected to accuse the Foreign Minister of Argentina, Hector Timerman, of collusion with the Iranians. Nisman charged Iran of being behind the attack on the Jewish Community building, accusing Kirchner of hampering the investigation in order to curry favor with the Islamic Republic. The Wall Street Journal reported (1/20/2015) that “Nisman accused President Kirchner of ordering intermediaries to secretly negotiate a deal with Tehran to offer immunity for Iranian suspects in exchange for Iranian oil.”
On October 25, 2006, Alberto Nisman and fellow prosecutor, Marcello Marquez, issued a report that revealed the broad nuclear connections between Argentina and Iran. The report indicated that Argentina was continuing to provide Iran with low-grade enriched uranium, and the two countries were in serious negotiations to expand nuclear cooperation when the bombing occurred.
The Argentine government naturally called the death of Nisman suicide. President Cristina Kirchner, who was going to be exposed in Nisman’s probe, faced humiliation and would have been forced to resign. She had this to say, “Suicide…In all cases leads first to shock, and then questions.” There is little doubt that President Kirchner had reasons to want Nisman dead. Whether she sub-contracted Hezbollah or the Iranians themselves to do the job is yet to be determined. Nisman revealed that he received death threats from the Iranians. Moreover, there are plenty of Nazis and anti-Semites in Argentina who would have gladly taken the job of murdering Nisman, especially if immunity from prosecution by the Argentine government was promised. One thing should be clear. He had no reason to commit suicide. On the contrary, he was eager to testify before the Argentine Congress.
According to Nisman’s good friend, Argentinian-born Israeli author Gustavo Perednik, Nisman’s personality and timing of the death render the suicide notion beyond risible…He was a man who firmly shrugged off death threats, was balanced and focused, decent and fine.”
Perednik, according to David Horovitz of the Times of Israel, asked whether someone like Nisman, who has spent a decade heading a 30-strong team investigating the worst terror attack ever committed in Argentina, would commit suicide? And why would Nisman, who has identified the Iranian leaders who ordered the attack, and placed them on the Interpol ‘watch list’ kill himself?
Nisman compiled a massive amount of evidence in his 10-year probe (he was appointed as special prosecutor by President Nestor Kirchner in 2004), and he accused Iran and Hezbollah of the attack on AMIA. In fact, he indicted a Hezbollah member, and a number of high ranking Iranian officials. In 2013, Nisman was invited to Washington, to testify about his findings at the U.S. House of Representatives committee on Homeland Security, and specifically to report on Iran’s extending influence in the Western Hemisphere. Nisman was not allowed by Argentina’s chief public prosecutor to leave, on the grounds that it had nothing to do with the mission of the Argentine attorney general’s office.
As a result of Nisman’s investigation, INTERPOL decided to issue Red Notices to six Iranian and Hezbollah operatives: Imad Fayez Mughniyah (chief military commander of Hezbollah killed in Damascus), Ali Fallahijan, Moshen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi, and Moshen Rezai. The INTERPOL Executive Committee however, did not endorse issuing Red Notices to former Iranian President Ali Rafsanjany, former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and former Iranian ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpour.
U.S. Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC), who invited Nisman to address the Congressional panel, took issue with the U.S. State Department assertion that Iran’s influence in the Western Hemisphere is “waning.” He said, “In stark contrast to the State Department’s assessment, Nisman’s investigation revealed that Iran has infiltrated for decades large regions of Latin America through the establishment of clandestine intelligence stations, and is ready to exploit its position to execute terrorist attacks when the Iranian regime decides to do so.”
As Nisman dug deeper into the method of Iranian operations, he found that they (the Iranians) infiltrated agents into Argentina and set the stage for the Buenos Aires AMIA attack. The same kind of network operates in Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana. According to Claudia Rosett, the Guyana network also became involved in the 2007 terrorist plot to blow up fuel lines and tanks at JFK Airport in New York City.
Iranian terror attacks in Argentina began on March 17, 1992, when a bomb exploded at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and injuring 250. While Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, U.S. and Israeli officials believed that Hezbollah carried out the attack, ordered by Iran. The AMIA bombing, like the Israeli embassy, were considered by Argentine authorities as “unresolved.”
Iranian global terrorism has been documented, albeit only partially. ABC-TV reported on July 2, 2012, that, “two Iranian men who led officials to a 33-pound stash of explosives have now admitted they were plotting to attack U.S., Israel, or British targets in Kenya.” A July 16, 2004 headline in Time magazine read “9/11 Commission finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran.” The Washington Post reported on December 8, 2011, “It went virtually unnoticed (and unreported by this newspaper), but last week a federal court found the government of Iran liable for the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.” On August 17, 2012 Ynet-News revealed that, “Kenya’s intelligence services prevented a plan to assassinate Israel’s Ambassador in Kenya.” The Obama administration charged, according to Lebanon’s Daily Star, that “Iran is assisting key al-Qaeda figures to transfer Sunni fighters into Syria.” U.S. officials, according to ABC-TV news (10/11/2011), uncovered an Iranian plot that included “The assassination of the ambassador of Saudi Arabia in the U.S., Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb, and subsequent bomb attacks on Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington D.C. Bombing of Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina were also discussed according to the U.S. officials.”
The Obama administration is desperately seeking a way to induce Iran to warm its relations with the U.S. The Ayatollahs in Tehran, however, have nothing but contempt for President Obama and the U.S. Attempted appeasement of Iran to reach a nuclear deal will not end Iran’s quest for hegemony in the region at the expense of U.S. influence. Nor will it terminate Iran’s global terrorism directed at the U.S. and Israel in particular. The untimely death of Alberto Nisman will be even more tragic if the U.S. fails to take action against Iran’s global terror.
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