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Tape of Former Argentine FM Saying Iran was Behind AMIA Attack Admitted in Treason Probe

by TheTower.org Staff |

An Argentinian court will allow a recording of former Foreign Minister Hector Timerman acknowledging that Iran was behind the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires to be admitted as evidence in an inquiry to determine if he is guilty of treason, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Monday.

The investigation into whether Timerman committed treason and plotted a cover-up of the investigation into the 1994 terror attack began last December. Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and member of Congress who voted in 2013 for a joint Argentinian-Iranian investigation into the bombing are also being investigated for treason.

“If there was someone else, they [the Iranians] wouldn’t have planted the bomb. So we are back to the beginning. Do you have someone else for me to negotiate with?” Timerman said in a taped 2012 phone call with then-AMIA president Guillermo Borger, who was opposed to the joint investigation agreement due to the widely-held belief that Iran was responsible for the bombing.

The JTA also reported that FBI Director James Comey and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with Argentinian Justice Minister Germán Garavano in Washington and told him that the United States would lend support to the investigation into the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating the AMIA bombing before dying of a gunshot wound to the head in January 2015 under mysterious circumstances. In March, a three-judge panel unanimously referred the investigation into Nisman’s death to a federal court to be investigated as a political murder.

An Argentinian court declared the joint Argentinian-Iranian investigation into the AMIA bombing to be unconstitutional two years ago. New President Mauricio Macri, who was elected last December, said that he would not renew the agreement to jointly investigate the bombing.

Tower contributing editor Eamonn MacDonagh first reported on the existence of Timerman’s incriminating recording last December. He also reported on the revelation of a conspiracy to cover up the AMIA investigation, which were documented in nearly 40,000 phone calls that Nisman had wiretapped.

[Photo: Cancillería Argentina / flickr ]

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