The likely murder in January 2015 of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating Iran’s role in Argentina’s worst-ever terror attack while Iran was negotiating to have United Nations sanctions lifted, “arguably most benefited Iran” as it stopped Nisman’s investigation before he was able to fully disclose his findings to the Argentine government or the UN, a report (.pdf) published this month by the Center for a Secure Free Society argued.
Researcher Joseph Humire, who based his report on the thousands of documents and legal wiretaps that Nisman compiled before his death, observed that Nisman’s evidence, which implicated Iran in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center, presented a major “obstacle in Tehran’s pursuit of international legitimacy.” Eighty-five people were killed and hundreds more injured by the bombing.
Nisman’s ultimate goal was to bring proof of Iran’s complicity before the UN Security Council so that it could take action against Iran over its failure to extradite the AMIA bombing suspects to Argentina, Humire wrote. This would have put Iran in non-compliance with its international obligation to assist in cases of international terror against another UN member state, thus jeopardizing its good standing while it was working to have UN sanctions removed.
Humire also noted Iran’s deep ties throughout Latin America, “arguably Iran’s top foreign policy priority outside the Middle East.” The report documents Iran’s use of cultural delegations and cover businesses—for example, in the Brazilian and Argentine beef industries—”to expand its military and intelligence footprint” and provide “logistical support for its regional terror network[, which] almost resulted in another AMIA-type terrorist attack in Peru in December 2014.”
Nisman’s death did not stop the disclosure of many revelations—including proof that then-Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was working with Iran in order to prevent knowledge of the Islamic Republic’s role in the AMIA bombing from becoming public. Nonetheless, although new Argentine President Mauricio Macri has promised to continue the investigation into the AMIA bombing, the opportunity to pursue Iran internationally appears to have been derailed by Nisman’s death. As Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote in a Wall Street Journal column (Google link) about Humire’s report, “if Nisman had a hearing at the U.N., his extensive investigation could not have been ignored.”
Tower contributing editor Eamonn MacDonagh was among the first to report in English on Nisman’s findings. For an in-depth look at the documents and wiretaps Nisman uncovered, read Alberto Nisman’s Secret Recordings, Revealed, which was published in the July 2015 issue of The Tower Magazine.
[Photo: Danilo Gonzalez / YouTube ]