Saturday, October 28, 2006

IRIB: "Amia case bribed by Zionists"

More Iranian denial in the form of assertions about Zionist plots:
Iran's Prosecutor General said in Tehran on Friday that reopened file of Argentina's 1994 Jewish Amia charity fund blasts was aimed at pleasing the Zionists and the Americans, while diverting the world public opinion.

Twelve years ago following the suspicious fatal bomb blast at AMIA's Buenos Aires building the Zionist lobby in the West through tight secret negotiations and lobbying with Argentina's top judiciary officials tried to allege the Islamic Republic of Iran of having plotted the terrorist attack, but the move soon failed due to absolute lack of evidence.

Hojjatoleslam Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi made the remark in his pre-sermon address at this week's Tehran Friday Prayers, adding, "It was revealed a few years ago that the top judge in Amia case had been bribed by the Zionists and the Americans in a bid to accuse Iran of having plotted the 1994 Argentina blast."

He added, "It was also made clear that the documents and evidence that witnesses had presented at the court had been fake and forged, and thus all their plots against Iran had faced total defeat."

The Prosecutor General further explained, "After the passage of so many years and having declared the file as closed, under such conditions that Iran's former ambassador has been acquitted of all allegations both in Argentina and in Britain, in order to divert the world public opinion, at the threshold of the International Qods Day a new judge reopens that stinking file anew."

He reiterated, "To our great sorrow, Argentina is one of the main centers of the Zionists' lobby, but all the same we expect the judiciary force of that country not to permit a judge to put under question its entire credibility."

Dorri-Najafabadi added, "In order to make new allegations, the alleged country should be informed and its judiciary force should be provided with the copies of the documents related to the new allegations through diplomatic channels, since otherwise a sovereign state's diplomats and officials enjoy political and social immunity."

He attributed the reopening of Amia file to the massive Qods Day rallies throughout the world, as well as the scientific advancement of Iran, particularly in its peaceful nuclear program.

He also assured the nation that the sanctions, as the late Imam had once stressed, would merely lead to the Iranian nation's faster independence, and the Iranian youth's blossoming.

The Prosecutor General also asked for broad presence of the nation at all three elections ahead.

On Wednesday, Argentine prosecutors charged Iran with the 1994 attack on Amia (the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association) that killed 85 people and injured 300.

Amia, supported by The Zionist regime and America, had long accused Iran of organizing the attack.

Those accusations, based on biased intelligence gathered by the secret services of the Zionist regime and America, have been consistently rejected by the Iranian government and the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Movement Hezbollah.

On September 2, 2004, an Argentine court acquitted 21 former police officers and a trafficker of stolen cars who were charged with aiding the attackers, whose ties with the Zionist regime were obvious.

The court found that important evidence against the men at Iranian diplomatic center had been "irregularly" obtained, and ordered an investigation of judge Juan Jose Galeano, who presided over the case for nine years.

Galeano was accused of having paid 400,000 dollars to a key witness to testify against four police officer accused of having provided logistical support in the plot.

Iran's ambassador to Argentina, Ali Hosseini in his comments on the issue, said on Friday that the corruption of Galeano is another proof that "such claims (against Iran) are totally baseless."
Argentinean judicial incompetence does not, of course, exonerate Iran. Here is an excerpt from an excellent piece by Aaron Mannes which provides some background:
It was the work of Hezbollah, working closely under Iranian sponsorship, and it perfectly illustrates Hezbollah's intentions, capabilities, and modus operandi. As the West hurtles into a confrontation with Iran, sparked by the current Israeli-Hezbollah conflagration, it is worth examining this deadly effective attack in Argentina over a decade ago.

The AMIA bombing was not Hezbollah's first strike in Argentina. Two years earlier, a Hezbollah suicide bomber hit the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and wounding over 200. This attack was in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hezbollah's Secretary-General Abbas Musawi. His replacement was Hezbollah's current leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Two years later, Hezbollah, under orders from the Iranian leadership, struck again in Buenos Aires. Israel had just captured a senior Hezbollah leader, Mustafa Dirani, who had helped capture Israeli airman Ron Arad. At the same time, Israel had recently bombed a Hezbollah training base, killing over 20 Hezbollah fighters. Finally, Argentina's President Carlos Menem, had, under U.S. pressure, reneged on deals to provide ballistic-missile and nuclear technology to Syria and Iran. Argentine intelligence believes that the orders for these attacks came from the very top of the Iranian regime. Both of the Buenos Aires terror attacks illustrate how Iran and Hezbollah play hardball with their opponents.

Terrorism requires organization and logistics. Hezbollah's ability to carry out an attack in Buenos Aires, halfway across the world from their primary base in Lebanon, is impressive. One factor in the AMIA bombing's success was, according to Argentine intelligence, the support from the Iranian embassy. Mohsen Rabbani, the "cultural attaché," coordinated the operation. Reportedly he purchased the Renault van used in the bombing. This pattern of Iranian-Hezbollah cooperation is not unique to the Buenos Aires operations. Hezbollah carried out a series of bombings in Paris from December 1985 to September 1986. These bombings were linked to a translator at Iran's embassy in Paris and led to a diplomatic standoff between France and Iran.
The following from the Wikipedia article is also useful:
Israeli diplomatic sources who read the "final" report by SIDE [Argentina's intelligence agency] on the attack said in 2003 that the attack was a suicide bombing carried out by Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a 29-year-old Muslim who has been honored with a plaque in southern Lebanon for his martyrdom on July 18, 1994, the date of the bombing. SIDE, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Berro's relatives confirmed this in November 2005.

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