To those of you who can read Spanish I recommend following Luis D’Elía on Twitter. Why should he be of interest? Well, the rotund social activist is a prominent supporter of the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and on more than one occasion he and his followers have provided the street muscle to keep opponents of the government from holding demonstrations at sensitive locations.
Though Deputy Alcira Argumedo is not a member of the governing party, today’s Pagina/12, the Izvestia of the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, generously donates space to her in today’s edition of the paper. Deputy Argumedo is superficially concerned with the current spat between Venezuela and Colombia but what’s really on her mind is something else; the Jews.
Continue reading ‘It’s The Jews! Another Comforting Signal to Iran From Buenos Aires’
Though the AMIA massacre occurred on July 18th, 1994 the official commemoration of its sixteenth anniversary took place on the 16th. In these two stories covering the events that took place you’ll find Guillermo Borger, head of the AMIA community organization. the one directly affected by the attack, praising the “good performance” of the present administration with regard to the investigation into the attack and lauding Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s “bravery” in calling for the extradition of the Iranian fugitives in her speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations.
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In Argentina in the 1970s hundreds of young Jewish people were kidnapped, tortured and murdered because they adhered to one of the revolutionary branches of Peronism or Marxism, because they were in contact with someone who did or simply because the rabid antisemites in the police and army saw being Jewish as necessarily being some kind of Bolshevik. 1n 2010 some of their murderers and tortures are having to answer for their acts in courts throughout the country. The present government deserves much credit for this as large sectors of society would prefer the crimes of the 1976 - 1983 dictatorship to be forgotten about.
Continue reading ‘Argentina, Al-Assad And Two Kinds of Dead Jew’
If you click here you can read a report from Télam, Argentina’s official news agency, about the official visit of President Bashir al Assad to Buenos Aires. You can also see a short excerpt from President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s remarks after the lunch which she hosted for the Syrian leader. She talks about the Golan Heights and the Falklands/Malvinas, the importance of founding a Palestinian state and Argentina’s desire to play a leading role in the Middle East peace process. In the story that accompanies the video mention is also made of the signing of bilateral agreements and moves to expand trade; the usual stuff of state visits.
Héctor Timerman, Argentina’s new foreign minister, gives a two-page interview to Pagina/12 today in which he says the following with regard to Argentina’s attempts to have a number of Iranians extradited to answer charges of having been responsible for the AMIA massacre,
As of yesterday, Argentina has a new foreign minister. His name is Héctor Timerman and he takes up his new job after having been been Argentina’s ambassador in Washington since 2008. The relevance of his appointment for readers outside Argentina resides in its possible consequences for the AMIA case.
Continue reading ‘Timerman: Argentina’s New Foreign Minister’
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AIPAC has “… for years molded the policies of the government of the United States in the Middle East, for example, the invasion of Iraq.”
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The present and previous presidents of Argentina have both stood up at the UN General Assembly and politely requested that the government of Iran extradite the AMIA massacre suspects it is sheltering.
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Readers with good memories will recall the appointment of Jorge Palacios, a disgraced former Federal Police officer to head the city of Buenos Aires’s first autonomous police force. To put it mildly, it wasn’t an idea that prospered. Palacios was obliged to resign when indicted on charges of being involved in the cover up of the AMIA massacre and is now in prison while being investigated on charges of organizing illegal wiretaps. Among those who had their phone conversations illicitly listened in on was Sergio Burstein, a well known campaigner for justice for the families of the survivors of the AMIA attack.
Continue reading ‘Israeli Embassy Controls Buenos Aires City Hall’
A small step towards justice in the AMIA case was taken yesterday when the Cámara Nacional de Casación Penal (Argentina’s final criminal appeal court) ordered that Carlos Telleldín be retried on charges relating to his role in the preparation of the AMIA massacre. The decision arises from a previous Supreme Court decision which held that the early findings of the initial investigation into the atrocity are legally valid.
We’re no nearer to seeing any of the Iranian suspects wanted for the AMIA massacre in custody but some progress is being made towards making some of the Argentines responsible for obstructing the original investigation answer for their actions.
In her address to the General Assembly of the United Nations yesterday, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner performed the annual ritual of asking Iran to extradite to Argentina a number of its citizens wanted in connection with the 1994 AMIA massacre in Buenos Aires. She did the same last year and her predecessor Néstor Kirchner did likewise in 2007.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has just appointed Ahmad Vahidi as Iran’s new defense minister. He is one of the Iranians being sought by the Argentine authorities on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 AMIA massacre in Buenos Aires and he is the subject an Interpol Red Notice, for all practical purposes an international arrest warrant.
Continue reading ‘Iran Thumbs Its Nose at Argentina and AMIA Victims’
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Fifteen years ago today a truck bomb destroyed the headquarters of the AMIA Jewish community organization in Buenos Aires. 85 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Continue reading ‘AMIA: 15 Years of State-sponsored Cover-ups and Impunity’
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