Nearly two decades after a car bomb destroyed a Buenos Aires Jewish community center, killing 85, Argentina is forming a “truth commission” with Iran to investigate the case.
Yeah, and OJ is still looking for the real killers, too.
The commission is to “investigate” terrorism that Argentina long ago determined had been ordered by top officials in Tehran. It’s yet another success for Iran in breaking out of international “isolation” by tightening its relations with anti-American Latin regimes.
The deal with Iran “is a step toward unblocking a case that has been paralyzed for 19 years,” Argentine President Cristina Kirchner said last week. “Dialogue is part of Argentina’s foreign policy.”
Dialogue about this case? Really?
Back in 1999 (after years of foot-dragging), Argentine officials gathered compelling evidence on the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israelites Mutual Association — evidence that led to the culprit: Hezbollah and its Iranian masters.
The Argentine courts handed the evidence over to Interpol, which issued arrest warrants against one Lebanese man and five Tehran officials — including Iran’s current defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi.
But Kirchner is getting closer to the continent’s Castro-Chavistas — Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia. All those nations’ trade with Iran is rising, partly because of commercial interests, but a lot because of anti-US ideology.
With many markets closing to Argentina because of its inability to pay its debts, isolated Iran is an attractive trading partner. Since Kirchner took power in 2007, Argentina has nearly tripled its Iran trade, becoming Iran’s top foreign supplier of agricultural goods.
The leftist-populist Kirchner isn’t alone: Chavez and his anti-Yanqui axis also see Iran as an important ally.
And a valuable one. Last week, in a routine luggage search on Tahmasb Mazaheri, a former chief of Iran’s central bank, German officials at Dusseldorf International Airport found a $70 million check denominated in Venezuelan currency.
Officials in Tehran and Caracas “explained” that the funds were to pay for a Caracas deal with an Iranian construction company to build low-income housing in Venezuela. Even if that’s not a cover story for more nefarious dealings, the transaction likely violates international sanctions on Iran’s central bank.
Western intelligence agencies have been watching Venezuela’s dealings with Iran with increasing alarm. Iran and its allies (including Syrian President Bashar Assad) get gasoline from Venezuela, which in return buys Iranian know-how — perhaps in housing, but surely in arms and other sinister stuff.
Trade between Iran and Latin America rose to $3.6 billion in 2011. With the exception of Brazil, the largest trading partners (Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela) were largely motivated by anti-Americanism.
But the 1994 Buenos Aires bombing (and an Iranian-backed deadly attack on the Israeli embassy there two years earlier) has for years clouded those blossoming relationships. Argentinians, in particular, want to see justice for victims of South America’s largest terror attack.
So now, to remove that obstacle, Kirchner and Iran are forming a joint “truth commission.”
The US reaction has been near-nonexistent. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said merely that she’s “skeptical,” adding that Iran’s record “underlines the concern that its engagement on this matter be focused on achieving justice promptly.”
Sorry, “skepticism” and “concern” are pathetic responses when a killer is being drafted to run a joint investigation of a murder he’s known to have committed.
State has long turned a blind eye to anti-US radicalization in Latin America. That caution has yet to bear fruit,
But now President Obama’s policy is to isolate Iran internationally in order to soften its leaders’ resolve to build a bomb. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if the biggest hole in the global sanctions regime ends up being right here, in America’s backyard?
Worse yet, the mixed signals may continue: New Secretary of State John Kerry has long had a soft spot for the continent’s “reds.”
If Obama is serious about his Iran policy, he’s going to have to tell Kerry and the State Department that it’s time for a much harder line on Latin America’s populist regimes.