1/20/2015 @ 11:00AM 7.494 views
Death, Spies, And Terror: Argentine Prosecutor Nisman Found Dead After Accusing President Kirchner Of 'Secret Pact' With Iran
Hours before he was set to face Congress to explain why he had filed a criminal complaint against Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, and others regarding the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead in 1994, Prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead inside his locked apartment. The cause of death, according to government authorities, was a single bullet wound to the head, presumably self-inflicted.
Within hours tens of thousands flocked to the streets of Buenos Aires and every other major Argentine city, marching for justice and the end of impunity in a case that has extended for over two decades. Nisman, who had accused top Iranian authorities of orchestrating the brutal terrorist attacks—two years before AMIA, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed, leaving another 29 victims—and counted with a 10-person personal police protection team, was regarded by many as the latest victim of a criminal attack that remains unresolved.
The story goes back more than 20 years and includes all of the typical components of a Hollywood spy thriller: from internal struggles between different groups within Argentina's intelligence services, a nuclear technology deal involving Iran and maybe even Syria that went sour, and the allegation that Argentina's acting president was part of a "secret pact" to cover up terrorist attacks in exchange for a geopolitical and commercial relationship with the perpetrators. Nisman, who claimed to have wide-ranging evidence including wiretaps proving Kirchner's involvement, was the key to the puzzle and many in Argentina are very skeptical of his apparent suicide.
Thousands marched through Plaza de Mayo, in downtown Buenos Aires, to protest on Monday
The situation remains fluid. Nisman was found dead in the early hours of Monday after his security attache reported he hadn't been answering phone calls. He was found dead in his bathroom after a locksmith picked the lock to his apartment in the affluent Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero; a reporter for dailyClarin claims to have exchanged WhatsApp messages with Nisman Saturday afternoon, while the vice-president of Jewish organization DAIA received this picture of Nisman's desk as the Prosecutor told him he was hard at work preparing for his Congressional testimony. His body was laying in his bathroom floor, with a .22 caliber handgun and a single bullet casing next to him; the gun, investigators indicated, had been given to him by a close associate, Nisman had at least one weapon registered under his name. Almost immediately, Security Secretary Sergio Berni told the press all evidence led to the presumption of suicide; on Tuesday, initial tests for gunpowder in his handscame out negative. Hours later, President Kirchner herself cast doubt in a public later published on Facebook which read "The case of the 'suicide?' of AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman has left us in stupor and questions unanswered, there's a story here that's gone on for too long, it's too heavy, too hard, and overall too sordid. It's a tragedy regarding the largest terrorist attack in Argentina."
Last week, Nisman shocked the world filing a criminal complaint against Kirchner and Timerman, along with associates including Congressman Andres Larroque, political foot solider and well-known anti-semite Luis D'Elia, Iranian-Argentine community leader Jorge "Yussuf" Khali, and Fernando Esteche, head of Marxist group Quebracho also known for its protests against Israel. They were accused of setting up a "parallel diplomacy" to sign a "secret pact" with Iranian authorities, pinpointed as the intellectual and operational perpetrators of the attacks, that would render Tehran innocent and lead to the exchange of grains for oil, and even an arms deal, that would help ameliorate Buenos Aires' intensifying energy crisis and lack of hard currency. In 2006, Nisman had formally accused Tehran and Hezbollah of planning and executing the attacks, getting Interpol to issue Red Notices for five Iranian nationals including former head of intelligence Ali Fallahijan, ex-Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezai, and Hezbollah boss Imad Mugniyah.
People close to Nisman report he appeared extremely confident over the past few days, claims backed by the intense media appearances he gave over the past few days to explain his accusations. On a major news network last week, Nisman stood by his convictions, revealing he's received constant death threats for years but he felt it was his to duty to come forward with his investigation. "I could come out of this one dead," he told one reporter, "regardless of whether Nisman is here or not, the evidence is there," Nisman said to another.
Nisman decided to cut his vacations short last week, returning to Buenos Aires from Spain where he was with his daughter to present a criminal complaint of more than 300 pages directly to Federal Judge Ariel Lijo. In building his case, Nisman claims to have worked for over two years, using extensive wiretaps provided to him by ranking members of Argentina's intelligence services, which, along with other evidence, proved that Kirchner instructed Foreign Minister Timerman and other members of the intelligence services to negotiate with Tehran, which would ultimately sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Buenos Aires in early 2013 that sought to create a "truth commission" to resolve the case. Timerman and other political operatives of the President dealt directly with Mohsen Rabbani, seen as the mastermind behind the attacks, to get Interpol to drop the outstanding arrest warrants. They were looking to "fabricate a new perpetrator" tied to unidentified ultra right-wing groups, "sacrificing justice in the AMIA case to quench commercial, political, and geopolitical interests of both countries, but fundamentally of Argentina."
It remains unclear why Argentina suffered the twin attacks against the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and AMIA, a Jewish community center, two years later. Onehypothesis raised by Argentine prosecutors has to do with a failed nuclear technology transfer agreement between Argentina and Iran, another one included nuclear technology and the Condor missile program developed by Buenos Aires. What is crystal clear, though, is Nisman's conviction that Kirchner was behind a plan to plant evidence that would clear Tehran of any wrongdoing and jumpstart relations between both countries.
Adding one more layer of complexity to the whole ordeal is the involvement of Argentina's infamous intelligence services. Jaime Stiusso, a former spy, was working closely with Nisman on the AMIA case. Stiusso is Argentina's former chief spy, and part of a power struggle within the intelligence services caused by a rift that in 2013 left one of his men dead at the hands of an elite anti-drug unit of Buenos Aires' Provincial Police Department.
At the end of the day, Nisman's death adds another terrifying twist to a long story of murder, corruption, terrorism, and impunity. Beyond the families of the victims of the brutal terrorist attacks on 1992 and 1994, now it will also be Nisman's family that will have to carry the burden of injustice amid every-decreasing transparency. Along with millions or Argentines, who Monday night hit the streets looking for an explanation they don't expect to get, as they target their ire against President Kirchner in an environment of escalating inflation, crime, and recession
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