AP: (Alberto) Gonzales Tours Argentine Jewish Center

[Eugene]

Gonzales Tours Argentine Jewish Center

By BILL CORMIER
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 8, 2007; 2:12 AM

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday
toured a Jewish cultural center bombed in 1994 and said the United States supports
Argentina's efforts to seek justice for its worst terrorist attack.

Eight Iranians are wanted in Argentina in connection with the bombing, including the
president, foreign minister and intelligence chief at the time.

"Civilized nations cannot easily forget the pain that we share when terrorist attacks
occur," Gonzales said after laying flowers and meeting with Jewish leaders and relatives
of victims of the attack. "Whether 1994 in Argentina, 2001 in the United States or 2004
in Spain, these moments bind us together in our grief."

-snip-

"The Gonzales trip is clearly related to an effort to pressure Iran," Roett said. Although,
he said, "There's not much the U.S. can really do, given the fact that the Iranians are
in Iran and will not be extradited by the authorities."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020800066.html

[aquart]

1. I am not bound with Gonzales in anything.

And I'm damn sure he does not share my grief.

[donsu]

2. I think Gonzales is in Argentina for more then laying flowers

you know the neo cons are scheming to bring down the leftward movement in south and central america.

whatever he is doing is surely criminal.

[Judi Lynn]

3. What a shame this "man" is representing us anywhere. I agree with

the poster who suspects he is there to undermine Argentina's elected government.

The ultra-brutal, murderous rule of the right-wing military junta in Argentina which was bolstered and encouraged by Henry Kissinger is not that far in our past.

The current Argentinian President, Nestor Kirchner was imprisoned and tortured by the same group. I hope the right-wing NEVER gets its hooks in Latin America again. They've lived through hell at the hands of the right-wing already, militarily, and economically.

Argentina lost 30,000 people who were tortured, murdered, many who vanished into thin air, and many who were THROWN from airplanes, drugged, and naked into thin air, over the ocean.

There's an entire segment of Argentinian children who were in utero when their mothers were taken as prisoners, suspected as "leftists" opposition members, kept until they delivered their babies, then murdered, and their offspring handed out to officers and their wives like party favors. Their grandmothers protest continually in the streets, trying to bring enough pressure to bear that the government tracks down every child, so their relatives can finally rest about what happened to them.



Argentina's great soccer star, Diego Maradona

[Mika]

4. But yet, the US harbors terrorists like Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch.

Both are perpetrators of the Cuban airliner w/73 on board being bombed mid-air, as well as various acts of terror like bombing hotels, shooting RPGs at a ship in Miami, and more.

[struggle4progress]

5. Argentina originally aimed at military suspects, but tried and acquitted various ...

policeman; this was followed by an exciting trial in which a former President was accused of bribing the judge (Galeano); next, nearly after a decade after the bombing, the judge (based on "new military intelligence") accused the Iranians, following which the judge was impeached. Summary: It's Alberto's cup-a-tea!

The Far-flung Jewish world
By Joe Goldman | Published 07/6/2006 | World News |
Probe looks at AMIA cover-up

BUENOS AIRES – As the 12th anniversary nears of the July 18, 1994, bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s Jewish community is calling for a full investigation of former President Carlos Menem and his interior minister, Carlos Corach, for allegedly preventing an impartial investigation into the attack.

... A brief submitted late last month by Menem’s former intelligence chief, Hugo Anzorreguy, directly implicated Menem in a $400,000 payoff apparently made by Judge Juan Jose Galeano to one of the key witnesses to alter his testimony and finger Buenos Aires police officials in the bombing.

The three-year trial — conducted by a three-judge body — of those police officials ended in 2003 with across-the-board acquittals. The final verdict also called for a full investigation of Galeano, two of his prosecutors, three top intelligence officials, the top Jewish community leader, and the witness who received the payment. Galeano was impeached from the bench last year ...

http://www.jstandard.com/authors/172/Goldman,-Joe

8th Argentine Arrested In Jewish Center Bombing (NYT / 4 Dec 95)
AP
Published: December 4, 1995

An eighth army officer was arrested today in connection with the car bombing last year of a Jewish cultural center, the main prosecutor in the case said ...

On Friday, the police arrested seven active army officers, three retired army officers and three civilians. Weapons and explosives were found in the homes of some of the soldiers, who are suspected of selling explosives to the bombers ...

The car bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association in downtown Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994 killed 95 people and injured 200.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E3DB1E39F937A35751C1A963958260

Iran denies Argentina blast role
Last Updated: Sunday, 9 March, 2003, 14:40 GMT

... <Iran's> foreign ministry said it would seek talks with Argentina in coming days after a judge there asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian officials accused of involvement in the attack ...

<Judge Juan Jose Galeano> based his ruling on a new report by the Argentine intelligence services which has yet to be made public ...

The explosives used in the blast were reportedly brought from this tri-border area - frequently alleged to be the scene for fundraising for Islamic militants ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2832169.stm