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This time, Iran doesn't get its way. From the Associated Press:
Interpol put an ex-Iranian intelligence chief, a former leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, three other Iranians and a Lebanese militant on its most-wanted list Wednesday for a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people at a Jewish center in Argentina.
The international coordinating agency announced the move after delegates at its general assembly sided with Argentine prosecutors and turned back a lobbying blitz by Iranian envoys trying to avoid having their country linked to Argentina's worst terrorist attack.
The dispute was steeped in geopolitical drama at a time of high tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's suspect nuclear program and American claims that Iran is supplying weapons to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan -- claims that the Islamic Republic denies.
While Iranian envoys accused Israel and the United States of trying to use Interpol to taint Iran's image, most delegates agreed the case was purely a police matter. The result was a vote of 76-14 to add the names, with 26 abstentions, delegates said after the closed-door session.
One can't help but wonder which countries cast "no" votes or abstained.
Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble said the decision "means that the basis for it is police and crime issues, and not any broader geopolitical issues."
The decision to issue Interpol "red notices" is the equivalent of putting the six men on its most-wanted list. The notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, but can put government leaders on the spot.
"A red notice chills travel -- limits travel -- and places the government in power at risk of explaining why a person for whom a red notice is issued is able to move freely," Noble said in an interview with The Associated Press.
No one has been brought to justice for the bombing at the Jewish community center in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires. A van packed with explosives exploded on July 18, 1994, leveling the seven-story building while killing 85 people and wounding 200.
It was the second bombing targeting Jews in Argentina during the 1990s. A March 1992 blast destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and killed 29 people in an attack that also was blamed on Hezbollah.
Several civilians and former police officers accused of aiding the Jewish center bombers were cleared in a trial three years ago.
Prosecutors contend the plot was hatched at a 1993 meeting in Mashad, Iran, and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah was entrusted with carrying it out. They say witness accounts, other testimony and telephone and travel documents prove the meeting occurred.
Iranian envoys said they have evidence showing such a meeting never took place.
The Iranians targeted are former intelligence chief Ali Fallahian; Mohsen Rabbani, former cultural attache at Iran's embassy in Buenos Aires; a former diplomat, Ahmad Reza Asghari; Mohsen Rezaei, former head of the Revolutionary Guards; and Ahmad Vahidi, a Revolutionary Guards general. Hezbollah militant Imad Moughnieh, one of the world's most sought terrorism suspects, also was named.
Posted by Marisol at November 8, 2007 1:04 AM
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...most delegates agreed the case was purely a police matter.
That's right, it's a police matter, nothing to do with world politics or religions, it's just crime.
Go get'em boys! Proud of you.
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at November 8, 2007 1:29 AM
Defector Ties Iran to 1994 Bombing of Argentine Jewish Center
Published: November 7, 2003
Testifying in a public setting for the first time, a defector from Iran's intelligence agency has accused a group of senior government officials in Tehran of having ''led, orchestrated and executed'' a bomb attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina that killed 85 people and wounded 200 almost a decade ago.
''A special committee under the direction'' of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader, ''made the decision to initiate an attack in Buenos Aires,'' the Iranian agent, Abdolghassem Mesbahi, told Argentine lawyers during eight hours of court testimony on Wednesday. Mr. Mesbahi, who is living in exile in Germany, was testifying in English via a video link to the Argentine Embassy in Berlin, according to Argentine broadcast and Internet news accounts from people who were inside the courtroom.
The death toll from the explosion of a powerful car bomb on July 18, 1994, outside the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association, known by the Spanish acronym AMIA, is the highest from an anti-Semitic incident anywhere since World War II. The attack came two years after 28 people died in a similar explosion outside the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that Mr. Mesbahi has said previously was also organized by Iran.
On three earlier occasions -- 1998, 2000 and 2002 -- Mr. Mesbahi made detailed depositions about the AMIA case to Argentine investigators. Based on his testimony and the leads he supplied to intelligence agencies, an Argentine judge in March issued arrest warrants for four Iranian government officials, though he shied away from a prosecutor's recommendation that more than a dozen others also be indicted, including Ayatollah Khamenei.
The only official on the list who has been detained is Hadi Soleimanpour, who was the Iranian ambassador to Argentina at the time of the bombing. He was taken into custody in England in August but was released on bond, though he remains in England while officials there consider Argentina's request that he be extradited to stand trial in Buenos Aires.
Even that limited action, however, has led to a major diplomatic rift. Iran has repeatedly and angrily denied any role in the terrorist attack, accusing Argentina of acting in concert with ''Zionist interests'' and warning the government there it would ''adopt appropriate measures'' if Argentina did not revoke the indictments. Iran has also threatened Britain with retaliation.
Nonetheless, Mr. Mesbahi described the Iranian ambassador as having been ''very, very involved'' in ''supporting all aspects of the operation'' in 1994. Mr. Soleimanpour is widely reported -- and Argentine intelligence has confirmed -- to have been one leader of the students who in 1979 kidnapped and held hostage a group of American diplomats, and later entered the Iranian diplomatic service.
In his testimony, Mr. Mesbahi also reiterated an earlier accusation that the former Argentine president, Carlos Saśl Menem, sent a secret emissary to Teheran to negotiate a $10 million bribe in return for shifting the focus of the Argentine investigation away from Iran. He described the emissary as bearded and middle-aged, but when shown pictures of several aides to Mr. Menem who fit that description, he said he did not recognize them.
Mr. Mesbahi said that the Iranian government was eager to reduce the scrutiny of its actions and approved the payment. But he said he could not personally confirm that the bribe was actually delivered.
Posted by: exsgtbrown at November 8, 2007 6:23 AM
Wanted, dead or alive.
Send out the poster.
A job for international bounty hunters (not pretenders like Dawg).
Pour encourager les autres.
Posted by: dgene at November 8, 2007 7:46 AM
It only took 13 years to decide these were bad guys and civilized countries should be on the lookout for them?
Wow.
Let's not rush to judgment, or anything...
Posted by: A_Nonny_Mouse at November 8, 2007 3:26 PM
Two names are missing from the list:
1) Ali Khamanei, the "Spiritual leader" of Iran;
2) Hashemi Rafsanjani, the then-president of Iran.
The former FBI director Louis Freeh, in his memoirs "My FBI" wrote that he had built an iron-clad case proving that the same two had personally ordered the Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 American GI's.
Coward Clinton covered it up and went to war on ... Serbia on terrorists' side.
Having gotten away with the Khobar Towers, Iran moved on against the Twin Towers. There is no doubt whatsoever that Iran played a key role in 9/11.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
Posted by: Enragedsince1999 at November 8, 2007 8:07 PM
Mr. Soleimanpour is widely reported -- and Argentine intelligence has confirmed -- to have been one leader of the students who in 1979 kidnapped and held hostage a group of American diplomats, and later entered the Iranian diplomatic service. "
....in 1979, let's see....hmmmm...American diplomats held hostage by Iranian "students"....I remember....
....well, technically, by the Iranian leadership led by the Ayatollah....you do remember the Iranian "government" did nothing to retake the Embassy from the "radical Students" during the entire 444 days that the "radical Students" held the hostages.....and Dhimmi Carter was very good at wringing his hands and worrying that the Muslims would kill Americans.....well, he was half right....most fools could see the Iranian leadership was behind the whole incident.....just as most fools can see the Iranians are behind a lot of the death and destruction in Iraq today....Many things should be immediately done....especially Banning Muslim Immigration...
at November 9, 2007 6:59 AM
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