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Justice Denied?

Prosecutor in Argentinian JCC slaughter found dead.

David Horovitz
Times
of Israel
I

n Aug. 14, 1993, in Mashad,
Iran's second-largest city,
the Iranian leadership's
"Committee for Special Operations" or
"Omure Vijeh Committee:' convened
to discuss its ongoing problems with
Argentina — and specifically the flam-
boyant president, Carlos Menem.
Reorienting Argentina's policy, mov-
ing his country closer to the West and
to Israel, the Syrian-born Menem had
severed the hitherto fruitful partner-
ship between Buenos Aires and Tehran
on all matters nuclear, first suspend-
ing and then terminating the train-
ing of Iranian nuclear technicians in
Argentina and the transfer of nuclear
technology to Iran.
Iran had brutally shown its fury
at Menem's betrayal in 1992, when it
organized the bombing of the Israeli
Embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29
people were killed. The August 1993
meeting determined that a further
terrorist assault on Menem's country
was necessary. A Buenos Aires-based
Iranian "diplomat:' Mohsen Rabbani,
had flown in for the meeting with a list
of three potential targets. AMIA, the
multi-story Jewish community center
office building, was the first of the three
to be discussed, and it was approved.
A 2006 indictment in the case names
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei as the head of the council,
and says the final decision to attack the
AMIA center was made by Khamenei
and then-president Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani.
Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah ter-
ror chief routinely charged with plan-
ning such atrocities, was subsequently
flown from Lebanon to Iran and given
instructions to coordinate the bombing.
A Hezbollah activist named Ibrahim
Berro — the fourth of five siblings of
a Lebanese family with a long involve-
ment in violence against Israel — was
selected as the suicide bomber. And
on July 18, 1994, Berro drove a white
Renault Trafic van filled with explosives
into the AMIA building, destroying it.
The entire seven-story structure col-
lapsed, 85 people were killed and hun-
dreds more were wounded. Mughniyeh,
who had directly overseen the prepara-
tions, was in Buenos Aires until days
before the bombing.
We know all of this because of the
indefatigable investigative work of

0

The aftermath of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

one man, Alberto
Nisman, who 10
years ago took over
the investigation of
the bombing. It was
Nisman who traced
the evidence, in what
remains the worst-
Alberto
ever terrorist attack in
Nisman
Argentina, all the way
back to that meeting
of the Iranian leadership in Mashad.
So definitive and persuasive were
Nisman's conclusions that Interpol
placed the key Iranian conspirators,
along with Imad Mughniyeh, on its
international watch list, requiring
member countries to assist in their
arrests and extradition. Among those
on the Interpol "red notice" list are
Iran's former defense minister Ahmad
Vahidi and failed presidential candidate
Mohsen Rezai.
Resolute and single-minded, Nisman
also sought to bring Menem to justice
for covering up Iran's role in the AMIA
bombing. This reporter interviewed the
then-president in Buenos Aires days
after the AMIA bombing, and while he
vowed to follow the evidence wherever
it led, he also said he feared his own life
was now in danger.
The investigation Menem ordered
was branded "a national disgrace" by
subsequent president Nestor Kirchner,
under whose watch Nisman was
appointed.
Last week, Nisman, 51, alleged
that the current Argentinian presi-
dent, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
(Nestor's widow), and her Foreign
Minister Hector Timerman, had
worked to cover up Iran's involvement
in the attack. He said he sought to ques-
tion her over the scandal.
On his first visit to Israel seven years

ago, Nisman, a non-observant Jew, told
me that he had been warned off the
AMIA case by Iran, and that he had
received death threats, including one
that he found recorded on his home
answering machine that was particu-
larly troubling because his daughter
was standing next to him when he
played it. In one of several subsequent
telephone conversations, he said the
Iranians had told him — during hear-
ings at which they sought in vain to
have their incriminated leaders cleared
by Interpol — that he had slandered
their nation, that his capture would be
sought and that he would spend years
in Iran's jails.
As I wrote at the time, Nisman did
not appear particularly fazed by the
threats, saying lightly that he had no
plans to visit the Islamic Republic. He
also swore that he would not cease his
work on the case until the perpetrators
and orchestrators had been tried, con-
victed and jailed.
Alberto Nisman was found dead on
Sunday in a pool of blood, with a gun-
shot wound to his head, in his home
in Buenos Aires. It was hours after the
death of Imad Mughniyeh's son Jihad,
who had followed his father's bloody
footsteps, in an Israeli strike on the
Syrian side of the Golan Heights. And it
was hours before Nisman had been set
to speak to a congressional panel about
his latest allegations against President
Kirchner.
Hearing the news on Monday morn-
ing, I could not help but recall what
Nisman told me in a June 2013 tele-
phone conversation: Tehran had estab-
lished its terror networks for the strate-
gic long term, he said, ready to be used
"whenever it needs them:' In that same

DOROTHY
CHAIKEN, 99, of
West Bloomfield,
died Jan. 15, 2015.
She is survived
by her sons and
daughters-in-law,
Ronald (the late
Chaiken
Fran) Chaiken,
c. 1965
Kenneth and
Maggie Chaiken,
Dennis and Julie Chaiken; daughter,
Cynthia Chaiken; grandchildren,
Robin Chaiken, Ryan Chaiken,
Shanon Chaiken, Devon Chaiken,
Dana (Scot) Corson, Derek (Kelly)
Chaiken, Bradley (Jennifer)
Chaiken; great-grandchildren,
Jacob, Jolie, Jayna, Alexis, Morgan,
Ryan, Angel, Norah and Benjamin;
sister and brother-in-law, Florence
(Jack) Posar, Dr. Donald (Marion)
Golden; many loving nieces, neph-
ews, other family members and
friends.
Mrs. Chaiken was the beloved
wife of the late Irving Chaiken;
sister-in-law of the late Norma
Golden; dearest daughter of the
late Philip and the late Ethel
Golden; grandmother of the late
Sheri Chaiken and the late Lorne
Chaiken.
Interment was held at the Adat
Shalom Memorial Park Cemetery
in Livonia. Contributions may be
made to JARC or to the Women's
League for Conservative Judaism.
Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.

LAWRENCE
EDWARD DAVIS,
of Los Angeles,
Calif., died Jan, 8,
2015.
He was the
owner, publisher
Davis
and editor-in-chief
of Splash Magazines
worldwide.
Mr. Davis is survived by his sis-
ters and brothers-in-law, Barbara
and Leon Keer of Illinois, and
Marcia and Larry Ferstenfeld of
Southfield; seven nieces and neph-
ews; 17 great-nieces and great-
nephews; a great-grandniece and
great-grandnephew; many cousins;
an aunt and uncle.
He was the devoted son of the
late Herman and the late Ruth
Davis.
Contributions may be made to
www.ovarian.org or MARL at www.
michigananimalrescueleague.org .
This announcement was placed
at the request of the family by Ira
Kaufman Chapel.

Justice Denied on page 54

Obituaries on page 50

48 January 22 • 2015

Obituaries