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July 17,
2003
Orthodox Union Marks 11th
Anniversary of Argentinean Terror Bombings
Eleven years ago, the Israeli embassy in Buenos
Aires was struck by a terrorist bomb, killing twenty-nine people and
wounding dozens of Israelis and Argentineans, including Israeli diplomats
and staff, pupils in a nearby school, and passersby. Ten years ago, the
Argentine-Israelite Mutual Aid Association (AMIA), the Jewish community
headquarters building in Buenos Aires, was bombed and 85 Argentines were
murdered. Though all these years have passed, only slow progress has been
made in achieving justice for the victims while the terrorists who
committed these heinous crimes have not yet been brought to justice. We
sadly again honor the memory of the victims and share the pain of their
families and are outraged that terrorism continues to claim so many
innocent victims all over the world.
“The Orthodox Union strongly supports Congressional letters commending
Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner for his decision to open the
classified report by Argentina’s Secretary of State Intelligence on this
attack and to allow these officials to testify at the trial of 20 alleged
accomplices to this crime,” said Betty Ehrenberg, Director of
International and Communal Affairs of the OU’s Institute for Public
Affairs. “We believe that these files will show that the bombing of the
AMIA building as well as the Israeli Embassy in 1992 could not have
happened without the support of senior Iranian government officials and
Hezbollah. These Congressional letters will strengthen the U.S.-led war on
global terrorism and the efforts of the United States Congress to monitor
the trial and hold those who carry out acts of terrorism accountable for
their actions.
“The Orthodox Union applauds Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
and Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Senators Norman Coleman (R-MN) and Christopher
Dodd (D-CT) who are asking their colleagues to join them in signing these
letters to President Nestor Kirchner. These letters underscore the strong
stance that the United States Congress has taken against anti-Semitism
around the world as expressed in other recent Congressional resolutions.
They are important contributions in the efforts to bring to justice those
who are responsible for acts of terrorism and to prevent the recurrence of
such heinous crimes.
“In addition, the Orthodox Union commends Congressman Alcee Hastings of
Florida who is introducing a very strong resolution on this issue today in
the House (see below).
“The Orthodox Union calls upon the international community to follow the
lead of the United States Congress and to intensify the struggle against
terrorism and those states and organizations which support terrorism as a
means to achieve their political goals. It is crucial that the countries
of the world and all international organizations truly cooperate on all
levels in order to help fight this scourge that is threatening so many
parts of the world.”
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108TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. RES. __
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on _______________
RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 9th anniversary of
the attack on the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association (AMIA) in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, and highlighting the attack as characteristic of the
threat to the United States from radical Islamic organizations operating
from Latin America.
Whereas on July 18, 1994, 86 innocent people were killed and 300 were
wounded when the AMIA Jewish Community Center was bombed in Buenos Aires,
Argentina;
Whereas on March 17, 1992, terrorists bombed the Embassy of Israel in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 persons and injuring more than 200
others, and the Government of Argentina has not yet brought anyone to
justice for that act of terrorism;
Whereas the attacks against the Jewish community in Argentina show the
same cowardice that the United States saw on September 11, 2001;
Whereas failure to duly punish the culprits of these acts serves to reward
terrorists and help spread terrorism throughout the Western Hemisphere;
Whereas under President Nestor Kirchner’s order, 14 current and former
members of the intelligence agency will be relieved of their
responsibility to retain ‘‘State secrecy’’ in the case, and will be free
to testify on the ongoing criminal trial for the first time;
Whereas substantial evidence attributes the attack on July 18, 1994, to
the terrorist group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon and sponsored by Iran;
Whereas the Argentine judge hearing the AMIA case has issued international
arrest warrants for five Iranian government officials believed to have
been involved in planning or carrying out the attack against the AMIA;
Whereas those indicted include Imad
Mugniyeh, who works for Iran’s Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS)
and lives in Iran; Mohsen Rabbani, a cultural attaché at the Iranian
Embassy in Argentina; Barat Ali Balesh-Abadi, an Iranian Diplomat; Ali
Akbar Parvaresh, a former education minister; and Ali Fallahian, the
former MOIS minister;
Whereas Iranian defector Abdolghassem Mesbahi, once a high-ranking Iranian
intelligence official, has allegedly said that senior Iranian government
officials, including Ayatollah Khamenei and then-president Hashemi
Rafsanjani, personally ordered, organized and financed the attack on the
AMIA;
Whereas evidence indicates that the tri-border region where Argentina,
Paraguay, and Brazil meet was used to channel resources for the purpose of
carrying out the AMIA attack by terrorists linked with Iran;
Whereas according to the 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism, the tri-border
region has long been depicted as a regional nucleus for fundraising
activities, arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and
currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of
pirated goods by terrorists linked with Iran;
Whereas the State Department’s Report Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001
identifies Lebanese-based terrorist organization
Hezbollah, as well as other terrorist groups, in the tri-border area of
Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, ‘‘where terrorists raise millions of
dollars annually via criminal enterprises.’’;
Whereas such report states that ‘‘[t]here is evidence of the presence of
Hezbollah members or sympathizers in other areas of Latin America as well:
In northern Chile, especially around Iquique; in Maicao, Colombia, near
the border with Venezuela; on Margarita Island in Venezuela; and in
Panama’s Colon Free Trade Zone’’;
Whereas agents from Argentina’s intelligence agency have reported to the
United States that operatives from al-Qaeda were based in the Tri-Border
region, and the agents noted that suspected terrorists had passed through
the area, among them was a member of Gammaa al-Islamiya, a terrorist cell
tied to al-Qaeda;
Whereas United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testified
on September 19, 2002, before a joint hearing on Iraq of the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the
Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate that Hezbollah now has a
capacity similar to al-Qaida to attack the United States and that
Hezbollah is present in South America;
Whereas the State Department’s annual
report, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 notes that while Latin America
has not been the focal point in the war on terrorism, countries in the
region have struggled with domestic terrorism for decades and
international terrorist groups have at times used the region as a
battleground to advance their causes;
Whereas police in Asuncion, Paraguay, have arrested a relative of Assad
Barakat, the Chief of Hezbollah in South America, with almost five pounds
of cocaine hidden in an electric piano that he allegedly intended to
smuggle into Syria;
Whereas the Department of State includes Cuba in its list of seven states
sponsoring terrorism;
Whereas Cuba maintains close relations with countries that sponsor
terrorism and has given safe haven to members of European terrorist
groups;
Whereas the Caribbean is a strategic paradise for terrorist organizations,
given its established web for drugs, arms contraband, and money
laundering;
Whereas terrorist organizations may be involved in money laundering as a
means of hiding their financial assets and in light of that information,
as of June 2003, several nations in the region -Guatemala, St. Vincent,
and the Grenadines - were identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
as non-cooperative countries in the fight against money laundering;
Whereas the Western Hemisphere, from Canada to Tierra del Fuego, is ideal
for international terrorist groups to establish bases due to the ill
equipped and poorly trained security agencies across the region;
Whereas according to the Department of State’s March 2003 International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 14 nations in South America and the
Caribbean are jurisdictions of primary concern to the United States
because of their vulnerability to money laundering, while many nations in
the region are characterized as jurisdiction, of concern;
Whereas the fight against terrorism must remain a top priority. Nowhere is
this more true than in America’s back yard;
Whereas according to Mr. Miguel Toma, who directs the Argentine equivalent
to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), ‘‘there is a direct correlation
between terrorism here [in South America] and the United States;’’
Whereas Mr. Toma has met with United States intelligence officials to
discuss the possibility of a new terrorist offensive launched from South
America;
Whereas al-Qaeda’s desire to bring the battle to the United States would
make the proximity of Latin America all the more appealing;
Whereas cooperation between the United
States and Latin America is indispensable for success in the war on
terrorism;
Whereas it is in the best interest of the region to live up to the
Declaration by the Organization of American States on September 21, 2001,
‘‘Individually and collectively, we will deny terrorist groups the
capacity to operate in this Hemisphere. This American family stands
United;’’; and
Whereas it is the long standing policy of the United States to stand firm
against terrorist attacks wherever and whenever they occur and to work
with its allies to ensure that justice is done: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) reiterates its condemnation of the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community
Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina on July 18, 1994, and honors the victims
of this heinous act;
(2) strongly urges the Government of
Argentina to further fulfill its international obligations and its promise
to the Argentine people by pursuing the local and international
connections to this act of terrorism, wherever it may lead, and to
properly punish all those who are involved;
(3) welcomes Argentine President Nestor
Kirchner’s political will to pursues the investigation of the bombing of
the AMIA Jewish Community Center to its ultimate conclusions;
(4) calls on the President of the
United States to raise this issue in bilateral discussions with Argentine
officials and to underscore the United States concern regarding the past
delay in the resolution of this case;
(5) recommends that the President of
the United States create more mechanisms for intra-regional information
sharing and, where needed, joint counter-terrorism operations;
(6) strongly encourages the President
of the United States to provide governments in the Western Hemisphere with
the much needed financial resources as well as equipment and training for
intelligence and security forces;
(7) encourages the President of the
United States to live up to his commitment vis-à-vis the Western
Hemisphere to ‘‘direct every resource at our command-every means of
diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law
enforcement; every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of
war-to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network’’;
(8) recommends that the United States
Representative to the Organization of American States seek support from
the countries comprising the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism to
assist, if needed, in the investigation of this terrorist attack;
(9) recommends that the President of
the United States take the AMIA case to the United Nations to demand
international sanctions on Iran;
(10) desires a lasting, warm relationship between the United States and
Argentina built on mutual abhorrence of terrorism and commitments to
peace, stability, and democracy in the Western Hemisphere;
(11) calls on all governments in the Western Hemisphere to pursue an
anti-terrorism campaign based on unity of purpose, dedication of
resources, constant vigilance, and cooperation;
(12) calls on the Islamic Republic of
Iran to favorably respond to the Argentinean arrest warrant for five
Iranian citizens believed to be responsible for the 1994 attack on the
AMIA; and
(13) calls on the Islamic Republic of
Iran to cease any and all assistance to terrorist organizations, and to
renounce to any and all involvement with terrorism.
SEC. 2. The Secretary of the House of
Representatives shall transmit a copy of this resolution to the President,
the United States Senate, the United States Permanent Representative to
the United Nations, and the United States Permanent Representative to the
Organization of American States.
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