Last week, Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his bathroom with a single bullet lodged in his brain. He died hours before he was set to testify against the government, accusing President Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner and her administration of striking a deal with Iran to cover up a terrorist attack that occurred in Buenos Aires in 1994. As a prosecutor, Nisman had been preparing the case for years, trying to get justice for the 85 Argentines killed at AMIA, a Jewish community center. Kirchner, he charged, shielded Iranian officials from prosecution in the case, even though ample evidence pointed to their lackeys, Hezbollah, as well as members of the current Islamic Republic of Iran. In exchange, he alleged, Kirchner’s government would secure oil contracts for Argentina’s energy-poor economy.
Nisman’s dead reads like a spy-novel plot. Did the President order a hit on him? Did he commit suicide, or was he somehow forced to? Details of the plot are emerging daily. His assassin, if there is one, may have escaped undetected via a secret passageway. Many of the early facts reported in the case turned out to be false, and continue to change every day. The questions, however, have largely remained the same. Here are the topics that the Latin Times continues to follow as the details come out.
Who Bombed the Jewish Community Center in 1994?
In 1994, a car bomb attack outside of the AMIA community center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people, and wounded scores of others. The tragedy followed an attack on the Israeli Embassy in the same city just two years earlier. In subsequent days and weeks, major terrorist attacks killed Jewish and other civilians in Panama and the U.K. Israeli and other organizations have long blamed Iran for the attacks. (Israel's intelligence services may have carried out revenge assasinations against suspects in the case). Alberto Nisman’s report implicated Cristina Kirchner's government in a cover-up deal that would shield Iranian officials from prosecution in exchange for increased trade and oil contracts.
Syria is another suspect. In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, a representative of AMIA victim’s families details another government cover-up, this one to protect the Syrians, who had a strong relationship with then-president Carlos Menem.
[Menem] found it politically convenient to look away from Syria, and he did all he could to prevent the Syrian angle from being investigated, due to his previous relationship with the Assad government and his unfulfilled promises to Syria of diplomatic support and cooperation on nuclear and missile technology.
Did The Argentine Prosecutor Commit Suicide?
Nisman’s borrowed .22 caliber handgun was found near him, with a single shell casing. The nation’s President and Security Secretary both made statements calling the death a suicide. But Nisman didn’t leave a note, and he had way too many plans: he was due to testify for an important case that evening, and had just scheduled an interview for the weekend. Lastly, he had told close associates that he feared for his life, apparently the reason why he had borrowed the .22 pistol in the first place.
Officially, Nisman’s death was labeled not as suicide or murder, but as “suspicious,” without evidence of a struggle or the body being moved. However, the prosecutors did not rule out a forced suicide. As noted above, there’s evidence that someone entered and exited Nisman’s compound around the time that he died.
Update: a top prosecutor has ruled Nisman's death a homicide, saying that the evidence against the suicide theory is "indisputable."
Did Argentina’s President Order An Assassination?
We don’t know who killed Nisman, and his enemies ranged from Iranian officials to the President of Argentina herself. Here’s what we do know: he claimed that he feared his government guards. They broke protocol on the day he died, not keeping in contact with him and failing to report to their superiors. The reporter who broke the news about Nisman’s death was reportedly tailed by the Argentina's equivalent of the CIA, the Secretariat of Intelligence (SI). Fearing for his life, he fled the country. With executive branch indicated in the murder, suspicion pointed to the President.
"Cristina does not have to give a specific order," said a source formerly employed by the SI. "Her people compete to satisfy her perceived wishes.” For now, President Kirchner actively denies any involvement. In the wake of the scandal, she announced a dissolution of the SI, and a complete overhaul of the nation’s intelligence gathering. If passed, her forthcoming bill would ban phone tapping, and prevent security officials from speaking with government officials outside of formal, documented channels. Part of her rationale is that the Intelligence Secretariat hasn’t changed much since the military dictatorship of the 70’s and 80’s, the same government that was prosecuting Jews (see below).
Is The Argentine Government Anti-Semitic?
In the wake of Nisman’s death, Jewish groups boycotted a government Holocaust commemorations. The Argentine Jewish community is sensitive to a history of anti-semitism in the country. After WWII, the SI helped "rescue" Nazi’s from Europe, making Argentina a haven for Nazi fleeing indictments for war crimes. Nazi ideologues also made it into the government junta in the 70s and 80s. They directed the detention and torture of Jews, sometimes under suspicion of leading an imagined plot to create a Jewish state in Patagonia.
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