Who Killed the Special Prosecutor?

Argentina is in uproar, and as a result, so is the world. A mere eight hours before Alberto Nisman, the chief federal prosecutor of Argentina who investigated the attack on the Jewish community building (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, was to take the stand before a special congressional investigative committee, he was found in his home, shot in the head. Nisman intended to present findings that would have embarrassed the most senior officials in the Argentine government by revealing their ties to the attack and their efforts to keep them concealed.

Alongside Nisman’s body was a gun that did not belong to him. Initial reports speculated that he had committed suicide, but those were quickly refuted. It is more likely, according to experts at the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Israel, that Nisman was murdered by any one of his enemies, local or foreign, due to his dogged opposition to government efforts in Argentina to whitewash Iran’s responsibility for both terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets that were carried out in the 1990s in Buenos Aires.

All this happened the same week that, according to accusations by Teheran and Hizbullah, Israel settled accounts with Jihad Moughniyeh, the son of Imad Moughniyeh, who planned and oversaw the attacks in Argentina. As a result, the Iranians are once again threatening to carry out attacks against Israelis and Jews around the world.

The brilliant prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, was invited last week to participate in a closed-door hearing at the Argentinian Congress to address the accusations Nisman was leveling at Argentinean President Christina Fernandze de Kirschner and foreign minister Hector Timerman for their efforts to reach an agreement with Iran that would remove any trace of Iran’s involvement in the terror attacks in exchange for diplomatic and economic advantages for Argentina.

Four days before he was found dead, Nisman published a comprehensive 300-page report based, among other things, on information from wiretaps, in which he detailed his accusations against the president and foreign minister. He claimed that close aides to the two created a secret channel of communication with Iran, whose objective was to draft a deal that would normalize relations between the two countries. As part of the deal, Argentina would rescind the international Interpol arrest warrants against senior Iranians. In exchange, Argentina wanted to receive financial benefits, which included importing oil from Iran in exchange for wheat exports.

Based on the findings in the report, Nisman asked the courts to summon the president and foreign minister for interrogation regarding the whitewashing of Iran’s role in the attacks and for impeding the investigation. He claims that these two charges are reflected in the agreement signed between Argentina and Iran in 2013.

So who murdered the prosecutor who took on the ruling powers in his country? Assumptions abound. Investigators found a secret door in Nisman’s home leading to an adjacent apartment, in which an Iranian lived — and he has disappeared. Was he connected to the incident? Perhaps it was someone more local? It is possible we may never know, but for Israel and the Jews, his murder is a great loss.

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the January 23rd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.