O pinion
Justice Denied in Argentina
BY BEN COHEN
THIS JULY, ARGENTINA’S
Jewish community will mark
the 25th anniversary of the
bombing of the AMIA Jewish
Center in Buenos Aires, in
which 85 people were mur-
dered and hundreds more
were seriously wounded. It is
promising to be a wretched and
depressing commemoration,
frankly, because there is no
reason to expect anything else.

On July 18, 1994, a Renault
utility truck packed with explo-
sives smashed into the AMIA
building in the busy downtown
area of the Argentine capital,
leaving a scene of carnage in its
wake. The bombing came two
years after a nearly identical
attack on the Israeli Embassy in
Buenos Aires, which killed 29
people. A generation later, none
of the AMIA suspects, the sub-
jects of Interpol “Red Notices”
since 2007, have been captured.

Indeed, the AMIA investi-
gation was exposed as a big-
ger source of political intrigue
and duplicity than even the
bombing itself. The first AMIA
investigation, set up under for-
mer Argentine President Carlos
Menem, collapsed after it was
exposed as a den of corruption.

The second investigation,
set up under former President
Nestor Kirchner in 2004,
became the domain of fear-
less federal prosecutor Alberto
Nisman. Nisman’s diligent work
resulted in Interpol releasing
those warrants for the senior
Iranian and Hezbollah opera-
tives responsible. But Nisman
was discovered murdered in
his apartment hours before he
was due to unveil a complaint
against then-President Cristina
Fernández de Kirchner (the
spouse of the now-deceased
Nestor) that detailed her gov-
ernment’s collusion in exoner-
ating the Iranian mullahs.

Cristina Kirchner, ousted
from office by current President
Mauricio Macri in 2015, is
widely suspected of involve-
ment in Nisman’s death.

Now that Kirchner has been
elected to Argentina’s Senate,
she can claim immunity from
prosecution. Of the six suspects, the five
Iranian officials among them
remain at large, while the one
Lebanese — Hezbollah’s sec-
ond-in-command, Imad
Mughniyeh — was killed by a
car bomb in Damascus in 2008.

Meanwhile, the other senior
Iranian officials implicated in
the AMIA bombing have never
been subjected to even a tap
on the shoulder. One of them,
former Iranian President Ali
Hashemi Rafsanjani, died two
years ago. Another, the former
foreign minister Ali Akbar
Velayati, still enjoys extensive
influence as a senior adviser to
the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Last month, in the first sig-
nificant AMIA-related event of
this 25th anniversary year, a
court in Buenos Aires acquit-
ted Menem of engaging in a
cover-up during the first AMIA
investigation. Prosecutors had been push-
Respect ing for Menem to serve at least
four years.

Accused of endorsing bribes
to officials that pushed the
AMIA investigation’s attention
away from the Iranians and onto
domestic “suspects,” Menem was
also named by a former senior
Iranian intelligence operative
as a “paid asset” of the Iranian
regime during his term in office.

But none of this was seriously
examined in court.

Some of the conspirators
beneath Menem did receive
prison sentences for their roles
in corrupting the first inves-
tigation. But the exoneration
of Menem brought a furious
response from Memoria Activa,
an Argentine-based advocacy
group. “His government knew
that the attack was going to
happen; not only did they not
prevent it, they ordered the
manipulation of the investiga-
tion so that the truth would not
come out.”
When Jewish leaders and for-
eign dignitaries fly into Buenos
Aires in July, they should call
the AMIA debacle what it is:
a travesty of justice and an
insult to victims of terrorism
everywhere. There is much to mourn
— most of all those who died
in the bombing, along with
Alberto Nisman. There is noth-
ing — nothing at all — to be
proud of. l
Continued from Page 16
Last week, the votes proceeded
nonetheless, as usual along
party lines, confirming both
men to serve on the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals.

Stras is 44. Miller is 43.

Murphy is 40. Readler is 46.

Frequently, dissenting senators
have based their disapprovals
on nominees’ inexperience
as well as ideology. But these
fortysomethings raise another
concern: Since all federal
judges are appointed for life-
time positions, they could be
on the bench for 40 years or
more, making decisions that
affect not only our lives, but
those of our children and
grandchildren. mainstream America. And
because they have not received
blue-slip approvals.

The National Council of
Jewish Women is the first and
most progressive Jewish wom-
en’s organization in the United
States, and we have always been
a leading voice for justice. We
know that the courts affect
every issue we care about, and
we speak out as concerned con-
stituents, asking our senators to
confirm only fair, independent
judges to these lifetime posi-
tions. We welcome those who
share our core values, no matter
your gender or faith, to join us
in advocating for integrity in
Congress and in the courts.

It’s time to demand that
senators respect the blue slip
process and that they seek
We must urge our legislators to exercise due
diligence in studying nominees’ records, and to
conduct civil, deliberative hearings.

While the Supreme Court
hears only about 80 cases a
year, the vast number of rul-
ings come out of the lower fed-
eral courts. It’s those district
courts that make decisions on
issues such as voting rights,
civil rights, separation of reli-
gion and state, environmental
protections, health care and
reproductive justice, and LGBT
rights. Meanwhile, the Senate
continues to vote on circuit
Ben Cohen is a New York City-based court nominees, a number of
them considered controversial
journalist and author who writes a
because they have expressed
weekly column on Jewish and
international affairs for JNS.

positions that are at odds with
nominees who can win biparti-
san approval. We must urge our
legislators to exercise due dil-
igence in studying nominees’
records, and to conduct civil,
deliberative hearings and calls
for votes. We deserve highly
qualified judges who pledge —
over the course of their lifetime
appointments — to rule with-
out bias or favoritism. That’s
how to define kavod. l
Eleanor Levie is the Judicial
Nominations Advocacy Chair and
Lynne Jacobs is the State Policy
Advocate for the National Council
of Jewish Women—PA.

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