Argentine Phone Calls Detail Efforts to Shield Iran

New York Times ^ | JAN. 21, 2015 | JONATHAN GILBERT and SIMON ROMERO

[Mount Athos]

Intercepted conversations between representatives of the Iranian and Argentine governments point to a long pattern of secret negotiations to reach a deal in which Argentina would receive oil in exchange for shielding Iranian officials from charges that they orchestrated the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994.

The transcripts were made public by an Argentine judge on Tuesday night, as part of a 289-page criminal complaint written by Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the attack. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his luxury apartment on Sunday, the night before he was to present his findings to Congress.

In one transcript from 2013, an Argentine union leader and influential supporter of Mrs. Kirchner said he was acting on the orders of the “boss woman,” adding that the government was open to sending a team from the national oil company to advance the negotiations.

Another intercept shows negotiators talking about ways to place blame for the bombing on right-wing groups and activists.

Yet another transcript includes a discussion about swapping not just Argentine grains, but weapons as well, for Iranian oil.

Mr. Nisman asserted for years that Iran had helped plan and finance the bombing, and that its Lebanese ally, the militant group Hezbollah, had carried it out. His body was found at his apartment on Sunday with a gunshot wound to his head in a murky episode that government officials have called a suicide. An investigation by a prosecutor is underway.

Some experts, including a former American F.B.I. agent who helped the Argentines in their investigation, have questioned the claims of direct Iranian involvement in the bombing.

[piasa]

Allan akbar!

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Obama wanted Argentina to provide nuke fuel to Iran, Argentine president discloses Christian Today ^ | 02 October 2015 | Andre Mitchell Posted on ‎10‎/‎5‎/‎2015‎ ‎6‎:‎24‎:‎45‎ ‎PM by Olog-hai US President Barack Obama continues to receive heavy flak for defending the nuclear deal he initiated with Iran, and then enlisting the support of his allies in the Senate to prevent rival Republican leaders from blocking its implementation. Now, Obama will likely face more criticism after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner revealed in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Monday that a former Obama administration official tried to convince Argentina to provide nuclear fuel to Iran sometime in 2010. In her remarks witnessed by world leaders, Kirchner recalled how Gary Samore, who once worked as the White House’s top advisor on nuclear issues, visited Argentina in 2010. … (Excerpt) Read more at christiantoday.com ...

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Speaking of Kirchner

Kirchner Charged in Central-Bank Case
WSJ ^
A federal judge in Argentina on Friday indicted former President Cristina Kirchner and more than a dozen others in a case involving allegations that late in her term Argentina’s central bank illegally traded derivatives, costing the country billions of dollars.