[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 126 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. CON. RES. 126
Condemning the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, and expressing the concern of the
United States regarding the continuing, decade-long delay in the
resolution of this case.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 15, 2004
Mr. Coleman (for himself, Mr. Levin, and Mr. Dodd) submitted the
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Condemning the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, in July 1994, and expressing the concern of the
United States regarding the continuing, decade-long delay in the
resolution of this case.
Whereas on July 18, 1994, 85 innocent people were killed and 300 were wounded
when the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (referred to in this
resolution as the ``AMIA'') was bombed in Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Whereas that attack showed the same cowardice and utter disregard for human life
as the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001;
Whereas the United States welcomes Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's
political will to pursue the investigation of the AMIA bombing, as
demonstrated by his Executive order opening the archives of Argentina's
Secretariat for State Intelligence (referred to in this resolution as
``SIDE'') and by his decisions to raise the AMIA cause to national
status, and to emphasize that there is no statute of limitations for
those responsible for this attack;
Whereas it is reported that considerable evidence links the attack to the
terrorist group Hizballah, which is based in Lebanon, supported by the
Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, and sponsored by the Government
of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
Whereas the decade since the bombing has been marked by efforts to minimize the
international connection to this terrorist attack;
Whereas in March 2003, an Argentine judge issued arrest warrants for 4 officials
of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran who are believed to
have been involved in planning or carrying out the attack against AMIA
and requested that the International Criminal Police Organization
apprehend them;
Whereas the 4 indicted Iranians are Ali Fallahian, a former minister of security
and intelligence; Mohsen Rabbani, a former cultural attache at the
Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires; Ali Balesh-Abadi, an Iranian diplomat;
and Ali Akbar Parvaresh, a former minister of education;
Whereas Hadi Soleimanpour, Iran's Ambassador to Argentina in the 1990s, also has
an international arrest warrant pending against him by Argentine
authorities for his suspected primary role in the AMIA bombing;
Whereas it is reported that suicide bomber Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a Lebanese
citizen, carried out the attack on AMIA;
Whereas it has been reported that contact was made by the Iranian embassy in
Buenos Aires to Ibrahim Hussein Berro, who lived in a mosque in
Canuelas, Argentina, in the days before the AMIA bombing;
Whereas Argentine officials have acknowledged that there was negligence in the
initial phases of the investigation into the 1994 bombing, including the
destruction or disappearance of material evidence;
Whereas the first major criminal trial regarding the bombing did not begin until
September 2001, and those who are currently on trial are former
policemen and civilians who are accused of playing roles only in the
procurement and delivery of the vehicle that was used in the bombing;
Whereas the judge who had presided since 2001 over the investigation and trial
related to the AMIA bombing was removed in December 2003 due to charges
that he bribed a key witness in the AMIA case;
Whereas the new trial judge, Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, deals with many other
important cases and has few supporting staff;
Whereas on March 17, 1992, terrorists bombed the Embassy of Israel in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people and injuring more than 200, and the
perpetrators of the attack also remain at large;
Whereas an inability to extradite suspected Islamic militants and Iranian
officials has debilitated the efforts of the Government of Argentina to
prosecute masterminds and planners of the 1994 AMIA bombing;
Whereas evidence indicates that the tri-border area where the borders of
Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet is suspected of harboring
organizations that support terrorism and engage in drug and arms
smuggling and an assorted array of other illicit, revenue-raising
activities;
Whereas the Government of Argentina supports the 1996 Declaration of Lima to
Prevent, Combat and Eliminate Terrorism, which refers to terrorism as a
``serious form of organized and systematic violence that is intended to
generate chaos and fear among the population, results in death and
destruction, and is a reprehensible criminal activity'';
Whereas the Government of Argentina supports the 1998 Commitment of Mar del
Plata, which calls terrorist acts ``serious common crimes that erode
peaceful and civilized coexistence, affect the rule of law and the
exercise of democracy, and endanger the stability of democratically
elected constitutional governments and their socioeconomic development
of our countries'';
Whereas the Government of Argentina actively supports the development of the
Three Plus One Counterterrorism Dialogue with Brazil, Paraguay, and the
United States;
Whereas the Government of Argentina was successful in enacting a law on
cooperation from defendants in terrorist matters, a law that will be
helpful in pursuing full prosecution in the 1994 AMIA bombing and other
terrorist cases; and
Whereas the Second Specialized Conference on Terrorism held in Mar del Plata,
Argentina on November 23 and November 24, 1998, concluded with the
adoption of the Commitment of Mar del Plata, calling for the
establishment within the Organization of American States (referred to in
this resolution as ``OAS'') of an Inter-American Committee Against
Terrorism (referred to in this resolution as ``CICTE''): Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),
That Congress--
(1) reiterates its strongest condemnation of the 1994
attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, and honors the victims of this heinous act;
(2) expresses its sympathy to the relatives of the victims,
who have waited 10 years without justice for the loss of their
loved ones, and may have to wait even longer for justice to be
served;
(3) underscores the concern of the United States regarding
the continuing, decade-long delay in the proper resolution of
this case;
(4) strongly urges the Government of Argentina to continue
to dedicate and provide the resources necessary for its
judicial system and intelligence agencies to investigate all
areas of the AMIA case, including by implementing Argentine
President Nestor Kirchner's Executive order mandating the
opening of the archives of the SIDE of Argentina, and to
prosecute with due haste those who are responsible for the
bombing;
(5) calls upon the international community to cooperate
fully with the investigation, including by making information,
witnesses, and suspects available for review and questioning by
the appropriate Argentine authorities;
(6) encourages the President to direct United States law
enforcement agencies to provide support and cooperation, if
requested, to the Government of Argentina, for the purposes of
deepening and expanding the investigation into this bombing and
suspected activities in support of terrorism in the tri-border
area where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet;
(7) encourages the President to direct the United States
Representative to the OAS to--
(A) seek support from OAS member countries for the
creation of a special task force of the CICTE to
assist, as requested by the Government of Argentina, in
the investigation of all aspects of the 1994 AMIA
terrorist attack; and
(B) urge OAS member countries to designate
Hizballah as a terrorist organization if they have not
already done so;
(8) stresses the need for international pressure on the
Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Government
of the Syrian Arab Republic to extradite for trial individuals
and government officials who are accused of planning or
perpetrating the AMIA attack, and to immediately,
unconditionally, and permanently cease any and all assistance
to terrorists; and
(9) desires a lasting, warm relationship between the United
States and Argentina that is built, in part, on mutual
abhorrence of terrorism and commitments to peace, stability,
and democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
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