[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 441 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 441
A 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, 25-year-long delay in the
resolution of this case and encouraging accountability for the attack.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 13, 2019
Mr. Deutch (for himself, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Sires, and
Mr. Rooney of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
A 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, 25-year-long delay in the
resolution of this case and encouraging accountability for the attack.
Whereas, 25 years ago, on July 18, 1994, 85 innocent people were killed and 300
were wounded when the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) was
bombed in Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Whereas, 2 years earlier, Hezbollah operatives also blew up the Israeli embassy
in Buenos Aires, killing 29 civilians;
Whereas it is reported that considerable evidence links the attack to the
terrorist group Hezbollah, 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 25 years since the bombing have been marked by a failure to bring
those responsible, including Iranian officials and their Hezbollah
proxies, to justice;
Whereas, in September 2004, Alberto Nisman was appointed as the Special
Prosecutor in charge of the 1994 AMIA bombing investigation;
Whereas, on October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo
Martinez Burgos formally accused the Government of Iran of directing the
bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out;
Whereas Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah, was
identified as the AMIA bomber;
Whereas, in November 2006, an Argentine judge issued arrest warrants for Iranian
nationals Ali Fallahijan (former Iranian intelligence minister), Mohsen
Rabbani (former Iranian cultural attache), Ahmad Reza Asghari (former
Iranian diplomat), Ahmad Vahidi (former Iranian defense minister), Ali
Akbar Velayati (former Iranian foreign minister), Mohsen Rezaee (former
chief commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), Ali
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (former President of Iran), Hadi Soleimanpour
(former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina), and Lebanese national Imad
Fayez Moughnieh who were named as suspects in the AMIA bombing;
Whereas, in November 2007, INTERPOL voted to put the following suspects in the
1994 AMIA attack on its most wanted list--Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen
Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi, and Mohsen Razaee from Iran
and Imad Fayez Moughnieh from Lebanon;
Whereas Interpol currently has 4 red alerts in place in relation to the AMIA
attack;
Whereas, on January 13, 2015, prosecutor Alberto Nisman alleged in a complaint
that then-Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and then-
Minister of Foreign Relations Hector Timerman conspired to cover up
Iranian involvement in the 1994 terrorist bombing, and reportedly agreed
to negotiate immunity for Iranian suspects and help get their names
removed from the INTERPOL list;
Whereas prosecutor Alberto Nisman was scheduled to present his new findings to
the Argentinian Congress on January 19, 2015;
Whereas prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found shot in the head in his apartment in
Buenos Aires on January 18, 2015;
Whereas the investigation of the AMIA bombing has been marked by judicial
misconduct;
Whereas, in March 2019, an Argentine court handed down convictions and
sentences, finding that the judge, prosecutors, and head of the
Argentina's secret services--the individuals responsible for
investigating the AMIA bombing, Argentina's deadliest terrorist attack--
had interfered with the inquiry, diverting the investigation away from
the truth;
Whereas former Federal judge Juan Jose Galeano was handed down a 6-year
conviction by the court, which will not be enforced until the sentence
is confirmed by a higher tribunal;
Whereas former State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE) intelligence head Hugo
Anzorreguy was handed a prison sentence of 54 months;
Whereas Carlos Telleldin, a used car dealer who sold the van that contained the
bomb used to attack AMIA and received a bribe to incriminate police
officers falsely, was sentenced to 42 months in jail; and
Whereas no Iranian suspects for the AMIA bombing have yet faced prosecution:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(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 a quarter of a century 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, 25-year-long delay in the proper resolution of
this case; and
(4) expresses strong support for accountability for this
attack, including against those Iranian and Hezbollah
operatives who were responsible.
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