International warrant issued for terrorist/killer

Salman El Reda is a key figure in Argentina who has been linked to the terrorista attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in 1994 that claimed 85 deaths. This was the finding on the Colombian national by Argentina’s chief prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who issued an international warrant for his arrest on May 20.

In a press conference, Nisman said that El Reda participated in the “preparations and consummation of the attack” that, according to the prosecutor, was on the orders of the government of Iran and organized by Hezbollah - the pro-Iran terrorist organization.

United States Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne in Buenos Aires noted Nisman’s arrest warrant saying “We applaud and support all efforts directed at bringing to justice those responsible for the international terrorist attack on the AMIA that killed 85 people in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994.”

The arrest order has complicated Argentina’s already strained relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2006, Argentina presented an international arrest warrants for Mohsen Rabbani and seven other Iranian operatives for their alleged participation in the 1994 attack. Among those being called to justice are former Iranian president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, former foreign minister Ali AkbarVelavati and former information and security minister Ali Fallahijan, as well as former Revolutionary Guard commandant Mohsen Rezai. Argentina has also fingered Iran for organizing the St. Patrick’s Day massacre in 1992 of 29 people at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.

As for El Reda, prosecutor Nisman claimed that the 1994 attacked was coordinated in Foz de Iguaçu, a Brazilian town located near the famed Iguazu waterfalls and where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina’s borders meet. The nearby Ciudad del Este, is a city in Paraguay long known for money laundering, smuggling, and terrorist plots.

Nisman affirms that in Brazil, a certain unknown André Marques purchased cellular telephone from which calls were made just before the bombing. It is presumed that André Marques and Samuel El Reda are one and the same. Nisman alleges that El Reda, a convert to Islam, was the “coordinator of the arrival to the country, the stay and departure of the group of operators who committed the bombing.”

The investigation indicated that the link between El Reda and the masterminds of the bombing began shortly after his arrival in Argentina in 1987. Once he converted to Islam, El Reda frequented a mosque in the Floresta neighborhood of Buenos Aires that served as a terrorist cell. It was there that the then-Cultural Attaché of the Iranian embassy, Mohsen Rabbani, served as spiritual leader. It was Rabbani who performed the marriage of El Reda to the Argentine woman Silvina Sain, as well as the marriage of his brother José to one of Rabbani’s cohorts.

According to Nisman, this fundamentalist terrorist cell received orders from the highest authorities of Iran to take on the attack on the AMIA. The motive: wreaking vengeange on President Carlos Menem of Argentina for having not fulfilled an agreement on providing nuclear technology to the Islamic Republic.

It is thought that El Reda currently lives in Lebanon, along with his wife who left one month prior to the attack on the AMIA. His sister-in-law fled Argentina in 1995.

Besides the threat from foreign governments, Jews and others must contend with homegrown anti-Semites and extremists, as shown by Argentina’s history of welcoming Nazis during the Juan Perón regime after the Second World War and by recent events. Fifteen people were arrested following an anti-Semitic attack in Buenos Aires on May 17 during a commemoration of the 61 anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel. Argentina has the third largest population of Jews in the world, following Israel and the United States.

On that day, a number of protesters emerged from a subway stop brandishing bludgeons, threatening and injuring a number of people celebrating the anniversary on one of Buenos Aires main streets. The attack occurred while Benyamin Netanyahu, the new Israeli prime minister, was meeting with President Obama in Washington DC. The protesters in Buenos Aires denounced Israeli policies towards Palestine and other Arab nations. One shouted “We are not anti-Semites, we are anti-Zionist.”

Local police arrested five people on the scene, while ten more were detained over the week. The majority belong to the leftist Teresa Rodrigues Movement (MTR), which is a subset of the Front for Revolutionary Action.

The first five detainees have been accused of belonging to a group that “seeks to impose its ideas by force or terror.” This constitutes an aggravated assault since it violates anti-discrimination law, given that the pamphlets found at the scene bore swastikas. If convicted, the protesters could receive 4 to 12 years of prison. They are also accused of assault and battery, as well as resisting arrest.

The second group of detainees was arrested at a former bakery some 20 miles outside of Buenos Aires. It currently serves as a community soup kitchen for the poor. There the police found Molotov bombs and several pistols. Nonetheless, a woman who was arrested there asserted to local media that “This movement is social; it is not terrorist.” As of yet, formal charges have yet to be levied on this group but it is being investigated by authorities.

Police also found lists of some 800 individuals who receive benefits from the national government and channeled through the MTR. A spokesperson for the national welfare agency said that his agency had not information on the provision of these benefits.

Eduardo Szklarz is Buenos Aires correpondent for The Cutting Edge News and Martin Barillas is editor of Speroforum.com