A threat from the south?

via memeorandum

According to an Argentinian prosecutor Iran was involved in the attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina.

Dr. Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who has secured Interpol backing for the arrests of several leaders in Teheran, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires, also urged the international community to pressure Iran into giving up the wanted men for trial.Nisman said the AMIA blast, in which 85 people were killed, and the bombing of the Israeli Embassy two years earlier, in which 29 people were killed, had been “ordered, planned and financed” by Iran’s top leadership. Teheran, he said, was incensed that Argentina, under former president Carlos Menem, had suspended and ultimately stopped what had been close cooperation with the Iranian nuclear program, including the training of nuclear technicians and the transfer of nuclear technology. At first Teheran tried to cajole Argentina into reconsidering, he said. Then it issued threats. And finally, it employed terrorism.

Nisman, on a brief working visit to Israel, said he had received a telephoned death threat at his home and been warned off the case by Iran but would not desist.

The Corner.Andy McCarthy notes that the recently released NIE was influenced by statements made by one of the players in the Argentinain case.

In compiling the recently released National Intelligence Estimate which claims with “high” confidence that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons program four years ago, the Intelligence Community was, according to the Washington Post, very influenced by former Iranian President (and continuing Iranian player) Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Hot Air reasonably wonders if this shows that someone should have considered that Rafsanjani was lying.

The phrase “Are you kidding me?” comes quickly to mind. Surely it occurred to some of these deep thinkers of ours that the Iranian officials could be lying. Surely? Head over to the Corner to see why Rafsanjani’s word isn’t the first or last that we ought to trust on Iran’s benign intentions.

But if the attacks in Argentina during the 90’s were hostile, Iran’s current efforts in Latin America are more friendly. Gordon Chang writes in Contentions

Tehran has worked hard to strengthen contacts in the region—and it has accomplished much while Washington has neglected the countries south of its border. The world is full of threats, and Washington is paradoxically ignoring the ones closest to the American homeland. Says Riordan Roett of Johns Hopkins, “Since there has been no coherent United States policy toward Latin America, there’s a window of opportunity for the Iranians to come fill the vacuum.”Tehran has missed no opportunities to do so. In addition to building relations with Ortega’s Sandinistas, Iran has nurtured ties with new leftist governments in Bolivia and Ecuador. And of course there is the combination of Iran and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, what Tehran calls the “axis of unity.” Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also reaching out to moderate Latin American governments, most notably Brazil’s. “Iran is trying to create a geopolitical balance with the United States,” according to Bill Samii of the Center for Naval Analyses in Virginia.

Chang suggests that the United States fight the growing Iranian influence.

If the Bush administration is going to abandon Latin America to Iran and that country’s terrorist allies, then it will have to tie the region to America in some fashion. At this moment, the fastest way to do so is to erect a network of free trade deals. Yet these agreements are controversial in Washington. Although President Bush signed the FTA with Peru on Friday, similar ones with Colombia and Panama are languishing in Congress. There are many problems with Washington’s free trade agreements with less developed economies, but Ortega’s meetings with junior Iranians like Zarghami suggest that this might be the time to consider dropping technical quibbles and to start looking at the bigger picture.

Allowing Iranian influence to grow in the Western hemisphere presents a threat to the United States. Will the government act to forestall this threat or allow it to grow unchecked.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.