Argentine Judge Indicts Iranians in Bombing of Jewish Center

An Argentine judge has ordered arrest warrants for four Iranian government officials who he says helped organize and carry out the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead. But the judge balked at a recommendation by prosecutors that more than a dozen more senior Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s spiritual leader, also be indicted. He offered no public comment, and the decision is likely to intensify criticism from a variety of quarters that he has not pursued the case aggressively enough. The 400-page ruling, by Judge Juan José Galeano, made public on Saturday, was the first time that Argentina has formally accused Iran of involvement in the July 18, 1994, blast the deadliest single anti-Semitic incident since World War II. The judge also cited evidence from the state intelligence agency that “armed units of the pro-Iranian armed group Hezbollah” were also involved, though no Hezbollah member was mentioned in the indictment. The highest-ranking Iranian official cited is Ali Fallahian, a former minister of security and intelligence. Mohsen Rabbani, formerly the cultural attaché in the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires during the mid-1990’s, was named in the indictment as operational director of the attack. Full Story