Argentina to Open Intelligence Files on 1994 Bombing

BUENOS AIRES —  Argentina will release long-secret intelligence files on the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here, the government of President Nestor Kirchner announced, opening a new chapter in the investigation of the bloodiest act of anti-Semitism in Latin American history.

Previous administrations strongly resisted cooperation between the Secretariat of State Intelligence and prosecutors investigating the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Assn., critics say. The blast killed 85 people.

“This is the most important news of the last nine years of our effort to find the truth,” Abraham Kaul, president of the mutual association, said at a news conference late Thursday after a meeting with Kirchner and the new intelligence secretary, Sergio Acevedo. “The president is determined to resolve this case.”

The announcement is one in a string of surprise moves by Kirchner, who took office May 25. He has also forced the top command of the military and federal police into retirement and is seeking the impeachment of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

A mechanic and a group of former Buenos Aires provincial police officers are on trial in the attack. They are charged with assembling the car bomb that brought down the seven-story building in this city’s Once district.

News reports over the years have suggested that the intelligence agency was tipped off to the bombing before it took place. In addition, relatives of the victims have long charged that the security services and former President Carlos Menem protected the masterminds of the crime.

Under Kirchner’s order, 14 current and former members of the intelligence agency -- including its former head, Hugo Anzorreguy -- will be relieved of their responsibility to retain “state secrecy” in the case. That will free them to testify in the ongoing criminal trial for the first time.

The agents will be asked to clarify several mysteries surrounding the case, said Raul Kollmann, a journalist who has investigated the bombing for the daily newspaper Pagina 12.

Those puzzles include whether the agency, known here as SIDE, ever made payments to Carlos Telleldin, the mechanic charged with assembling the car bomb.

Authorities also hope to determine whether the agency knew beforehand of the attack.

On Sunday, the newspaper Clarin reported that a month before the bombing, the intelligence agency received a cable from Argentina’s ambassador in Lebanon warning of a terrorist attack by the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. The agency responded by wiretapping Iranian diplomats here, the paper said.

“If the SIDE was warned, it means they were investigating before the bombing took place,” Kaul said. The release of that investigation’s results “will put us much closer to knowing the truth,” he added.

An Iranian official in exile in Germany told investigators last year that Menem received a $10-million bribe from the Iranian government to cover up Tehran’s involvement in the bombing. Menem has denied the allegations.