108TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 469
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas on July 18, 1994, 85 innocent people were killed
and 300 were wounded when the Argentine Jewish Mu-
tual Association (AMIA) was bombed in Buenos Aires,
Argentina;
Whereas that attack showed the same cowardice and utter
disregard for human life as the attacks on the United
States on September 11, 2001;
•HCON 469 EH
Whereas the United States welcomes Argentine President
Nestor Kirchner’s political will to pursue the investiga-
tion of the AMIA bombing, as demonstrated by his execu-
tive order opening the archives of Argentina’s Secretariat
for State Intelligence (SIDE), for raising the AMIA
cause to national status, and for emphasizing that there
is no statute of limitations on those responsible for this
attack;
Whereas it is reported that considerable evidence links the at-
tacks to the terrorist group Hizballah, which is based in
Lebanon, supported by Syria, and sponsored by Iran;
Whereas the decade since the bombing has been marked by
efforts to minimize the international connection to this
terrorist attack;
Whereas in March 2003 an Argentine judge issued arrest
warrants for four Iranian government officials who are
believed to have been involved in planning or carrying out
the attack against AMIA and requested that the Inter-
national Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) ap-
prehend them;
Whereas the four indicted Iranians are Ali Fallahian, a
former minister of security and intelligence; Mohsen
Rabbani, a former cultural attache at the Iranian Em-
bassy in Buenos Aires; Ali Balesh-Abadi, an Iranian dip-
lomat; and Ali Akbar Parvaresh, a former minister of
education;
Whereas Hadi Soleimanpour, Iran’s ambassador to Argentina
in the 1990’s, also has an international arrest warrant
pending against him by Argentine authorities for his sus-
pected primary role in the AMIA bombing;
•HCON 469 EH
Whereas it is reported that suicide bomber Ibrahim Hussein
Berro, a Lebanese citizen, carried out the attack on
AMIA;
Whereas it has been reported that contact was made by the
Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires to Ibrahim Hussein
Berro, who lived in a mosque in Canuelas, Argentina, in
the days before the AMIA bombing;
Whereas Argentine officials have acknowledged that there
was negligence in the initial phases of the investigation
into the 1994 bombing, including the destruction or dis-
appearance of material evidence;
Whereas the first major criminal trial regarding the bombing
did not begin until September 2001, and those who are
currently on trial are former policemen and civilians who
are accused of playing roles only in the procurement and
delivery of the vehicle which was used in the bombing at-
tack;
Whereas the judge who had presided since 2001 over the in-
vestigation and trial related to the AMIA bombing was
removed in December 2003 due to charges that he bribed
a key witness in the AMIA case;
Whereas the new trial judge, Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, deals
with many other important cases and has few supporting
staff;
Whereas on March 17, 1992, terrorists bombed the Embassy
of Israel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people
and injuring over 200, and the perpetrators of the attack
also remain at large;
Whereas the inability to extradite suspected Islamic militants
and Iranian officials has debilitated the efforts of the Ar-
•HCON 469 EH
gentine government to prosecute masterminds and plan-
ners of the 1994 AMIA bombing;
Whereas evidence indicates that the Tri-Border area where
the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet is
suspected of harboring organizations which support ter-
rorism, engage in drug and arms smuggling and an as-
sorted array of other illicit, revenue-raising activities;
Whereas the Government of Argentina supports—
(1) the 1996 Declaration of Lima to Prevent, Com-
bat and Eliminate Terrorism, which refers to terrorism
as a ‘‘serious form of organized and systematic violence
that is intended to generate chaos and fear among the
population, results in death and destruction, and is a rep-
rehensible criminal activity’’; and
(2) the 1998 Commitment of Mar del Plata which
calls terrorist acts ‘‘serious common crimes that erode
peaceful and civilized coexistence, affect the rule of law
and the exercise of democracy, and endanger the stability
of democratically elected constitutional governments and
their socioeconomic development of our countries’’;
Whereas the Government of Argentina actively supports the
development 
of 
the 
‘‘Three 
Plus 
One’’ 
(3+1)
Counterterrorism Dialogue with Brazil, Paraguay, and
the United States;
Whereas the Government of Argentina was successful in en-
acting a law on cooperation from defendants in terrorist
matters, a law that will be helpful in pursuing full pros-
ecution in this and other terrorist cases; and
Whereas the Second Specialized Conference on Terrorism
held in Mar del Plata, Argentina on November 23 and
24, 1998, concluded with the adoption of the Commit-
•HCON 469 EH
ment of Mar del Plata, calling for the establishment with-
in the Organization of American States (OAS) of an
Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE):
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That Congress—
(1) reiterates its strongest condemnation of the
1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Cen-
ter in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and honors the vic-
tims of this heinous act;
(2) expresses its sympathy to the relatives of
the victims, who have waited ten years without jus-
tice 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, decade-long delay
in the proper resolution of this case;
(4) strongly urges the Government of Argentina
to continue to dedicate and provide the resources
necessary for its judicial system and intelligence
agencies to investigate all areas of the AMIA case,
including by implementing Argentine President Nes-
tor Kirchner’s executive order mandating the open-
ing of the archives of Argentina’s Secretariat for
State Intelligence (SIDE), and to prosecute with due
haste those who are responsible for the bombing;