Title: A resolution condemning the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994 and expressing the concern of the United States regarding the continuing, 25-year-long delay in the resolution of this case and encouraging accountability for the attack.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution condemns the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and expresses sympathy for the victims' relatives. It also expresses concern for the continuing 25-year-long delay in the proper resolution of the case and supports accountability for the attack, including the Iranian and Hezbollah operatives involved.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 441 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 441

A resolution condemning the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center 
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994 and expressing the concern of 
 the United States regarding the continuing, 25-year-long delay in the 
 resolution of this case and encouraging accountability for the attack.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 13, 2019

 Mr. Deutch (for himself, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Sires, and 
 Mr. Rooney of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
A resolution condemning the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center 
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 1994 and expressing the concern of 
 the United States regarding the continuing, 25-year-long delay in the 
 resolution of this case and encouraging accountability for the attack.

Whereas, 25 years ago, on July 18, 1994, 85 innocent people were killed and 300 
        were wounded when the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) was 
        bombed in Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Whereas, 2 years earlier, Hezbollah operatives also blew up the Israeli embassy 
        in Buenos Aires, killing 29 civilians;
Whereas it is reported that considerable evidence links the attack to the 
        terrorist group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, supported by the 
        Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, and sponsored by the Government 
        of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
Whereas the 25 years since the bombing have been marked by a failure to bring 
        those responsible, including Iranian officials and their Hezbollah 
        proxies, to justice;
Whereas, in September 2004, Alberto Nisman was appointed as the Special 
        Prosecutor in charge of the 1994 AMIA bombing investigation;
Whereas, on October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo 
        Martinez Burgos formally accused the Government of Iran of directing the 
        bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out;
Whereas Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah, was 
        identified as the AMIA bomber;
Whereas, in November 2006, an Argentine judge issued arrest warrants for Iranian 
        nationals Ali Fallahijan (former Iranian intelligence minister), Mohsen 
        Rabbani (former Iranian cultural attache), Ahmad Reza Asghari (former 
        Iranian diplomat), Ahmad Vahidi (former Iranian defense minister), Ali 
        Akbar Velayati (former Iranian foreign minister), Mohsen Rezaee (former 
        chief commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), Ali 
        Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (former President of Iran), Hadi Soleimanpour 
        (former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina), and Lebanese national Imad 
        Fayez Moughnieh who were named as suspects in the AMIA bombing;
Whereas, in November 2007, INTERPOL voted to put the following suspects in the 
        1994 AMIA attack on its most wanted list--Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen 
        Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi, and Mohsen Razaee from Iran 
        and Imad Fayez Moughnieh from Lebanon;
Whereas Interpol currently has 4 red alerts in place in relation to the AMIA 
        attack;
Whereas, on January 13, 2015, prosecutor Alberto Nisman alleged in a complaint 
        that then-Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and then-
        Minister of Foreign Relations Hector Timerman conspired to cover up 
        Iranian involvement in the 1994 terrorist bombing, and reportedly agreed 
        to negotiate immunity for Iranian suspects and help get their names 
        removed from the INTERPOL list;
Whereas prosecutor Alberto Nisman was scheduled to present his new findings to 
        the Argentinian Congress on January 19, 2015;
Whereas prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found shot in the head in his apartment in 
        Buenos Aires on January 18, 2015;
Whereas the investigation of the AMIA bombing has been marked by judicial 
        misconduct;
Whereas, in March 2019, an Argentine court handed down convictions and 
        sentences, finding that the judge, prosecutors, and head of the 
        Argentina's secret services--the individuals responsible for 
        investigating the AMIA bombing, Argentina's deadliest terrorist attack--
        had interfered with the inquiry, diverting the investigation away from 
        the truth;
Whereas former Federal judge Juan Jose Galeano was handed down a 6-year 
        conviction by the court, which will not be enforced until the sentence 
        is confirmed by a higher tribunal;
Whereas former State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE) intelligence head Hugo 
        Anzorreguy was handed a prison sentence of 54 months;
Whereas Carlos Telleldin, a used car dealer who sold the van that contained the 
        bomb used to attack AMIA and received a bribe to incriminate police 
        officers falsely, was sentenced to 42 months in jail; and
Whereas no Iranian suspects for the AMIA bombing have yet faced prosecution: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) reiterates its strongest condemnation of the 1994 
        attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, 
        Argentina, and honors the victims of this heinous act;
            (2) expresses its sympathy to the relatives of the victims, 
        who have waited a quarter of a century without justice 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, 25-year-long delay in the proper resolution of 
        this case; and
            (4) expresses strong support for accountability for this 
        attack, including against those Iranian and Hezbollah 
        operatives who were responsible.
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