[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8793-S8794]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONDEMNING THE ATTACK ON THE AMIA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER IN BUENOS 
                     AIRES, ARGENTINA, IN JULY 1994

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign 
Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Con. 
Res. 126 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the concurrent resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 126) 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, decade-long delay in 
     the resolution of this case.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, all with no intervening action or 
debate, and that any statements relating to this matter be printed in 
the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 126) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The concurrent resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                            S. Con. Res. 126

       Whereas on July 18, 1994, 85 innocent people were killed 
     and 300 were wounded when the Argentine Jewish Mutual 
     Association (referred to in this resolution as the ``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;
       Whereas the United States welcomes Argentine President 
     Nestor Kirchner's political will to pursue the investigation 
     of the AMIA bombing, as demonstrated by his Executive order 
     opening the archives of Argentina's Secretariat for State 
     Intelligence (referred to in this resolution as ``SIDE'') and 
     by his decisions to raise the AMIA cause to national status, 
     and to emphasize that there is no statute of limitations for 
     those responsible for this attack;
       Whereas it is reported that considerable evidence links the 
     attack to the terrorist group Hizballah, 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 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 4 officials of the Government of the Islamic 
     Republic of Iran who are believed to have been involved in 
     planning or carrying out the attack against AMIA and 
     requested that the International Criminal Police Organization 
     apprehend them;
       Whereas the 4 indicted Iranians are Ali Fallahian, a former 
     minister of security and intelligence; Mohsen Rabbani, a 
     former cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos 
     Aires; Ali Balesh-Abadi, an Iranian diplomat; and Ali Akbar 
     Parvaresh, a former minister of education;
       Whereas Hadi Soleimanpour, Iran's Ambassador to Argentina 
     in the 1990s, also has an international arrest warrant 
     pending against him by Argentine authorities for his 
     suspected primary role in the AMIA bombing;
       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

[[Page S8794]]

     bombing, including the destruction or disappearance 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 that was used in the bombing;
       Whereas the judge who had presided since 2001 over the 
     investigation 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 more than 200, and the perpetrators of the attack 
     also remain at large;
       Whereas an inability to extradite suspected Islamic 
     militants and Iranian officials has debilitated the efforts 
     of the Government of Argentina to prosecute masterminds and 
     planners 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 that support terrorism 
     and engage in drug and arms smuggling and an assorted array 
     of other illicit, revenue-raising activities;
       Whereas the Government of Argentina supports the 1996 
     Declaration of Lima to Prevent, Combat 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 reprehensible criminal 
     activity'';
       Whereas the Government of Argentina supports 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 Counterterrorism Dialogue 
     with Brazil, Paraguay, and the United States;
       Whereas the Government of Argentina was successful in 
     enacting a law on cooperation from defendants in terrorist 
     matters, a law that will be helpful in pursuing full 
     prosecution in the 1994 AMIA bombing and other terrorist 
     cases; and
       Whereas the Second Specialized Conference on Terrorism held 
     in Mar del Plata, Argentina on November 23 and November 24, 
     1998, concluded with the adoption of the Commitment of Mar 
     del Plata, calling for the establishment within the 
     Organization of American States (referred to in this 
     resolution as ``OAS'') of an Inter-American Committee Against 
     Terrorism (referred to in this resolution as ``CICTE''): Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That Congress--
       (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 10 years 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, 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 Nestor Kirchner's Executive order mandating the 
     opening of the archives of the SIDE of Argentina, and to 
     prosecute with due haste those who are responsible for the 
     bombing;
       (5) calls upon the international community to cooperate 
     fully with the investigation, including by making 
     information, witnesses, and suspects available for review and 
     questioning by the appropriate Argentine authorities;
       (6) encourages the President to direct United States law 
     enforcement agencies to provide support and cooperation, if 
     requested, to the Government of Argentina, for the purposes 
     of deepening and expanding the investigation into this 
     bombing and suspected activities in support of terrorism in 
     the tri-border area where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, 
     and Brazil meet;
       (7) encourages the President to direct the United States 
     Representative to the OAS to--
       (A) seek support from OAS member countries for the creation 
     of a special task force of the CICTE to assist, as requested 
     by the Government of Argentina, in the investigation of all 
     aspects of the 1994 AMIA terrorist attack; and
       (B) urge OAS member countries to designate Hizballah as a 
     terrorist organization if they have not already done so;
       (8) stresses the need for international pressure on the 
     Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Government 
     of the Syrian Arab Republic to extradite for trial 
     individuals and government officials who are accused of 
     planning or perpetrating the AMIA attack, and to immediately, 
     unconditionally, and permanently cease any and all assistance 
     to terrorists; and
       (9) desires a lasting, warm relationship between the United 
     States and Argentina that is built, in part, on mutual 
     abhorrence of terrorism and commitments to peace, stability, 
     and democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

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