US Charges Alleged Hezbollah Member Over 1994 Buenos Aires Bombing

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Facts

  • Federal US prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed on Wednesday an indictment against an alleged leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah's Islamic Jihad Organization, Samuel Salman El Reda, who is said to have helped orchestrate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 85 people.1
  • The 58-year-old dual Colombian-Lebanese citizen has been charged with providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, aiding and abetting the receipt of military-style training from a designated foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy counts.2
  • The attack on the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina on July 18, 1994, was the worst in the country's history and the second against the Jewish community in Argentina following the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy, which left 29 dead and injured over 200.3
  • The truck bombing, which the US has long used as an example of Iran-backed Hezbollah's wide reach despite the group denying involvement, remains controversial in Argentina. Former Pres. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has been accused of conspiring to protect its perpetrators by way of a joint probe with Iran.4
  • In addition to allegedly transmitting information to operatives that carried out the attack in Buenos Aires, El Reda has also been accused of conspiring to support terrorists in Lebanon, Panama, Peru, Thailand, and elsewhere between 1993 and 2015.5
  • The US Dept. of the Treasury designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 2001, with the US Dept. of State claiming years later that the militant group was the most technically skilled terrorist group in the world.6

Sources: 1New York Times, 2CBS, 3Buenos Aires Times, 4Al Jazeera, 5The Times of Israel and 6Associated Press.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by United States Department of Justice. El Reda has been a key component of Hezbollah's, and thus Iran's, evil terrorist agenda for decades, and authorities across the globe haven't forgotten what he's capable of and responsible for. He killed dozens of Jews in Argentina, blew up explosive caches in Thailand, and spied on US and Israeli personnel in Panama. Though it's been some time since he began his terrorist career, the US knows who he is and what he's done, and is now pursuing him legally to bring some justice for those affected by his horrific crimes.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Grayzone. While the US and its allies have long used this bombing as a precedent to demonize and sanction Iran, US diplomats and Argentine police officers involved in the immediate investigation later acknowledged that there was never any evidence linking Tehran. In 2014, a former Argentine spy who had infiltrated the Jewish community claimed that the anti-Semitic police department ordered him to hand over the blueprints to the facility, which suggests this could have been an inside job that was later used by the US and Israel to stoke anti-Iran sentiment for political reasons.

Predictions