Obama offers Argentina help in AMIA investigation
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — President Barack Obama offered Argentina help in pursuing the perpetrators of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
At a news conference Wednesday in Buenos Aires following his meeting with Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, Obama said he would visit a memorial to the bombing victims at the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral.
“I told President Macri that the United States offers whatever help we can to finally hold these attackers accountable,” Obama said.
TheTower: Newly-elected Argentine President Mauricio Macri said that his government is determined to “make headway” into the investigation of the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing in Buenos Aires, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Wednesday.
“We are fully committed to contribute in any way we can to make headway with this investigation,” Macri declared. “Here, we suffer the ravaging consequences of two bomb attacks. We are still in the dark of what happened.”The second attack Macri referred to was the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. The Argentine president also pointed out that his government abandoned an agreement signed by the previous administration to jointly investigate the AMIA bombing with Iran, the main suspect in the case. A court found the accord to be unconstitutional.
Obama honours Argentina Dirty War victims
Obama’s visit to Argentina coincided with the 40th anniversary of a right-wing military coup, which the U.S. government condoned and which ushered in the dictatorship.
Obama and Argentinean PresidentMauricio Macri threw white flowers into the brown waters of the Río de la Plata, or River Plate, to remember thousands of victims of Argentina’s US-backed dictatorship. Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideas that we stand for.
Despite early USA support for the coup, Obama said US diplomats, human rights workers and reporters played an important role in documenting the abuses that took place in the aftermath.
A jetty runs into the nearby river, commemorating victims of the “death flights”.
Documents already declassified by Washington have revealed, for example, that then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1976 asked the Argentine military dictatorship to hurry and end its repression before Congress could cut off aid.
Several days before the Obama trip, I received and email that the National Archives declassified some Argentina Dirty Wars documents. I found that to be quite curious. Now, we understand but what else is there to know? What about that sightseeing venture?
Well now…..
Obama to visit Patagonian tourist city Bariloche on Argentina trip
The stopover in ski-destination Bariloche, known for its crystal clear lakes and panoramic mountain vistas, appeared to be first lady Michelle Obama’s idea, Sullivan said.
“I believe she heard what Bariloche is like … and it seemed to her it would be a good place to share a little family time,” Sullivan said.
C’mon really? How about a deeper look? There seems to be a pattern of Obama visiting the worst historical places and his trip to Bariloche is no different.
In part from TheTablet: The Bariloche Hitler party, he explained, was closely linked to a Buenos Aires Nazi. The night before, he told me, he’d called the host club pretending to be a guest and asked, “Is Adolf’s party still on?” They told him yes, he insisted—but he hadn’t been able to get past security. “I counted 48 cars just outside the gate, and there were many, many more inside,” Filipuzzi told me, his eyes wide and his voice amplifying. “In Buenos Aires,” he went on, “there’s a restaurant that has a Hitler toast, but here’s the grand party.”
