Whistleblower Journalist on AMIA Judge's Murder Flees Argentina

According to Reuters, the Argentine journalist who first reported the death of Judge Alberto Nisman last week has left his country out of 'fear for his life.' Mr. 'Damian Pachter,' a journalist for the Buenos Aires Herald, was the first to tweet on Sunday night that Judge Nisman’s body had been found. Judge Nisman, who has now been killed, was suspected of being involved in a deal where the President of Argentina signed an agreement with Iran to obtain a $7 billion energy concession in exchange for food supplies to Tehran. Reuters reports that 'Damian Pachter,' the whistleblower on Nisman’s death, confirmed that on Saturday, February 4, he fled his country because 'suspicious factors are pursuing him' and 'his phones are being tapped.' He boarded a plane to Uruguay. Pachter stated that he would return to Buenos Aires when his sources assure him that it is safe. Alberto Nisman, the chief prosecutor of Argentina, who had been investigating the bombing of a Jewish community center 21 years ago, was found dead in his apartment last Sunday. Argentina confirms that Judge Nisman was murdered. Investigators have reported that no gunpowder residue was found on Nisman’s hands and fingers, indicating that someone else shot him in the head. Argentine media have reported that several police and intelligence personnel are being questioned in connection with Nisman’s murder, referred to as 'rogue forces.' Aníbal Fernández, chief of staff to the presidency, told Reuters that the intelligence officers who were dismissed misled Judge Nisman with false information. Argentine officials defending their president claim that the intelligence forces, which Nisman relied on for his report against the president, had their own interests and were dismissed. However, Nisman had written in his report against the president that these intelligence forces had long been tracking the communications and calls of the president and his foreign minister with Iranian representatives, which led to their dismissal. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the President of Argentina, confirmed Nisman’s murder and claimed that 'a large conspiracy against him and his government has been planned.' Nisman was killed less than four days after announcing the indictment against Ms. Kirchner, in which she was accused of colluding with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nisman’s body was found just hours before he was scheduled to testify at a secret congressional meeting against the president. Last Thursday, the 289-page indictment prepared by Nisman was published, claiming that Ms. Kirchner and her officials, including Hector Timerman, the foreign minister, had agreed to cover up the involvement of senior Iranian officials in the bombing of 20 years ago in exchange for oil from Iran, allowing the case to remain unresolved. The names of eight Iranian officials are implicated in this bombing. In the summer of 1994, 85 people were killed, over three hundred injured, and a seven-story Jewish building was destroyed. The AMIA explosion occurred two years after the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. Interpol issued international arrest warrants for Ali Fallahian, the then Iranian intelligence minister, Mohsen Rabbani, the cultural attaché of Iran in 1994 in Argentina, Mohsen Rezaei, the then commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, the then commander of the Quds Force, Ahmad Reza Asghari, the third secretary of the Iranian embassy, and Imad Mughniyeh, a senior intelligence officer of Hezbollah; Mughniyeh was killed in Syria in 2008. Interpol had shelved Argentina's request for arrest warrants against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the president, and Ali Akbar Velayati, the then foreign minister of Iran, in 2007. Meanwhile, Argentine media reported last Thursday that footprints and fingerprints have been found leading to Nisman’s neighboring apartment. According to reports, a foreign individual was residing in this neighboring apartment. No further details about this foreign individual have been released; however, it seems that the possibility of their connection and renting this apartment adjacent to Nisman’s on the thirteenth floor of a residential tower in Buenos Aires is under investigation. Nisman’s murder has shocked the Argentine people, and the Jewish community in the country has held demonstrations demanding to prevent further obfuscation of the AMIA bombing case.