Friday, January 23, 2015

CFK now convinced Nisman was murdered

A screen grab of the president’s official website in which she posted an open letter regarding special prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death.

New official message blasted by opposition leaders who criticize president’s ‘pundit’ tone

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner went from doubt to certainty yesterday, writing a lengthy Facebook post in which she expressed her conviction that late special prosecutor Alberto Nisman did not commit suicide and said that those who killed him were trying to tarnish her government’s reputation.

“Nisman’s accusation hasn’t just collapsed, but has become a real political and legal scandal... That’s the key. Prosecutor Nisman did not know that the men identified as intelligence agents were in fact not” what they claimed, she said.

“The spies who were not spies. The questions that turned into certainties. The suicide that I am now convinced was not a suicide,” the president wrote.

This new letter comes after a Facebook post Monday in which the president referred to “the case of the suicide (?) of the prosecutor in charge of the AMIA case,” raising questions about his death and taking aim against those whom she said were trying to confuse the population with outlandish tales.

In the post, titled “AMIA and the complaint by Prosecutor Nisman,” the president said she had no doubts that the prosecutor who accused her of being the brains behind a coverup was murdered.

Nisman was fed false information to accuse the government of intervening in the investigation into the biggest terrorist attack in Argentine history, and then killed to discredit her administration, Fernández de Kirchner said.

“They used him while alive and then needed him dead. It’s that sad and terrible,” she wrote in a 2,900-word statement. “The real operation against the government was the death of the prosecutor.”

DISMISSING ALLEGATIONS

CFK said allegations filed in Nisman’s complaint — which claimed the government secured an “impunity deal” with Iran in exchange for trade benefits — don’t make sense since Argentina never imported oil from Iran and trade has actually fallen between the two nations since the signing of the 2013 Memorandum.

The government insisted that a man called Ramon “Allan” Héctor Bogado, referred to in the report as “Allan,” had never been on the intelligence agency’s payroll, according to a copy of a letter sent to Federal Judge Ariel Lijo by the head of the Intelligence Secretariat (SI) Oscar Parrilli. Bogado had been accused by the agency in November of “influence peddling” after he posed as an agent to customs officials, according to the letter.

The president took direct aim, however, at Antonio “Jaime” Stiusso, a veteran spy who allegedly lost power in December after a shake-up in the intelligence service.

“Nisman’s allegations were never the true plot against the government, they fell apart from the beginning,” the president wrote. “He didn’t know and probably never did. The real plot against the government was the death of a prosecutor after accusing the president” of trying to cover up Iranian involvement in the terrorist attack.

CFK concluded that she had “no proof” of her allegations — while at the same time insisting that she had “no doubts” of what she was saying.

‘ACTING LIKE A PUNDIT’

The letter — published early in the morning — prompted angry responses from opposition leaders.

“She is the one who should be responsible for helping (to solve the case) and the only thing she does is give her personal opinion,” said dissident Peronist lawmaker Francisco de Narváez, who recently jumped ship to Sergio Massa’s Renewal Front.

The president “should stop acting like a teenager who uses Facebook to pressure those investigating” the case, De Narváez told Radio Mitre.

Workers’ Leftist Front (FIT) lawmakerNicolás del Caño said the letter only deepens the current political crisis.

“The president’s statements, saying that the prosecutor’s death was a murder which involves Jaime Stiusso — who, until one month ago, was the most powerful man in the Intelligence Secretariat — does nothing but deepen the crisis,” Del Caño said.

Broad Front-UNEN senators Fernando “Pino” Solanas (Proyecto Sur) and Ernesto Sanz (UCR) said that if the government actually believed Nisman was killed, Security officials should be fired.

Fernández de Kirchner “has stopped acting like the leader of 40 million Argentines to adopt the tone of a criminal pundit,” Sanz said.

Unsurprisingly, Kirchnerite officials backed the president, with Security Secretary Sergio Berni saying the death of the special prosecutor was “a political operation.”

“All clues were leading to a suicide but as new elements came out and this theory was left aside,” Berni acknowledged.

Defence Minister Agustín Rossi, Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich and Senator Miguel Ángel Pichetto — head of the Victory Front (FpV) bloc — followed the president’s line of thinking on the case.

Herald staff with DyN, Télam, Reuters