Scrap order for Argentine spy agency
A woman holds a sign reading "We are all Nisman" during a demo at Mayo square, in Buenos Aires on January 19, 2015, against the death of Argentine public prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found shot dead earlier, just days after accusing President Cristina Kirchner of obstructing a probe into a 1994 Jewish center bombing. AFP PHOTO |
What you need to know:
- Ms Kirchner, who is scrambling to protect her record and legacy, said on Monday: “The plan is to dissolve the Intelligence Secretariat, and create a Federal Intelligence Agency.”
- Ms Kirchner also took aim at Diego Lagomarsino, a Nisman colleague who lent Nisman the pistol with which the prosecutor was killed.
- Mr Nisman had accused Kirchner and her foreign minister Hector Timerman of shielding Iranian officials implicated in the bombing of the Argentine-Jewish Mutual Association.
President Cristina Kirchner on Tuesday said that she will disband Argentina’s intelligence service after a prosecutor was found dead just hours before he was to make explosive allegations against her.
Mr Alberto Nisman, 51, was found in his Buenos Aires home with a gunshot to the head on January 18, the day before he was to go before a congressional hearing to accuse President Kirchner of obstructing his investigation into a 1994 bombing at a Jewish charities federation office.
She denies the claims and says Mr Nisman’s death — which initially was suspected suicide — was a plot to discredit her.
Ms Kirchner, who is scrambling to protect her record and legacy, said on Monday: “The plan is to dissolve the Intelligence Secretariat, and create a Federal Intelligence Agency.”
The leadership of the agency will be chosen by the president but subject to Senate approval.
Ms Kirchner had removed the leadership of the current intelligence service as recently as December.
She said she would send her intelligence system reform bill to Congress before she leaves for China next week, and swiftly scheduled special congressional sessions for it to be taken up.
Ms Kirchner also took aim at Diego Lagomarsino, a Nisman colleague who lent Nisman the pistol with which the prosecutor was killed. Lagomarsino on Monday was charged with giving a gun to someone who is not its registered owner, officials said.
“Lagomarsino is not just a staunch opponent of the Government,” Ms Kirchner said suggesting his brother’s work on behalf of Clarin newspaper, in her view, raised red flags. She has had a long-running feud with the paper.
The 1994 attack, which killed 85 people, has never been solved.
Mr Nisman had accused Kirchner and her foreign minister Hector Timerman of shielding Iranian officials implicated in the bombing of the Argentine-Jewish Mutual Association.
After his death, Kirchner suggested Nisman had been manipulated by former intelligence agents who then killed him to smear her. Kirchner has offered no evidence to support her theory, and did not say who she thought was behind Nisman’s death.
But aides in recent days have pointed to former intelligence officials who were recently fired, including the former chief of operations of the Intelligence Secretariate, Antonio Stiusso, who worked closely with Nisman.
