ARGENTINA-PROSECUTOR/INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Argentina set to revamp intelligence agency in wake of prosecutor's death

Record ID: 402161

  • Title: ARGENTINA-PROSECUTOR/INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Argentina set to revamp intelligence agency in wake of prosecutor's death
  • Date: 26th February 2015
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 25, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF CONGRESS
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA234PYZ8XNA3WNLBXZ2P5FMIEW
  • Story Text: The revamp of Argentina's intelligence service faced its final legislative hurdle on Wednesday (February 25), with Congress poised to create a new agency after the government said a renegade spy was linked to the death of a star prosecutor.
    State investigator Alberto Nisman was found with a bullet in his head and gun by his side on January 18, four days after accusing President Cristina Fernandez of trying to cover up Iran's alleged role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.
    The mysterious death shocked the country and has highlighted long-standing worries about Argentina's intelligence services.
    Expected to be signed into law after passage by the Chamber of Deputies, the measure replaces the SI Intelligence Secretariat with a new service to be called the Federal Intelligence Agency.
    The Senate has already approved the bill earlier this month but some congress members have expressed concerns over the reform.
    Congress member Marco Negri of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) questioned President Cristina Fernandez's motives behind the change.
    "We believe that the government, was not thinking about reform in 2005 but President (Fernandez) Kirchner committed herself before the OAS (Organisation of American States) to promote reform in intelligence services and she didn't do it. Ten years went by, the result of a desperate reaction to the shock caused by the death of prosecutor Nisman. Furthermore, a week before she cut SIDE (Intelligence Ministry), she never mentioned one word about changing intelligence services," he said.
    Fernandez has said counterintelligence chief Antonio Stiuso manipulated Nisman into making the allegations against her and was then involved in his death. Stiuso has also been accused by the government of operating a smuggling ring from SI headquarters.
    Fernandez has said Argentine intelligence has not evolved since the deadly role it played in the 1976-83 military dictatorship, and must become more accountable.
    Guillermo Carmona of the Front for Victory echoed the presidents comments, saying that operations under the country's former spy agency were not in the national interest.
    "It eliminates the possibility under the criminal code that agents provide confidential information. This is what is currently happening now and which has nothing to do with the national interest," he said.
    But opposition lawmakers have said her bill does nothing to keep the new spy agency from committing the same irregularities that took place at the SI.
    Ricardo Alfonsin of the opposition Radical Civic Union said one day was not enough time to sufficiently debate the proposed changes.
    "They say they want to debate this project? How can they believe they want a sincere debate when they tell us that we have to agree with it in one day. This is not serious and it's a project that is absolutely insufficient. The project is the same dog but with a different collar," he said.
    Argentina's intelligence agency has been under the spotlight since the government accused former counterintelligence boss Stiuso of importing tonnes of contraband in 2013 and 2014. Stiuso, who has left the country, was forced out of the intelligence body in December and the unidentified contraband has disappeared.
    Nisman died hours before he was scheduled to brief Congress on his accusation that Fernandez entered a criminal conspiracy with Iran to whitewash the 1994 bombing in order to put through a grains-for-oil deal with Tehran.
    She has called the accusation "absurd", and Iran has denied involvement in the bombing, which killed 85 people.
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