MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina opens secret service files on terrorist attacks.

The new Argentine government ordered secret service files to be opened to help the investigation of the bloodiest terrorist attack ever suffered by the country.

The order, contained in a decree signed by President Nestor Kirchner, brings to an end the controversy between the judiciary and the State Intelligence Service (SIDE).

Abraham Kaul, president of the Israeli Mutual Funds Association (AMIA), briefed the press at the government house on the scope of the decree, following a meeting with the president and other government officials.

The seven-story AMIA building in downtown Buenos Aires was reduced to rubble by a car bomb on July 18, 1994. The attack, which left 86 dead and 200 injured, was attributed to the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah.

Kaul told on Tuesday that he would demand the repeal of a law signed under the Carlos Menem administration (1989-1999), which forbids SIDE agents from testifying before federal Judge Juan Jose Galeano, who is in charge of the investigation into the bomb attack.

He praised Kirchner's degree because he said that the opening of the files would enable authorities to establish the reason why the Argentine government ignored a diplomatic report warning it about the possibility of a second attack.

Citing a report published this week by the local newspaper El Clarin, Kaul said that on May 31, 1994, 48 days prior to the AMIA attack, the Argentine Foreign Ministry received a confidential report from its then-ambassador to Lebanon, Juan Angel Faraldo.

The report, entitled "Spiritual Guidelines of (the pro-Iranian Lebanese group) Hezbollah: Attack in Argentina" was sent to the then-Foreign Ministry's secret service head, identified by the paper as "Mr. Molina Quiroga." The ambassador reported a speech made in south Beirut by Hezbollah spiritual leader Mohammed Fadlallah, in which he threatened to create "a problem for Israel" and asserted that the "Palestinian-Israeli conflict front" had become worldwide. He also said that Muslim fighters had already shown that "their hands could reach Argentina," in reference to the March 17, 1992, bomb attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people and demolished the building.

The investigation into the AMIA branched into two tracks: the part handled by Galeano and the other, known to Argentines as the "local link," implicating several police officers said to have helped build the car bomb, who have been on trial for a year-and-a-half.

The decree signed by Kirchner revoked another decree prohibiting the 14 SIDE agents, which including the secret service officials said to have received the confidential report from Lebanon, from testifying in court.

The decree would also allow the court to summon for testimony Hugo Anzoreguy, a lawyer friend of Menem and ex-SIDE chief, and former Interior and Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf, who held the latter post until two weeks ago.

On March 5, Galeano issued an international warrant for the arrest of several Iranian government officials, including a diplomat previously posted to Buenos Aires, on charges of masterminding the AMIA attack