MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Defence Minister backtracks on FAL rifle ignorance

Defence Minister Nilda Garré

While leading government figures continued their onslaught on a judge who has summoned Defence Minister Nilda Garré in a gunrunning case, the minister backtracked yesterday on her previous claims to ignorance as to what a FAL (light automatic rifle) is.

Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández yesterday called Judge Guillermo Tiscornia's judicial procedure "shameful" while the minister said that he has been "questioned for a long time." Tiscornia seemed to be wilting under the pressure yesterday when he hinted that he might resign ("a nice present for my wife" was the way he phrased it) as a form of plea bargaining to head off the impeachment proceedings against him, thus seeming to confirm the Cabinet Chief's theory for his charges against Garré. "It's boring to watch the same movie three times," said Tiscornia, referring to his two previous impeachments. The controversial judge has been accused of seeking via his father bribes of up to four million dollars (from a Spanish gaming company) in exchange for favourable rulings but claims that he is the victim of government persecution in connivance with smuggling interests. Fernández also accused some media of seeking to exploit the Garré case and other recent scandals, saying that such things are to be expected during election campaigns. Referring to the other scandals, he said that the charges of Clarín newspaper were a "formidable press operation" while he "had no reason to disbelieve" former economy minister Felisa Miceli's explanations as to what so much money was doing in her office bathroom. The Cabinet Chief also indignantly denied that the recent revelations incriminating certain officials could be the fruit of internal differences within the government. Tiscornia summoned Garré on the eve of the launch of first lady Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's presidential bid but the defence minister found another reason to be suspicious about the timing of the judge's move, pointing out that it was also on the eve of a scheduled appearance before the Council of Magistrates. On the subject of the "stupid debate" in the media about her admitted ignorance of FAL light automatic rifles, she commented: "I know what a FAL is ... but technically ... I haven't the slightest idea of the parts making it up and I don't think I need to know that to be a defence minister." She added that some journalists annoyed her more than Tiscornia. But both Garré and Tiscornia coincided in seeking to clarify aspects of exactly where the legal responsibility for the underinvoicing of 6,379 kilos of rifle parts shipped to the United States lay. Garré was at pains to explain that the Customs were not at fault for not controlling the shipment since its export price (2,600 dollars) was clearly the responsibility of the Fabricaciones Militares (FM) state munitions plant. And Tiscornia explained that he was holding Garré responsible even though FM is within Federal Planning not Defence Ministry jurisdiction because as soon as the munitions were exported, the Defence Ministry became responsible. Buenos Aires Herald