MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina furious with Washington over top-spy 'hiding' in the US

Cristina Fernandez dedicated much of her speech to the UN General Assembly to talk about the spy-case and lack of cooperation from the US

Argentina and the US are on collision course following president Cristina Fernandez complaint of lack of cooperation from Washington, in helping locate a former Argentine spy, head of special operations, who apparently is hiding 'or being protected' in the US, and has been summoned by prosecutors in Buenos Aires.

 Cristina Fernandez dedicated much of her speech on Monday before the UN General Assembly to talk about the spy-case and lack of cooperation from the US, and on Tuesday an anonymous alleged State Department spokesperson told the Argentine media that there would be no comments on the whereabouts of 'Stiuso' from the US government.

Following the situation the Argentine Foreign ministry made public a long release giving details of the repeated requests and ongoing situation.

The Argentine government expressed on Tuesday its displeasure with statements from an alleged US Department State source which anonymously replied to president Cristina Fernandez repeated requests to locate top spy and head of special operations Jaime Stiuso, allegedly living 'protected' in United States.

“None of Argentina's requests was anonymous, all and each of them were made public, with a responsible signature and without hiding or misleading about the motives for such requests. We expect a similar treatment from the US authorities”, said the release from Argentina's Foreign Affairs ministry.

Further on, the release explains that minister Hector Timerman and the head of the Federal Intelligence Agency, Dr. Oscar Parrilli held a meeting last July with US ambassador Noah Mamet during which they explained the motives for the cooperation request to try and locate Mr. Jaime Stiuso. It was clearly informed that Mr. Stiuso was a former intelligence agent and under Argentine law was obliged to present himself each time he was summoned by authorities. However Stiuso has ignored such obligation, and Ambassador Mamet promised to give us a reply: this so far has not happened“.

Given the lack of news, Argentine ambassador in Washington, Cecilia Nahon last 2 September held a meeting with an officer from the State Department, Alex Lee iterating the request. At the meeting Mr. Lee mentioned the ”murder of Alberto Nisman“ to which Ambassador Nahón requested that if the officer had any information to confirm such statement to provide it, but Mr. Lee did not reply beyond saying he had no opinion on the circumstances of the death of Special prosecutors Nisman.

”Given the iterated silence from the US government, ambassador Nahon again on 9 September sends a letter iterating the cooperation request, but again with no reply.

“The Argentine Justice system has sent eight exhorts with so far no reply on the information requested. The anonymous spokesperson for the State Department should know that since last April, Argentine prosecutors from the AMIA case have been unable to summon Stiuso, since they ignore his whereabouts and have thus asked Interpol for a blue alert, to help find the person.

”Addressing the UN General Assembly president Cristina Fernandez complained about the lack of cooperation from the US government in an issues very closely linked to international terrorism as was the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires (which killed 85 and injured hundreds). The Argentine president was not the only world leader to address the scourge of terrorism as one of the world's main priorities. So did President Obama, whom if he wants to be really effective in combating international terrorism should begin by cooperating with the other governments and not send people without names or official posts to reply.

“To this President Cristina Fernandez was referring in her speech before the General Assembly on mentioning the double standard in diplomatic relations.

”Tomorrow, Wednesday, a copy of this release will be delivered to ambassador Noah Mamet to be sent to State Department authorities”, ends the release.

Allegedly Stiuso had very close links with the deceased special prosecutor Nisman and provided him with much of the intelligence for the AMIA case. Stiuso head of special operations has been in the Argentine intelligence service since the late seventies, and undoubtedly has much information and many more secrets.