Welcome to the Wilson Center. My name is benjamin. Im a senior director of the argentina project. Im pleased to have with us today former congresswoman as well as lisa mall grove, secretary general of the organization. Members of the diplomatic corps and represents of the treasury and department and state and capitol and other distinguished guests. Wed also like to thank all of you joining us online and thank all of you for your interests. Before we begin, i want to thank our ko sponsors. The images resemble the aftermath of an earthquake digging desperately for survivors. It was a suicide bomber who rammed explosives into the building murdering 85 people including a 5yearold and injuring 300 others. In 2004, argentina appointed special prosecutors to determine who arranged this massacre. Two years later they delivered their verdict, the highest etch lon were responsible for the take they wrote and instructed terrorist hezbollah to carry o out the organization. In addition to warrants issued by judges in argentina. Yet, 25 years since the bombing not one suspect has been arrested or extradited to argentina to stand trial. Worst still several suspects live in iran and travel freely and are advisors to the supreme leader. Another served as defense minister in iran until 2013 is now president of irans National Defense university. Despite these arrest warrants detectives have visited 20 countries since the bombing, rush, turkey and argentinas neighbor, boll bolivia. For two decades they at the point alive this brutal act of terrorism. The u. S. Congress has regularly drawn attention to this tragedy. Despite these, the International Committee has failed to hold accountable the state sponsored attack. Argentina has done its part. The country under different political leaders stood up year after year and pleaded for the International Community to do the same. Just this month, argentinas Foreign Ministry recognized the 25th anniversary by calling the case embraced by all argentine people who must spare no effort to shed light on the bombing and prosecute those responsible. To do our part we invited argentine ambassador, or oris de roa and our esteemed ambassador. I would like to invite ambassad ambassador oris de roa and another ambassador who worked with the terrorism government and another latin go. On the terrorism challenge. Many thanks for your presence and support. Good afternoon and thank you, benjamin. A neighborhood so familiar to us watching this video, this is the kind of thing we watch on cnn, these events happening somewhere else in the worried, never ever imagining this could happen in buenos aires, in the middle of buenos aires, where my mother and i would go there frequently. All these people you heard about are fortunately still our neighbors. One of them just said i was there and i was saved. They may be the case for him but not all of us, until we find justice we will not be fully saved. Thank you benjamin and the Wilson Center and for inviting me, argentina, to this very important meeting, one of several events we will participate in this unbelievable anniversary. At the event of the hill, we thought we would have to be there to thank the United States and many friends from other embassies and like israel also here today. As i said that monday, argentina has chosen to, to be the land and people accepted including those persecuted in their place of origin, in a framework of opportunities definitive communities made their contribution to the forming and progress of the argentine society. Among them the Jewish Organization for Peaceful Society and great commitment to democratic values. We all know the 25th anniversary of the most brutal attack ever suffered in argentinas history. The bombing for 25 years, looking for justice, keeping alive the memory of those who lost their lives, that didnt get a chance to defend themselves. The pain will never seize. The wounds cannot be completely held, but impunity makes it a lot worse. It is brand for the history of argentina and the entire region, for the history of the Jewish Community that justice has to prevail. That is the respect we owe to the memory of the victims and it is what makes us stronger to fight against terrorism. The government of argentina is fully committed to doing justice for the 85 families and hundreds of wounded of this terrorist attack. It will not cease in its objective that all people involved in this attack come before argentine courts and be interrogated and convicted. We continue to request the Islamic Republic of iran to cooperate with the argentine judicial authorities. At the same time, we ask countries that are friends of argentina, that company us in this claim, avoid diplomatic immunity for any accused for who International Arrest warrants have been made and notices circulated by interpol. All the countries in the world are responsible for fighting to eradicate terrorism. Every country in the world is responsible for eradicating antisemitism. We must end terrorism without notice, without contemplation, without speculation, whether political or economic. We should do it without second thoughts. We cannot live prisoners to terror or succumb to the contagion. Terrorism is our main enemy, the most cruel, the most coward, the most ruthless, the one that has the largest inhuman dimension. Yet it made us feel terror and we were not used to terror. Hate and destruction became unfortunately something we had to beware of. All argentineans. Although the terrorists targeted one of the most important institutions of the Jewish Community that served in the community it was also a blow against democracy and freedom. Terrorism does not discriminate race or religion. Its objective is to destroy everything that opposes its totalitarian beliefs. This 25th anniversary gives us the opportunity to say to the world those who want to spread terror will never succeed because we will not allow the attack to fade into on blifian. Argentina remembers the same way we will go anywhere in the world. President macron said more than once from the very beginning in his first speech in the opening session of congress, the government will not forget the victims of terrorism. There is no better tribute to the victims of the amia attack and we search for justice and keep it in our memory. Not an annual but a daily effort is necessary. I am glad finally to have the ambassador follow my presentation. My government will host a meeting to confront terrorism and indifference. Thank you very much. [ applause ] good afternoon everyone. I would like to begin by saying good afternoon, everyone. Id like to begin by saying thank you to the Wilson Center and foundation for defense of democracies for hosting this important event, inviting me to speak in honor of this sad and solemn occasion. Im pleased were joined by my good friend, ambassador of argentina, fernando oris de roa, as well as bengie. Thank you for honoring us with your presence today and amias chief lawyer who traveled here for this occasion. Next thursday, july 18th, will mark five years since the amia was bombed in buenos aries. Im here today to speak about the victims, honor their memory. Im herls to speak about the perpetrators and what were doing to prevent future atrocities like this one. This bombing was carried out with the terrorist Group Hezbollah with the full support and direction of iran. In attacking amia these terrorists targeted not just argentina but all who call it home. We will not forget this attack. Everyday we work to insure no future attacks like this happen again. That is why, as you heard, argentina, in cooperation with the United States, will host a ministerial meeting next week in buenos aires to bolster efforts to protect this hemisphere from the scourge of terrorism. The victims of this horrific attack, 85 people were killed and more injured. They were argentine and immigrants. Catholic and jewish, religious and secular. Workers and doctors and lawyers and janitors and students. They had names, they had families, they had children, they had friends. They had plans for the future, which for them never came. Let us honor the memories of those tragically lost. The youngest victim, sebastian, was 5. He died holding his mothers hand as they walked in front of the building. The oldest victim was 73 and a tailor. Let us remember martine, a contractor. He planned to uses the money he made working on the amia building to take his family on vacation. He left behind a wife and six children. A law suitudent, 29, was meetin with her mother. Decurbo urged martine to hold on despite the incredible pain he felt. Martine survived and he did not. A 13yearold was not identified until 2016, the last victim to be named. His mother, maria jesus, also died in the blast. Let us pause for a moment of silence as we remember these and all the victims of this cowardly attack. The bombing was not the first attack on argentina. In 1992 they bombed there was the amia bombing wasnt the first attack. They killed 29 people and wounding 242 more. Besides the embassy, the catholic church, the school, and a home for the elderly were destroyed. Most of the victims were argentine citizens and many were children. Among the dead was father giancarlo brumana, who died in the rubble of his church. As argentines president emphasize two years ago on the 25th anniversary of the embassy bombing, it is necessary to understand it was not an attack on the embassy or jews but argentina. Indeed it was. The evidence points clearly at hezbollah. Why would a lebanon based terror group which purports to be a defender of lebanon attack south america and argentina. Argentina hadnt taken any actions against hezbollah or that armharmed lebanon. The reason is the groups patron, iran, wanted to attack argentina and that was all that was needed. Secretary pompeo recently emphasized iran was the Worlds Largest state of terror. That was true then and now. They endorsed the islamic attack and the revolutionary guard core provided the funding an Logistical Support and hezbollah, long their most deadly and capable proxy, carried out the operation. We join president macri and the argentine government for seeking justice for the attack and the families. We will cooperate fully in this investigation. 25 years later still waiting. Theres still six International Arrest warrants, interpol red notices outstanding, based on criminal charges filed in argentina and contain the arrests of the hezbollah members suspected in the amia attack. These include several iranian officials. Akhmed, the former kurds force commander and defense minister. Former commander and irans former minister of intelligence. There are also arrest warrants outstanding for robani and ahmad ashari, who served in buenos and its also to mistake arrest efforts for the bombing. In 2004, the investigation had been plagued with mismanagement and corruption and he pursued it over the next 11 years in order to get to the bottom of this most deadly attack. Eastman faced obstacles at every turn with Death Threats against himself and his children. He was undaunted up until the day he was murdered in 2015. We want to bring to justice the perpetrators of the amia bombing that he so aciduously investigated. Its been a quarter of a century since the amia bombing yet hezbollah and iran remain undiminished. They continue to provide hundreds of millions of dollars every year to terrorists around the world and provided hezbollah 700 million a year. It does this despite the economic turmoil impoverishing its own people. Tehrans priorities are clear. It doesnt seek to boost Economic Growth at home or their employment. They prioritize buying guns and bombs to export terror. We talked about hezbollah plots in argentina in the 1990s. This is far from a historical matter because hezbollah continues to have our hemisphere in its sites today. One of their main collaborators is former Vice President under the venezuela dictator, nicolas maduro. When he was head of venezuelas Passport Agency she was suspected of providing passports to hezbollah operatives. He is touted as a successor to maduro, calling him a strong man in the shadows and of bashir al assad. Apparently they meant that as a compliment. We dont see it that way. In 2016, they designated him as a designated narcotics trafficker under the kingpin act. A hezbollah member arrested in 201414 is currently on trial in peru on terrorism charges. A key hezbollah financier is now sitting in jail in brazil awaiting extra decision to pera gai on several charges. Then a hezbollah supporter recently extra extradited from paraguay to florida. It continues to be a node of hezbollah activity. For decades, hezbollah has taken advantage of the loosely regulated region to plant money and plan attacks. We assess some of the amia bombing took place there. It is active in the United States. In 2017, the fbi arrested two hezbollah operatives in michigan and new york respectively. Including the panama canal. And just convicted by a jury in new york for his crimes. Indeed, hezbollah, and its iranian patrons spread terrorism across the globe from attacks to diplomatic facilities in iraq and african countries, kenya and nigeria and bombings and assassination is in the heart of western europe. No place is safe from irans monovalent reach. Hezbollah has Front Companies in the gulf, africa, asia, and here in the western hemisphere. In recent years, hezbollah operatives have been caught preparing takes in egypt, cyprus, peru and thailand. And weapons in asia and africa. Hezbollah likes to masquerade as a defender of the lebanese people. These actions reveal its true agenda, global terrorism. In 2012 hezbollah bombed a bus in bulgaria, killing five israeli tourists including their driver. That took place july 18th approximately argentina and bulgaria are now joined together sharing a bloody anniversary. As we remember the victims of this deadly plot, we also call on bulgaria to complete the trial of the hezbollah members charged in abstentia consistent with its domestic law. Let me tell you now what the administration is doing to crack down on hezbollah and other iranbacked terrorists, both around the globe and our hemisphere. Under the leadership of President Trump we have intensified efforts against iran and iagc and hezbollah worldwide. Most notably, in april, secretary pompeo took the unprecedented step designating them as a foreign organization, and it was the entire organization, including its qudss for. It is the first time it designated another government as fto. They now acknowledge the reality they dont just finance and promote terrorism, it actively engages in terrorism as a tool of state craft. To counter hezbollah, were using Law Enforcement and financial tools to disrupt its network. Were targeting its Financial Resources and squeezing it out of the Financial System. Were hitting it in the wallet and will deny the funds it needs around the world. The u. S. Government has identified 150 entities and individuals with ties to hezbollah including 50 just since last year. The state department rewards for Justice Program recently offered up to 10 million for disruption of hezbollahs mechanisms. This is the first time we ever issued an rft award for hezbollah financing. It was an important step in our campaign against tehran and its terrorist proxies. In 2017, offering a reward for those with american blood on their hands, a bombing of u. S. Marine barracks in beirut, killing 2 frown American Service members. And the head of the security organization, terrorist arm responsible for the campaign of terror across the globe. These are the first targeting hezbollah in more than a decades. We also sanctioned a especially designated terrorist, jerad, a son of a hezbollah leader and own leader in his own right. In recent weeks the u. S. Designated security chiefs along with two members of the lebanese parliament. Our sanctions are to starve iran and keep them from getting money worldwide. We are using everything at our disposal to affect their network and participating in Drug Trafficking and other crimes. The good news, hezbollah is feeling the pinch. As our sanctions have taken hold, hezbollah had to tighten its belt. The groups secretary general is now publicly asking for donations. The resistance needs your support, he has said. We will continue to increase the financial pressure and impose costs on the Iranian Regime and its terrorist proxies until they abandon their mall lined and bad behavior. We are partnering with key multilateral players like organization of american states and 15 member caribbean community. We also have robust bilateral Counter Terrorism cooperation throughout the region including argentina, panama, paraguay, brazil, peru and columbia. Next week, we will intensify these efforts at a Counter Terrorism meeting at buenos aires to follow up one last december. We applaud president macri and their leadership for hosting this meeting. The president well knows the costs of iranbacked terrorism and courageously renewed argentinas resolve to never suffer another attack and will renew investigations in the 1992 and 1994 bombings and bring the perpetrator to justice. Impunity must end. In buenos aires, we will work together. We will continue to seek ways to block terrorist travel and cut off the flow of money. And the nexus between transinternational crime and terrorism and we will also be making additional announcements in buenos aires. Stay tuned. One of the lessons a quarter century ago is no country is safe from terrorism. We all have a stake of ridding the world of the scourge. The only way to secure ourselves and prevent more victims like sebastian, uchevski and others is working on joint security and confronting terrorism honestly. Thank you all. [ applause ] first, thank you very much for those poignant remarks and for being with us today. Ambassador oris de roa and thank you, ambassador sales for the info on hezbollahs activities. 25 years later we can do something about it and thank you for sharing it with us. I want to add my welcome to many ambassadors and diplomats from latin america and elsewhere here today and especially welcome benjamin craft, ambassador from israel. Not only was the Jewish Community bombed by hezbollah, this was actually the Second Attack in 1992, in which 29 people were killed, 242 others were injured, both of them were attacks on argentina. Both must be regarded as antisemitic attacks and both call out for justice for their victims and Holding Accountable those responsible. A warm welcome to you and all those joining us today. I also want to welcome those who are here on live stream. A warm welcome to our panelists. Mikael is an argentine lawyer specializing in human rights. In 1998 he worked on the attacks. Since 2008, he has led the legal team that represents the amia on every single judicial related matter. Miguel traveled all the way from argentina to be here with us today. Thank you so much for coming in. I know youre leaving after this to join the ministerial meetings in argentine that. Daniel glacier, previously secretary of financial crimes and head of the u. S. Delegation of the Financial Action towards. My colleague, emmanueleottolenghi is from the foundation for defense and economic power and along with sanctions, hes been a great resource for government and Law Enforcement. Thank you, emanuele for being here. I will start with you. You have worked on legal matters on behalf of amia for 20 years. I think nobody knows the case better than you do. Just last week we posted it, if youre interested in looking at the tremendous amount of documents associated with the case. Many people know interpol listed the red notices and we talked about it today. Whats the strongest evidence you have tying iran and hezbollah to the amia case. Thank you. Id like to take a minute and here on behalf of amia, i thank you all for coming here. I know you have very busy schedules in washington, d. C. And thank you for coming and thank you, benjamin and toby for coming to this event. Its very important for us. The answer to your question could be very long. It is a very complex crime. You can build the case by putting together many many pieces of evidence. Its not just one, two or three. You have to make an assemble of different pieces of evidence. In the 90s in buenos aires, the list of possible suspects that could carry out such attack is very short. Today, terrorism takes many different forms in many different places. Back then, the suspect list was really short. The truth is even though the International Arrest warrants and arrest notices are from 2007, hezbollah has been in the case from day one. In fact, the first judge in charge of the case issued a resolution only two months after the attack saying iran and hebced carried on this attack. They both had motive. Consulation by the argentine government of the Nuclear Contracts that were in the late 80s, in the case of hezbollah, israel had arrested one of its leaders just 40 days before that and the hezbollah chief publicly said while claiming vengeance said our arms are long. If not, see what happens in argentina two years ago. He was talking about the Israel Embassy bombing in 1982 which had taken place because israel had killed the chief of hezbollah back then. Iran had a an instructor of intelligence and espionage in argentina with diplomatic officials. Hezbollah had the financial and lo gist call coordination. Through the area. I know one thing is to know who did it and the other is to prove who did it. Along the years all the evidence, very slowly, because in the 90s, the information, to get the traveling information about a person would take much longer than these days. Slowly other information was gathered in the file. Now, we are sure about who, where and when took the position to carry on the attack. Why, which were the motives, which were the reasons, who was responsible for carrying out the attack, hezbollah, who was the suicide driver who brought the car against the amia building and made explosion, lebanese person, named ibrahim, belonged to a family very active in hezbollah. H he had two brothers in terrorist attacks. We know when the group entered the country, july 18th and exited the country, july 18th. Theres a lot of evidence that supports this accusation. Great. I think 25 years later a lot of people may think the case frankly is dormant. If you could take a minute and there are three separate cases, one is the original case having to do with the bombing itself and the attempted coverup of irans role in the 1994 bombing and mentioned earlier investigation into the assassination of alberto. Im sure there are parts of these things. Take a moment the status and address the interpol red notices, whats the status of those . The red notices are in full effect, despite irans efforts, interpol has renovated them. Theyre in full effect. Thats why we complain when one of the accused iranians travel outside their country and not arrested. They should be arrested. The case has several different fronts on the main investigation, which is still open and we have new prosecutors after alberto nissans assassination in office. We are not happy with the work. We are saying this publicly. We understand its difficult to be in charge of a case thats been going on so long. We still would like to see more activity with the new prosecutors and complaining about that and use all the attention next week to put the focus on that. The main investigation is related to iran and hezbollah although we know a lot of information, as i just said, there are still many things we dont know an want to know. Also, we are convinced and always convinced there was a connection in the blood and the bombing. One of the people with an International Arrest warrant, a lebanese citizen, who was married to an argentine woman, who as we know is living with him in limonene. In limon. There was also involvement in the handling of the van used in the car bomb by corrupted Police Officers in the early 90s, a come monday thing in argentina. All those things still need to be fully investigated. There were some attempts and they failed and they were pushing for the prosecutors to retake the case again seriously now. Youre asking about the trial or the coverup . Well, this is the outcome of alberto niecemans complaint, the complaint that consumes his life. Im sure you all know he claimed the former president and group of former officials made a deal with iran with the amia case in order to cover up with iranians to help them lift notices in exchange for commercial favors. At the beginning, they tried to shut down the investigation, after a couple of years, investigation was finally reopened and now the former president has to is waiting in fact for the trial to begin. Shes accused of coverup and trees son, very serious crimes. This on election day. Im sure you also know she is a candidate for Vice President. As it works in argentina, most probably the court will wait to see what happens in the elections and decide if the trial starts this year or never, according to the result of the elections. And about nieceman, we are still worried about that. I still have no words we felt when the prosecutor in charge of the amia case had been murdered. We knew he had been murdered from minute one. Thankfully the investigations that followed, it took some time, but have confirmed he was in fact assassinated and that he was assassinated because of this work as a federal prosecutor of the amia case. That has been stated in court judicially not only by the first instance, prosecutor and judge, but court of appeals, and even by the supreme court. But thats not enough, of course. We need the crime to be fully solved. We need to know who ordered the assassination, who did it and why. Its not enough to say because of the amia case. We need to know why, who was behind the case and the prosecutor after, that they did such a horrendous thing. And we would like the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, if he doesnt have enough resources, ask for them and if they are not cooperating enough, we are not satisfied. We see silence. We need answers, everybody, the whole country needs answers about that. Every couple of weeks i see other evidence emerging from the case and phone records and all kinds of things. Thanks for the updates because these cases are rich and are ongoing and worthy of our continued attention. We may come back to those. I want to turn to emanuele, and you spent a lot of time working on it. And back in 2004 and 2006, the Treasury Department designated hezbollah financiers associated with that. How would you define the threat in the tba today, many years later . Thank you. Thanks for the Wilson Center for having us here together for this event. Countries contiguous to the tba. Perhaps thats part of the real problem in the tba, in the triborder area, despite the fact that hezbollah has had a well documented robust presence for more than three decades now, there is a lack of recognition of this reality. It is often downplayed. When we have evidence of financial crimes such as contraband, smuggling, Money Laundering, arms trafficking, Drug Trafficking and significant crimes connected to currency emotional exchange, movement on currency across the borders without declaration and violation of banking regulation and so on, its often dismissed simply as tax evasion or something attributed to general lawlessness of the area. Ever since ftb started my project looking at iran and hezbollah in latin america is the fact that when you go to the tba, as you can do in a handful of other locations in latin america, what you find is a miniature reproduction of the entire hezbollah social welfare operation and control of lebanon. You find mosques, schools, youth movements, charitable organizations not just there to serve a numerous Shia Lebanese community, which is present there, has been for a long time, has been very much a part of the fabric of the society of tba. The values implicated to the kids in the school named as lebanese but really Shia Lebanese under the control of the School Network of hezbollah, the values implicated are the ones of hezbollah. Clerics are hezbollah clerics. The treasurer in 2010 actually designated a shia cleric inside the mosque, the largest shia mosque in latin america in san paulo, brazil as the chief representative in latin america. This cleric is very close to all the others in the region. Until recently traveling around and keeping contacts and building networks. Whenever you see this kind of hezbollah values enough the community they are targeting to ensure that over decades the shia lebanon ese maintain a loyal connection to hezbollah in lebanon. We have it on record from treasury in the designations from 2004 and 2016 that actually some of the hezbollah financiers targeted were in charge of ensuring that those people members of the Business Community who didnt want to toe the line and align themself and acquiesce to this situation would be extorted threatened and pressure to conform align. And i think when you take that into account that is really an important sign and consistent with the strategy that both hezbollah and iran have had in latin america of using religious institution, cultural centers, as a kind of facade to deploy and establish a presence to spread influence, to gain support, to build alliances with local political movements. Now the second point is that of course as i was saying initially, the triborder area remains a hub of Illicit Trade if trade based finances and illicit had a heat presence. The triborder area would glow red as few other places in the world would do. Rightfully sew despite the popularization of the location by recent Netflix Productions suggests its a remote dirt road area in the jumble like mullahs in the jungle with bondi presiding. Its very much first world. Its a large metropolitan area of combined 1 million residents more or less. It has the largest or second largest by size hydroelectric dam in the world. First largest in terms of electric production bringing tens of thousands of, you know, middle class professionals, educated professionals to live in the area from both sides of the border, parring i brazil. It has a free trade zone . Paraguay. The brazilen airport alone handles 4. 5 Million People a carrier. It has languages and weak borders and corrupt institution that is allows for an incredible amount of flow of money. The federal police in brazil established in 2017 that the average value of the illicit economy in the tp pachlt alone is 18 billion a year. It is a mecca for Money Laundering. And Money Laundering and hezbollah in the same place means terrorist. You talked about porous borders. And thats one reason that its sort of a ripe area for organized crime. Can you talk to us briefly, what are the taqs that hezbollah uses in the triborder area . What is the financial infrastructure looks like. Again for anyone who visited whats strike something that you kind of expect reading about it to find you know a lawless place. But actually its a fairly its a relatively friendly area, especially the commercial zone on parring gauen side. As soon as you cross the bridge you dont need to travel to the commercial zone. Its right there. 80s shopping mecca. On black friday you can buy an iphone for 450. You can buy a Ralph Lauren Polo shirts for 40. If you dont want to pay netflix, amazon prim or hbo subscription you can by a scrambler for 130 produced legally in brzle. But low priced in paraguay. The phone you buy im not sewer is authentic. The polo shirts are produced in a sweat shop using Illegal Immigrants or overworked underpaid workers. Somewhere else in latin america. Then it has been shipped by contraband across the andes and so on. So the entire the triborder economy, especially on the paraguayen side. The role. Hezbollah financiers is manage an enormous volume of trade, both fake and authentic. A lot of merchandise comes. But a lot of false invoicing is generating to move value. And the movement of value is put to the service of criminal activities. Paraguay has been increasing for drugs from bolivia on first of all to the local brazilian market, which is explodes as a cocaine consumer but also to be shipped to europe, africa, to the United States, and even beyond. The presence of the incredibly efficient welloiled trade based Money Laundering machine allows for ill gotten gains from crime to be quickly and efficiently laundered. And the communities there to do it launder through control of Money Exchange houses and pretty much the entire range of endeavors that is in. Why is this important for the United States . I think National Security not just for the region for two reasons. The first is that actually when you look at the trade based Money Laundering operations, the vast majority of them goes through the United States. They buy merchandise or pretend to buy merchandise in china through hong kong. But then they have intermediate companies mostly located in miami. Now, one would say why would hezbollah take the risk of being caught in the United States when they can ship through china from china directly to latin america. The answer is that criminals and terrorists and everybody else wants access to the Gold Standard of the Financial System. And want to anya. When we fight terrorism we often think we are fighting people hiding in the shadows, conspiring to blow up buildings and people. To blow up buildings and people especially when you talk about a nonstate actor as hezbollah, you actually need a whole complex range of Logistical Support and procurement to carry out the terror attacks. And you know ambassador sales mentioned before cypress, london recently in the news because of a warehouse where three tons of ammonium nigh trait hidden in ice packs was found and related to a hezbollah plot. You cant walk into the cvs pharmacy on Dupont Circle and buy three tons of ice pac without raising suspicion. What you need is a legitimate company that does import, export of medical supply that is will buy that and provide it to then those who will have the Technical Expertise to carry out the terror attack. Thats what happened with am ufrmt a and thats what happened with the terror attacks. Therefore these economic infrastructures used most of the time to launder money and raise funds for terror finance can also be activated are for the procurement of explosives that can be used in future attacks. Real wick answer you keep talking about the gains that accrue to hezbollah. Is it possible to quantify them briefly. Its difficult to quantify an illicit economy. There are estimates we have heard 700 million a year from iran. Its assumed hezbollah raises 300 million a year on its own through variety of other activities. When you look at the value of single operations that have been exposed through sanctions and by prosecutions in the United States, take the case with the lebanon Bank Canadian there are 300 million were laundered threw a single network. We know hezbollah takes about a 10 to 20 commission on these operations. When i look at the size of the illicit economy of tpa alone, 18 billion a year according to the federal police of braz. My zumgs is we are talking about over 1 pl a year through money raised in Illicit Activity alone in dan we are getting new a second. I dont want to leave latin america just yet. In a second we are zooming out and look at hezbollah outside of the region. Miguel i wanted to come back to you, and just summarize what are the key sort of Lessons Learned from the attacks and what things still need to be inside argentina in the fight against terrorism . Real briefly . Yes, thank you, toby. Well there have been many lessons. The first and most painful is that terrorism can hide every questioner which in the early 90s was not so well assumed. And thats why the first years of the investigations were of quite solitary for the investigators and the Jewish Community. Then different attacks around the world took place and they started to look back what happened in argentina in a different way. That was one of the first lessons. Another lesson is that hezbollah is very present in the region as well iran. There was an indictment in 2013 in the case that showed and followed all the ways iran had infiltrated the whole country. I think thats why all the work on hezbollah and the triborder area is very important and crucial. And specifically related to the amia case and argentina there are several things that still need to be improved. Im talking about modern legislation, the first judge always complained he had to investigate these case which was so complex with the same tools that he had to investigate an everyday crime. And nothing has changed on that respect. We still have the same which was already old we still have the same old criminal proceed mts mts from the late, early 90s. We need a new antiterrorist legislation. All the countries suffering terrorism have updated and modernized legislation. Argentina has not. We need more training for the security forces, for sure. We need a way that the Intelligence Services can coordinate that was very clear along the investigation that the different Intelligence Units in the country that were operating they were either operating for their own benefit, their own purpose or for different motives. But they were never operating in a coordinated way. And thats crucial. Because those are the people and the agencies who are going to move the investigation forward. Its not the judge. Its not the prosecutor. The judge and the prosecutor just received information that these agencies can bring them. So they are not working in a coordinated way. The result will be what we had in the ammia case, a long and slow and painfully painful investigation. Great. Thanks. So understandably weve talked a lot about latin america. But danny you have spent 20 years looking at hezbollah issues and hezbollah funding streams. Ambassador sales gave us a great tour. What i want to know is, many terrorist organizations are getting savvy, covering tracks, using new techniques and technologies in addition to the traditional ways that they raise money. You know, how does hezbollah fit into this picture . Well, thanks, toby. And first of all ivyl just say really quickly, thank you to fdd and the Wilson Center for inviting me its an honor to be here and honor to be with the distinguished panel processes this is a fun topic its a sad and tragic topic. But its heartening to see all the people interested in this and care so much about this about this issue. With respect to hezbollah globally, when you think about it, its sort of Economic Economic and financial wealth, there is really you could divide it into lots of different smaller categories but two major categories. The money it gets from iran and Everything Else. And it clearly gets gets hundreds of millions of dollars annually from iran. I think emanuele said the number is 700 million. Im not up to date on the most recent numbers. But its hundreds of millions of dollars for sure annually from iran. And i do believe thats the primary source of wealth for hezbollah. And that Everything Else it gets is nice to have money. But if we to be serious about thinking about hezbollah financing, it really does need to begin with the money that it receives directly in cash from iran. And then it and then you get to hezbollah, inc, which is just hezbollah is a Multinational Corporation that has financial interests around the world that engages in many different activities, some some sort of legal, some illegal. And its got a lot of quite unsavery people affiliated with it in a variety of ways, including many people in the triborder area. Including people as ambassador sales mentioned in venezuela. You know, i actually think that hezbollah is much more integrated in the western hemisphere that people realize. And thats kevoncommonly talked about. It seems any time we look somewhere we found hezbollah in the western hemisphere. But its a big map of the western hemisphere thats completely dark and then you shine the flashlight and where you shine the flashlight theres hezbollah but you flash the flashlight somewhere else, sao paulo we mentioned there is hezbollah. You shine the flashlight on other organizations there is hezbollah. If we turned on the lights ketly its quite integrated in the western hemisphere and is even in the United States. My good friend and former enclosing at Treasury Department matt levitt speaks and has written extensively on hezbollah fund raising that occurs in the United States. The triborder area is an important place. But hezbollah hezbollah, inc, exists worldwide. In terms of sort of strategies we have deployed to try to address this and a lot of it was discussed by ambassador sales earlier you know, i think of going back and especially after the bombings in argentina, there was an intense focus on looking at sort of the far flung hezbollah Financial Networks and the Financial Networks supporting them here in western hemisphere and the triborder area and other places. And that was important work. And that work is continued through the bush and into the obama administration. And it was work that focused on the western hemisphere, focused in west africa and other places. But you know we came to a conclusion. And this is going to be slightly at odds with what emanuele said. But i dont think its too much at odds. We came to a conclusion somewhere, i dont know somewhere in like 2011, 2012, that going after hezbollah sort of on the periphery was going to be was nice to do and important to do in terms of disrupting capabilities around the world. But if we really wanted to send a message to hezbollah that we were going after them in a strategic way, that we were going after them in a which to damage to ability to operate. We needed to do things. Target iran and target the ability of iran to supply hezbollah and challenge hezbollah in beirut. We needed to show them we could make their live uncomfortable in beirut, in the lebanon Financial System. Hezbollah is scary. If i lived in lebanon id be scared of hezbollah. But the u. S. Treasury department is kind of scary when youre in the International Financial system and there was an opportunity to put your finger on the scale a little bit. No one thought we would uproot hezbollah from south lebanon. But we we did think we could send a message we were prepared to challenge them in the Financial System in beirut. Its been mentioned the lebanon Canadian Bank and various actions that were taken and Congress Took around that time to make it much harder for hezbollah to engage in financial activity and then even the most recent designations by the by the u. S. Government on the hezbollah parliamentarians. All of that goes to unsettling hezbollah where it thought it could feel comfortable. And thats good. Thats an absolutely vital part of any Financial Campaign against hezbollah. Theyre going to continue to get money from iran. Were not going to bankrupt hezbollah. But we can make it costlier, riskier, less efficient and make them feel uncomfortable. Make them feel there is no place for them to hide. And thats been the frankly the consistent financial strategic are strategy against hezbollah from over the past ten years and up until today. So its it was gratifying for me to hear some of the things ambassador sales was say. And i do think its a target rich environment that but thats lots of opportunities to continue to put them on their heels and continue to be part of what needs to be an overall effort, all of dwogovernment eft to defeat hezbollah. So i want to put this question to whichever panelist wants to answer it. Id be remiss if i didnt address the story thats so pervasive in the argentine press this morning, which is that argentina may issue this week some reports say even thursday may issue something akin to an executive order designating hezbollah as a terrorist entity in the exact same way the United States designates hezbollah in the exact same way other countries around the world some other countries around the world designate hezbollah. Now, argentina doesnt have kind of a terrorism list right now. And so whatever mechanism they need to do this, you know, will well see what it is. But, you know, talk to me about what the impact of this is. How important is it . Emanuele youll want to Say Something ill start with you first. I have volunteered. Thank you. Yes i do want to Say Something. First of all with the caveat that it hasnt happened yet, and we understand that this step still has to face some internal hurdles perhaps. Its something extremely commendable that you know should be welcomed, applauded, supported, that argentina is taking the lead on. You cant begin to solve a problem as long as and until you actually recognize it. And you recognize it by calling it by its name. And thats been part of the problem in latin america. There is for a variety of reasons local political, historical and so on reluctance to call and recognize hezbollah and also legal by the way, to recognize hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The fact that argentina on the 25th anniversary of the amia is getting ready hopefully to do that is very important and shows the way for other countries. And again, ambassador sales mentioned the fact that other countries in the region, allies have been supportive of the effort to combat hezbollah, to go after hezbollah networks. He mentioned the arrest in september of last year of barakat on the brazilian side of the tpa. He mentioned fact that f pachlt rhat whom he called a hezbollah support her. And im glad the u. S. Government is openly naming him as a hezbollah the supporter kprating from from parring guy. And i want to commend the prosecutors and the judicial system for ensuring all of the rm outside influences and efforts to torpedo the extradition process is failed. And he is now safely in the jail at the courthouse in miami. We need moving forward to have local governments call a spade a spade. Say hezbollah is a terrorist organization one. And two they need to invest more and work for a situation where when they arrest hezbollah financiers dsh not just at our behest but because they themselves have the courage and ability to build up the cases, they can actually carry out justice in their own countries. I mean, we are in a situation now where you have governments who in the past were reluctant to do so who are now willing to extradite hezbollah financiers to face justice in the United States. I would like to see maybe this is a longterm project. Both paraguay. And create a create a legal work and judges, investigators Law Enforcement agencies with rurss capacity, no how instruments and knowledge to go after hezbollah down there. Ill jules very quickly add to that i agree with everything emanuele said. I think there is reluctance in a lot of countries and a lot of communities to call an organization a terrorist organization that also does other things. So if its a terrorist organization but also a Political Party but a terrorist organization or also social movement or sproi provides social services or also has a seat in government, then there is a reluctance to call it a terrorist organization. I actually think the United States gets it right. If its an organization that engages in terrorist activities then its a terrorist organization through and through and doesnt matter about the other things that it does. We have to understand that it may be providing Important Services and address that issue. But it doesnt matter what it does, if it engages in terrorist activities, it is a terrorist organization. 100 . And i think its important that argentina has taken this action. Injury other countries should take the action. And i think countries particularly the European Countries that designated the quote unquote military wing of hezbollah as a terrorist Organization Need to designate it as a whole as a terrorist organization. Because there is no such thing as the military wing of ive had so many conversations with friends in europe. What exactly is the military wing . Nas ralla says he doesnt understand what the military wing of hezbollah is. There is no such thing. We need to understand that the groups thats this is what they are. And we need to identify them as such. And we need to treat them as such. From a to z. Audience were getting to questions in a second. So start thinking about what you want to ask our panelists. Before we do that let me invite you miguel to address that. On in last topic, yes, i totally agree. And in fact following with i had just said, im a bit concerned because i received rumors that say this morning from our argentina that the government is about to finish the decree ordering a register for terrorist organizations that would be the first step. The second one would be related to hezbollah. And apparently sorry they are considering designating just the Military Branch military. Which doesnt exist. Which it doesnt exist. Exactly. And it would be in my view completely useless. So hopefully one is going to address this matter properly in argentina before its finally issued. And if argentina takes this step do you think it will encourage others in the region to follow suit . I think its essential that paraguay and brazil follow the steps and do exactly the same, yes. Great. Audience i invite questions. Is there a mic . I think we we have a question here. Wait for the mirk thank you. And could i ask you to keep your questions brief were short on time and if you wouldnt mind sbrus. Im a Intelligence Analyst and former diplomat. We have some capacity to actually empty Bank Accounts and even make them disappear. I often wonder why we dont use that tool often, in fact every day. What i want to ask, though, is how strong are the networks that would allow the organizations to get around such an intelligence operation . And is a lot of this money moving through hoala some of it moving through hoala moechl most of it through hoala. Thank you, danny. I think most most hezbollah related money not talk about the money from iran coming from in cash to lebanon in terms of hezbollah, inc, it moves through the Financial System the way any other large Multinational Corporations money moves through the International Financial system. Sure there are informal remitens networks associated with some of the activity in particular. Some of the hard core illegal activities. There are a certain i understand there is a certain mystique to the word to the word hoala pch a hoala is just a particular regional version of an informal remitens system. But an entity like hezbollah is not going to be not reliant on for the going to be reliant on informal remitens. They are using the Financial System. Id be kind of curious about how you think we could empty out Bank Accounts. But that. Id be kind of curious. I dont think its quite as easy as that question implies. If i may just add, the certainly where it pertains to latin american operation, most of many of which are related to laundering money for criminal organizations in exchange for commission which then goes to finance hezbollah, the bulk of the value moves through trade based Money Laundering. And because it is designed to look like legitimate transactions it goes through the Financial System. There is a case that was recently adjudicated in miami involving a lebanon merchant based in miami trading with the tba through two partners cousins one in hong kong one in the tba. He moved 155 million a year sorry for three years through his companys bank account. Only 70 million dlards declared. The vast majority was transactions through the bank account. Only a tiny amount moved to lebanon through boycott. Bitcoin. The bulk is exploiting the formal Financial System. And thats actually why they are vulnerable. Because we have the tools to actually target them effectively. And just to underscore, i mean there is sort of purely informal remitens that happens month a small scale we saw it with al qaeda and groups. But any to move any significant amount of money through of an informal system you need Bank Accounts. You need Bank Accounts. The informal remitters in some cases hoaladars. The they me remitens. The money doesnt move magically. The system is vital for hezbollah. Can you there is a mic behind you and would you introduce yourself. Yes, please. Thank you very much. Im camilla im a visiting fellow here at wilds center but also a judge in romenia for me its awkward why dont you carry financial investigation in the domestic investigation in the domestic case in argentina in order to to efficiently tackle the assets of hezbollah . And from what you have mentioned, you have some allocation of severe politically exposed persons of corruption. You mentioned the person running for the Vice President in argentina. So you have also a very strong anticorruption instrument that may be used in order to seize or going after a nonconviction based conphysical accusation, should you be afraid that your system laws legal system is cut corrupt and may not be able to handle the case or if a trial cannot cannot be opened, that is why i thinking why dont you integrate the financial investigation in the case because 25 years and if you mention that only the trade based Money Laundering is being perpetrating this is a very basic technique of Money Laundering. They are really inciting your capacities of efficiently fighting them. They are not using any sophisticated money typologies of Money Laundering in order to money the launder the money in argentina. Thank you very much. Either of you want to answer briefly. I could address the last part to say trade based Money Laundering is not primitive some of the most sophisticated Money Laundering in the world is trade based ptd black market petitions orr exchange is probably the number one Money Laundering network in the world. That was the ambassador sales didnt use the word black Market Peso Exchange but he described it perfectly when he was talking. This is a Money Laundering network when i first came into government in the late 90s i remember briefings on in the late 90s and exists today and stronger today, broader, and more sophisticated than it was you know, 25 years ago or more than 25 years ago. So i dont i dont and trade based Money Laundering is involves Financial Institutions. All of these all of the transfers that are happening in trade based Money Laundering need to be settled. And theyre settled through Financial Institutions 90 of the time or more. I think we have time for one quick question. Any other questions from the audience. Please. Thanks. My name is it emanuel harley im a communications the senator for the Global Peace Foundation just a question about the counterterrorism in buenos aires. I was wondering if you are looking what strategies would you use to bring more attention to this particular case and to get more traction going forward. Yes we are definitely looking forward for the ministerial. In fact we are going to brief the assistance about the case not so much about the case itself but what we still need to improve the investigations, what things are still pending and in which fields argentina might still need a lot of help from the other countries. Yes we are waiting for that. And miguel, im actually going to ask you to close this portion for us. Youve traveled the farthest. This is something that i mean its safe to say we have all looked at this issue. Its close to our hearts. But this is personal for you. Would you just close with a couple of remarks. Yes, sure, thank you, toby. Well i was thinking, ambassador sales, he surprised me because he mentioned by the names several of the victims. And i dont think it was by chance. But he mentioned young people, a little kid and two girls in their 20s. Then he also mentioned other victims. I would like to evokes the memory of a little boy working by his mothers hand every morning to kindergarten. And the bomb killed him. Rossa, his mother survived. And she is still waiting for justice for her son. He was only 5 years old. He would be 30 now, maybe he would a father also. And i think his death symbolizes what terrorism is in its more in its most basic form, death, destruction and annihilation of innocent lives. And there is no repair for such a loss. Ive been in contact all these years with all the relatives, all the parents who lost their children, adults who lost their partners. People who lost friends, siblings. And there is no which to mitigate the pain or repair the damage. So the question is, whats to be done . Whats left for all of us . And why is it so important to seek for truth and justice . And ive asked myself these questions many times all through the years, the mostly frustrating years. I dont have a definitive answer. But there is a teaching im not well versed in the jewish tradition all teachings but i have learn of one that i think brings some light into this matter. Its written in the ethics of the fathers book. By virtue of three things does the world enduring, truth, justice, and peace. So as we see justice is in between. So the scholars have explained this is not casual. Its in between because justice fits from truth in order to achieve peace. When truth is corrupted you cannot get justice. And therefore you will not achieve peace. So thats why after 25 years, as i said frustrating years, and painful years, we are still doing this work. And as we all see we all saw at the end of the video that opened the event we want no less than the truth. And we demand nothing but justice. Meaning, we still need to fight against impunity, and we need to truth and we need to justice in order to one day achieve peace which means no more innocent lives shalling killed by terrorist bombs. Its difficult. Its painful. But we still need to do it. I think we oto sbaft yn alfredo. The victims, the parents, daughters and sons, to siblings, all the relatives and even to the survivors, as we saw in the video as well mo survived the bombing but for whom some part of them died that day forever. And we also need to do it for the future generations. Im glad to see many many young faces here that show interest in the case that have been so far away 25 years ago. Thats rewarding for me. So we still need to do it for the future generations. And i think when i think about the future generations, i was 22 when i started. Im 47. I became a father as well. So i see things differently now. And i think the challenges double. We need to fight for justice and truth and seek, demanding and keep doing it. But still preserving our values, still preserving our principles and doing it while we still stand for the rule of law. And i think thats the most Important Message we can give today. Thank you. Thank you for your message if for your words. Thanks to our audience for your questions and thanks to our panel for a very, very thoughtful discussion. I also want to add my thanks Benjamin Gedan and his colleagues at the Wilson Center. Fdds cohosts of the discussion. A special thanks to Erin Blumenthal and my colleagues for the work. If today stimulated you to look at source documents associatewood the ammia bombing i mentionland briefly earlier we updated a lot of the documents to a website we put up after. Its east month. Org our belief is whoever killed him didnt want to just kill him but wanted to bury his work, his investigations his findings. So there is a wealth of information there for Law Enforcement for the policy community and for the media and others. And ill close with this thought. And then just a reflection of what i said in the very beginning. Some may have asked what can be done to bring a measure of justice this this case 20 years after the attack. I get frustrated when i hear people say we will never find out who did this, never hold people accountable. If this program today shows anything its that there are ways to bring justice, bowing for the victims of ammia and for just something that you said, just now, miguel, which is we have to fight against impunity. And so what our panel ifrts did for me today was to show just how many tools there are in our tool kit, how many options there are, so that the perpetrators of this are not left to their own devices and operating with impunity and acting with impunity. There are so many things that can be done, a myriad of things that can be done opinion i would argue they shall be done. Its up to you to ensure that happens. Thank you all for joining us today. Thank you. [ applause ] tonight on our companion network cspan, the House OversightCommittee Hearing with kevin mcalanen teaching about the Trump Administration family surprising at the u. S. mexico border. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Online at cspan. Org and the cspan radio app. This weekend, American History tv features the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 mission and moon landing. Starting saturday at 7 00 a. M. Eastern live from the smithsonian mum. Ellen stofa. In the the Space Policy Institute john logsdop. And at 10 00 a. M. President kennedys moon speech recorded september 12th, 1962 at Rice University in houston. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because ner easy, but because they are hard. Then at 4 00 p. M. Eastern, the Smithsonian National air and space museum host as discussion with space suit testers and designers, an mit professor. Take all the systems of a space craft provide pressure, give you oxygen breathe. Scrub out kashds. Worry about thermal control you shrink that around a person you want them alive and safe and getting work done. At 10 00 p. M. On real america, the 1970 film moon walk one showing prelift off preparations and parades for the astronauts after the safe return to earth. 2 minutes, 10 seconds and counting axe diezing tanks now pressure iced. Tminus 1 minute 35 seconds. The third stage completely pressurized. Tminus 60 seconds and counting passing tmindset 605 a seconds and counting. Kneel armstrong reported back when he received the good wishes thank you very much. We know it will be a good flight. And sunday on oral histories at 8 00 a. M. Eastern, apollo 11 flight director gene kranz talks about training for the Mission Space craft problems and the moon landing. And theyre all cheering. And you get in weird feeling. Its chilling that it vokes in through the room and i get it and say, my god, were actually on the moon. Explore our nations past on American History tv. All weekend every weekend. Only on cspan3. The House Judiciary Committee met last week to decide whether to subpoena white house officials about the Trump Administrations family separation policy at the u. S. mexico border and also the committees ongoing obstruction of justice investigation relating to the mueller probe. The Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to issue the subpoenas. Judiciary committee will please come to order. A your up being present without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess tennessee. Ua