8 October 2009

Comments on Remembering tragedies: Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires

Comment from Patty, an American friend living in Buenos Aires

Lucas, I don´t know who told you this story – but there was no suicide bomber. I lived one block away and that is not true. They tried to say that there was a truck or car left outside the Embassy, but that isn´t true, because if there was a bomb left outside, the street would have been destroyed. The bomb HAD to have come from within, and they never determined where the bomb was. I NEVER HEARD A WORD ABOUT ANY GROUP WHO CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY. I DON´T KNOW WHO SAID THIS OR WHERE YOU READ IT AT, BUT I WAS THERE, AND I HELPED IN THE CLEANING UP. ME AND FOUR OTHER AMERICANS. I can tell you a story that would curdle your blood.
Four of my friends were at the sight at 2:20 AM. They were at the ground level where they found the ¨door¨ that all Embassies have to go underground where they keep arms, weapons etc. They heard a “tapping”, and the leader of the crew said “Shhhhhh” and they ALL heard it again. Immediately the leader of the crew tapped three times on the cement door, and came back three taps. The Ambassador was called and he came immediately. At 3:10 AM, the Ambassador ordered the grounds cleared and all seven of the crew were taken aside and told “You didn´t hear anything and if you say you did, there will be consequences. Is this understood?”. Josh and Justin, my two friends came to my house at 5:00 AM shaking and scared. They told me the story. I told them to get out of BA immediately. The Ambassador declared the site , ¨Jewish Lnnd¨and said it was private. The clearing and investigation ended there.

I only lived a block away, the priest who was in the church in front of the Embassy was decapitated, children in the day care at the church were injured. After it happened, all the apartments in the area were looted, not by police but by the firemen. I stood there for four days and watched it all first hand. If you want a collective memory, I can give a collective memory. I was there. They did have an idea of two girls they said had come into Argentina through Paraguay and were members of a terrorist group aganst Israel, and for some reason, immigration could not trace them after they entered through the border at Paraguay and Argentina. THEORY had it that they were hidden in the basement of the Embassy and the bomb was planted hoping that the building would crash down into the basement and kill the girls, but that theory was hushed up in a matter of days.

Get this, this should shake you up a bit. Menem helped shut this story up in a hurry.

The Ambassador NEVER left the Embassy before 4:00, only if he had been invited to a luncheon or something like that. On this day, he left at 1:40 pm - CHECK OUT THE FACTS IN THE CLARIN. The two policemen that were the doormen or guards - neither came to work that day. The Ambassador was in the ¨steps¨of separation from his wife, she died in the explosion. Why didn´t she leave with him "for the day". Strange. The Ambassador always had a chofer take him to work, on that day, he drove himself. Coincidence??? Who can get a bomb inside the embassy without being inspected????

On the days when I helped in the cleanup, I would go three doors down to Elena´s house, a student of mine to have lunch etc. WE ALL STOOD on the balcony and watched while men tried drilling and destroying the street in front of the embassy, and made a dent and then later said that the car or truck with the bomb was sitting in front of the embassy. Sorry, it was all a lie. I am convinced, with all my heart, that the Ambassador was involved directly in the bombing. That evening, after the bombing, he was on TV and was drinking water constantly, and NEVER once did he apologize to the people of Argentina or the families of the victims. Not one time. It was a "Travesty", a conspiricy, an injustice against Jews, but never did he apologize. This whole incident just makes my blood boil.

Patty, October 7th, 2009

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