DEBKAfile's unmasking of Iran's designated defense minister as terrorist spurred wide outrage
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
August 23, 2009, 10:36 AM (GMT+02:00)
Designated Iranian defense minister is wanted terrorist
Last Thursday night, Aug. 20, DEBKAfile first exposed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's defense minister Ahmadi Vadhidi as wanted by Interpol for the 1994 Buenos Aires atrocity, a massive bombing attack on the Jewish community center in the Argentine capital which left 84 people dead and hundreds wounded.
This story, instantly picked up by world media (without attribution), spurred general outrage and protest - in particular, from the Argentine prosecutor and Jewish community. The US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said if Vahidi was indeed the man wanted by Interpol, it would be very disturbing to see him confirmed in the Iranian cabinet. Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak voiced deep concern, commenting that the Islamic Republic was showing its real face.
The following is the text of DEBKAfile's exclusive as published in its English edition early Friday, Aug. 21:
Ahmadi Vadhidi, whom President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has designated Iran's next defense minister, was head of the notorious al Qods Brigades which ordered and organized the bombing attack on the Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that left 84 people dead.
Interpol has issued an international warrant for his arrest for this crime. (See attached photo)
Al Qods is responsible for the Revolutionary Guards terrorist operations in foreign countries. For the attack on the Jewish center, Vadhidi used Hizballah operatives with whom he was acquainted from his days as commander of the IRGC's Lebanon Corps in the 1980s.
He was especially close to Hizballah's bombing and abduction expert, the late Imad Mughniyeh. Together, they plotted and executed the kidnapping of a series of high-ranking Western officials in those years, among them William Buckley and Col, Richard Higgins.
Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, was snatched in 1984, the first senior US intelligence official to be interrogated under torture by joint teams employed by Vadhidi and Mughniyeh. He did not survive the ordeal.
Four years later, the due captured Col. William Richard ("Rich") Higgins, the highest-ranking US military and intelligence officer in Lebanon at the time. He too was tortured to death in the attempt by Iranian agents to extract the secrets of US Middle East operations.
Vadhidi has been employed in recent years at home base in Tehran, latterly as deputy defense minister with responsibility for "aerodynamic development" i.e. missiles. He has also served as head of the ministry's planning department and head of the Expediency Council's political-security commission.
The Iranian president is poised to unveil his cabinet in the coming days. Composed mainly of his most brutal cronies and loyal yes-men - as well as three women for the first time - it faces the opposition of large sections of parliament who threaten to withhold endorsement.
