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Ahmadinejad Taps Fugitive for Iran Cabinet
Defense pick wanted in '94 blast at Jewish center in Argentina
By W. McCahill
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Posted Aug 21, 09 9:35 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s pick for Iran’s defense minister is wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina, the Guardian reports. Eight-five were killed and 150 injured in the attack, the worst on a Jewish target outside Israel since World War II; Ahmad Vahidi was at that time head of the branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that carries out operations abroad.
The Anti-Defamation League, among others, condemned the nomination, the New York Times adds, and says in a statement that Vahidi is among five Iranians wanted by Argentina on suspicions of “conceiving, planning, financing and executing” the blast. Iran was suspected at the time, though experts in recent years have said a terror group allied to Iran, such as Hezbollah, might have been behind the attack.