Claudio Lefschitz, a former senior agent of Argentina’s intelligence agency (SIDE), served as deputy to former judge Juan José Galeano—the corrupt judge in charge of the AMIA case in Argentina’s judiciary.

In 2002, Lefschitz revealed a video recording of Judge Galeano’s meeting with Carlos Telleldín (the AMIA suspect accused of selling the vehicle carrying explosives used in the AMIA bombing). The footage proved that Judge Galeano offered Telleldín a $400,000 bribe and asked him to accuse Buenos Aires police officers of collaborating with terrorists and to confess that he had sold the vehicle to Mohsen Rabbani, Iran’s cultural attaché in Argentina.

The disclosure of this video caused an earthquake in Argentina and eventually led to the dismissal and expulsion of Judge Galeano from the judiciary. After this revelation, Lefschitz wrote a book titled “AMIA: Why the Investigation Failed” (AMIA : por qué falló la investigación del atentado), addressing the deliberate deviations and manipulations of the AMIA case. In 2007, he was kidnapped, tortured, and threatened by unknown individuals (likely members of SIDE), and because of this, he fled Argentina.

In a recent interview, Lefschitz expressed notable points about the suspicious bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA).

He said in the interview: “Now that almost 22 years have passed since the confidential investigation began, I can speak of truths that have never been said before. Mrs. Cristina [Kirchner], a week before handing over power to Mauricio Macri, in a letter to Oscar Parilli (then head of SIDE) addressed Federal Court No. 1, spoke of the greatest cover-up. This was when the plaintiffs withdrew… They never allowed the truth to be told. Now that the case has been followed up for a long time and the judgment is nearly complete, I no longer have fear or hesitation to say that I have disclosed the confidential points of the case.”

He added: “If Jaime Stiuso—the former head of SIDE’s counterintelligence section—wants to slander me, he can accuse me of lying and fraud in this regard; but he cannot accuse me of revealing military and security secrets.”

Lefschitz said Judge Galeano’s investigation caused a disaster and he was condemned. He was appointed by the court, with their support and decision to supervise the case’s process, because they realized that the AMIA attack had been carried out by unknown cells linked to SIDE (the AMIA bombing was planned by Argentina’s intelligence agency). This was Section 85, which handled counterintelligence under the leadership of Jaime Stiuso (head of SIDE’s counterintelligence operations). Lefschitz entered the case to investigate how SIDE had acted and what activities it had carried out.

He reflected: “It is hard to understand that in a democratic country, parts of the intelligence agency and Stiuso personally led the AMIA operation. We must address how this operation was directed.”

There were things he had never revealed before, but now he wants to talk about them. He anticipated that some might ask why he didn’t react sooner. He was researching and had special skills. He had obtained information and was cross-checking it with received intelligence and had access to more news.

He explained: “What happened was that I was a security police officer and was active in investigations on drug trafficking. I had performed well in field operations and cooperation with the judiciary and gained judicial trust. Since I had attracted the attention of one judicial official, I had to resign and serve the judiciary regarding the AMIA case. I provided some information to a person named Palacios (likely the police chief at the time).”

When Carlos Telleldín delivered the van (the suicide vehicle) to an unofficial SIDE agent, before Galeano paid the bribe to Telleldín, Lefschitz had pressured Telleldín. While exchanging documents of the van (known as the suicide vehicle), a copy of the “Carbeni contract” was in hand, which proved the transfer of the van, but Telleldín did not know the name of the person. However, he knew the buyer of the van was a SIDE agent. This is not fabricated information—it is the truth. As his investigation progressed, Lefschitz realized that Judge Galeano kept some documents and evidence solely for himself, possibly to maintain his power.

During this turmoil, Lefschitz obtained documents and evidence, but both SIDE and the court were against him, so he decided to travel abroad for self-protection. For this reason, in 2002, he shared these matters with Mr. Grund Doma (a powerful TV presenter and head of Editorial Planeta—a media outlet). He honestly presented the information to him.

When Lefschitz raised these issues with the head of SIDE, he was advised to also speak with officials from DAIA (Argentina’s Jewish Association). Now, apart from the things he cannot say, the reality is that everything said against the Iranians is pure lies without any foundation because these accusations were created from the beginning. Mr. [Ibrahim Hussein Berro]’s hypothesis was created by Sala Patria (Sala Patria is an organization formed outside Argentina to find evidence of the AMIA incident). In a meeting attended by Beraja (Rubén Beraja, former head of Banco Mayo and DAIA president at the time of the AMIA bombing), Lefschitz revealed that Ibrahim Hussein Berro was fabricated to soften the pressure of exposure against the government’s involvement. The Berro matter originally emerged at this time.

Beyond what has been said before or after or anything else, the truth is that Lefschitz proved there was no document or evidence implicating Iranian officials. He also told Alberto Nisman (the AMIA prosecutor—whom Lefschitz regarded as nothing more than a charlatan) that if Stiuso was wiretapping all communications of the Iranian cultural attaché and embassy before the AMIA bombing, without judicial authorization, and if Stiuso was confident Iran planned the assassination, he should have prevented it before it occurred.

According to Lefschitz’s research, the conversations of the Iranian embassy and cultural attaché were wiretapped without judicial authorization. All phones of the cultural attaché and embassy were tapped. Three cassettes of recordings were made daily, amounting to thousands of hours of surveillance available to SIDE.

He asked: “Given that these wiretaps were conducted without judicial warrants, if you had information about Iran’s involvement, why was it not handed to the judiciary? Clearly, because there was nothing. This proves that no useful intelligence was obtained from the wiretaps. If they had evidence, they could have thwarted the attack. So, they had nothing.”

He referred to important individuals: “The embassy wiretaps were done without judicial authorization. SIDE directly asked the telephone company to perform wiretapping and the telephone company did not request judicial permission from SIDE. If we talk about all these disasters, infiltration, distortion of facts, and other violations during the AMIA investigation, it is savagery. They changed everything (altered evidence) and now they intend to hold an in-absentia trial which is sheer madness and unacceptable.”

Lefschitz told DAIA and AMIA officials that he was ready to reveal what really happened, and he told them: “Use your computers, and I will present my arguments without any assistance. If you can defeat me, destroy me.” But they never agreed to listen and did not come.

He accused Nisman of signing off on accusations to cover up the truth. Lefschitz said: “This is not my claim... Nisman knew that all accusations against Iranian officials and diplomats were fabricated. Their arguments were very weak.”

He mentioned that Stiuso had made statements about the main perpetrator of the explosion that need to be found—apparently, he said the AMIA bombing was Mossad’s work. These statements were conveyed to Lefschitz. Given the case’s details, these remarks are very important. Unfortunately, this is how things operate in Argentina.

Lefschitz is planning to write a book about AMIA and is confident accusations were fabricated. He said: “I am ready to do something, even jointly with you. What I say is not from feelings but from experience. During the arrest of Soleimanpour (Iran’s ambassador to the UK), the Argentine judiciary could not produce any evidence against him and he was released. I have no problem; I want the truth to be revealed to the whole world.”