According to Folha, which had access to classified documents, the group of 20 Brazilian nationals travelled to Iran in 2008 with logistical support from the two extremist groups, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad. The CIA believes the group was recruited to mount a political and armed cell in Brazil.
Folha discovered that all the 20 suspects had converted to Islam. They had travelled to Teheran twice since the CIA rang the alarm bells with Brazilian authorities. According to a Brazilian intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the inquiry has established that the 20 have links to extremists.
The man who intermediated between the groups is Mohsen Rabbani. He is sought by the Interpol, accused of having participated in the bombing of the Jewish Community Centre (Amia) in Buenos Aires in 1994. The attack left 85 people dead. The CIA suspects that Rabbani is currently hiding in Iran. At the time of the Amia attack, he worked as cultural attaché at the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires. According to Folha, Rabbani has a brother living in Brazil, but the newspaper did not disclose his name.
Brazil has never suffered a terrorist attack, but the US government has always directed the search for those responsible for the attack at the Amia to the Tri-Border region of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, as the recent diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show [WR-10-48]. The US ambassador in his cables maintained that Brazil was carrying on a “double discourse" on terrorism, claiming that Brazilian security officials cooperated closely with US intelligence and law enforcement agencies on counterterrorism in the country while the Brazilian government officially denied this.
The federal police intelligence director, David Salen, confirmed that the inquiry is going on. He said the suspects claim they went to Iran to seek support to open an Islamic centre in Brazil.
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