According to official history, the Israeli Mossad spent years searching for Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, finally kidnapping him in a "heroic operation" in May 1960 in Buenos Aires. The case ended up before the U.N. Security Council, where Argentina caused a huge uproar for alleged "violation of sovereignty". However, after years of research, I have found documents which show that the events of May 1960 were part of the extended history of the Cold War.

According to a document of the Argentine intelligence service SIPBA, members of the government of President Frondizi conducted the operation. It describes the details and the cars in which Eichmann was transported. It does not mention any Israelis in the direct kidnapping. They served more or less as a pretext, as a document of the German Federal Intelligence Service BND states that was released to me as a result of a lawsuit I filed in German court BVerwG in Leipzig in 2008. The whole story is told in my documentary "Craters for Peace" (see "films" on this homepage). There was no abduction as such, Eichmann went to Israel voluntarily.

On March 21, 2016, I filed a legal action in the Administrative Court in Buenos Aires against the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because it has not responded adequately to my requests to have access to this bilateral agreement. I lost this lawsuit for procederal reasons. In April 2018, I filed another complaint in the Administrative Court, along with my lawyer Dante Reyes Marín who was also the president of the Association of Foreign Correspondents in Argentina. Since 2016, we have - finally - a law that grants access to public information, the law 27.275. Based on the new law, I asked again for the agreement between Israel and Argentina of May 1960 and the secret telex whose existence I can prove with especific dates and file numbers. The answer was that the Ministry could not "locate" these cables and that the treaty is not "found". It's a stupid answer, because these documents are indeed held in the Ministry but in the section containing classified records.

In October 2020, the Tribunal emitted a decision. The Ministry should deliver copies of the documents to me within 15 working days. This is a big victory for transparency and human rights. But, Ministry appealed. They argue that the delivery of the documents "causes an irreparable burden". They do not explain the meaning of this "burden". Problems with Israel? Problems with the White House? Or problems with the bureaucratic apparatus itself? They hide behind the AAIP, the Agency for Access to Public Information that responds to government orders. AAIP called my request for information "libel". They did not answer our question: where the ministry keeps ther secret documents.

On August 10, 2021, the Chamber IV of the Federal Administrative Court decided to ratify the decision made one year ago. The still secret documents must be declassified and handed over to me within 15 days. The last appeal was also dismissed at the end of December 2021. In this situation, after almost four years of trial, the ministry suddenly discovered that "someone" had stolen these documents. But they promised to investigate the incident. After half a year had passed and nothing had been investigated, I filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons and requested that judicial officials search the ministry.

At first, the judge of the criminal system rejected me as a co-plaintiff. Objection. Won. Then the same judge rejected my requests for evidence regarding the retention of secret documents. Objection. Won. The higher chamber expressly spoke out in favor of the "historical truth" and the importance of disclosure. Then the witness statements began again.

In November 2024, the current head of the archives testified, a young and insecure woman. She claimed again that the Historical Archives were the only archive and that there was no secret archive. That was very embarrassing, especially after, some weeks later, the former head of the archives, who had written her master's thesis on this topic, testified. It contains the relevant decrees and instructions for the levels of secrecy, the highest being "To be presented only to the Secretary of State".

I have now requested these instructions for classification and again the complete, still secret, correspondence.