It is also a question worth the attention of U.S. policy makers. More and more, Argentina is looking like the pre-9/11 Saudi Arabia of South America. While official engagements between the U.S. and Argentina are cordial, what is being cultivated on the Southern Cone home turf hardly qualifies Argentina as an ally in the war on terror. Having been served the fruits of Saudi double talk four years ago, the U.S. would be well advised to be twice shy.

The concern raised on Ambitoweb.com came on the heels of a decision by an Argentine judge to reject Chile's request to extradite Sergio Galvarino Apablaza. Otherwise known by the nom de guerre Commandante Salvador, the Chilean is a former leader of a left-wing extremist group called the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. He stands accused of the assassination of Chilean Senator Jaime Guzman in 1991 and the kidnapping of Cristian Edwards, the son of the owner of Chile's El Mercurio newspaper.

The Chilean government of Socialist Ricardo Lagos is hardly a right-wing junta out to nail political enemies, particularly anyone of Mr. Apablaza's persuasion. Mr. Lagos is famous for once having challenged Gen. Augusto Pinochet publicly to step aside. Nevertheless, according to Ambito, the Argentine judge who rejected the extradition request "took the view that the crimes attributed to Mr. Apablaza were political in nature" and ordered his immediate release.

On Wednesday, Mr. Apablaza appeared at the headquarters of an Argentine human rights group in Buenos Aires, proclaiming that his only regret is "not having done more to cut short the [Pinochet] tyranny."

That sounds brave until you take note of the fact that Guzman was assassinated long after Gen. Pinochet had voluntarily handed power over to an elected civilian government. His killer obviously had some goal in mind other than the liberation of the Chilean people. Not surprisingly, Chile's Communist Party celebrated the Argentine decision. Commandante Salvador maintains his innocence and on Thursday asked the U.N. for political refugee status.

Sadly, the federal court decision to protect a wanted Chilean terrorist is not an isolated event but rather part of an ethos now prevailing at high levels in Argentine politics and jurisprudence. In May the Supreme Court rejected the extradition of an alleged terrorist belonging to the Spanish Basque group known as ETA, which has claimed more than 850 lives since 1968. Jesus Maria Lariz Iriondo stands accused of a 1984 car bombing in Eibar. Yet the court ruled that the terrorist act attributed to him is not a crime against humanity. Therefore the statute of limitations applies and he cannot be held accountable. 

In an editorial titled "Crimes Against Humanity," yesterday's La Nacion newspaper pointed out that this is directly contrary to the 1996 U.N. resolution which defines crimes against humanity as "criminal acts with political ends committed or planned in order to provoke a state of terror among the population in general or a specific group."

A literal reading of the U.N. resolution is however inconvenient for the Kirchner government. The Argentine terrorists known as "Montoneros," along with the Castro-backed ERP, committed ETA-like atrocities against innocents for a decade, before and during the 1976 military government takeover, racking up over 1,500 victims. Today, Argentina allows many known Montoneros to go about Argentina with impunity. Some are even in government. This, of course, gets to the heart of the problem for the Kirchner set: How can ETA or Chilean terrorists be prosecuted while former Montoneros enjoy complete freedom?

Mr. Kirchner's base is a hard-left, anti-American sect and in the past two years he has moved swiftly to pack the Argentine high court with similarly-inclined judges. In the name of justice the court recently lifted the amnesty granted to the military in 1986 and 1987 for its crimes during the "dirty war." But it has said nothing about prosecuting former Montonero and ERP terrorists who practiced the kind of tactics observed in London yesterday morning until they were put down by the military takeover.

Today Argentina has less in common with serious countries like Chile and more in common with Nicaragua, which is again under the sway of Sandinistas. Nicaraguan judges in May refused to extradite Alessio Casimirri to Italy to stand trial for the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

To understand the sympathies of the Kirchner government it is worth turning attention to one of its most important political supporters, Hebe de Bonafini of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who celebrated 9/11. Buenos Aires press reports say that she lobbied hard for political asylum for Mr. Lariz Iriondo. Last month she was in Havana with Fidel, Hugo Chavez and Salvadoran guerrilla Shafik Handel to complain that the U.S. has not extradited anti-Castroite Luis Posada Carriles to the Cuban province of Venezuela to be tried on terrorism charges.

Argentina has a history of harboring the world's darkest figures, including Nazi fugitives after World War II. The Iranian and Syrian sponsored Hezbollah is widely suspected of orchestrating the Buenos Aires bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the Jewish community center in 1994. No one was ever brought to justice in those horrific events. Mr. Kirchner claims to be investigating those attacks again, but 11 years leaves a rather cold trail.

Despite that promise, Mr. Kirchner refuses to condemn Chavez even though in 1994 the Venezuelan bad boy verbally attacked the country's Jewish community and approved a raid on a Jewish day school in Caracas. According to a U.S. State Department Web site, in 2004 printed anti-Semitic leaflets were "available to the public in an Interior and Justice Ministry office waiting room."

When Secretary of State Condi Rice met with the Argentine foreign minister in April, civil rights in Venezuela was on the agenda. But an Argentine foreign ministry spokesman said that instead the conversation centered on what Argentina wants: more handouts from the IMF, presumably to keep the Kirchner base supplied with American flags to burn. The U.S. ought to have learned more from the Saudi experience.