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WORLD LIBRARIANS CONGRESS
Knock-out in Oslo
Offensive announced by Reporters sans frontiers, CIA
agents Kent and Colas and a few Polish recruits
falls to a condemnation of the Patriot Act and U.S.
repressive governmental agencies
BY
JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Special for Granma International
OSLO.— What was an attempt
at a blazing speech to the World Librarians Congress
in this capital by the most active anti-Cuba U.S.
disinformation agents turned into the spectacular
defeat of those Washington agents and a mass
condemnation of the U.S. Patriot Act and the
governmental agencies of repression in that country.
Moreover, the important
event, organized by the International Federation of
Library Associations (IFLA), which brought together
4,000-plus librarians from allover the world, ended
with expressions of solidarity from many delegation
members, who affirmed to the island’s delegation an
interest in developing links with Cuba.
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF),
the French NGO headed by Robert Ménard, whose links
with the CIA are becoming steadily more documented,
suddenly disappeared from the program of the
Committee session on freedom of expression and free
access to information (FAIFE), where a
representative was supposed to appear. On the
contrary, that afternoon of papers and discussion
was marked by a presentation by the American
Librarians Association condemning the violation of
the rights of U.S. citizens promoted by that
allegedly ”patriotic” legislation, a favorite of the
extreme right, the FBI, the CIA and other U.S.
repressive bodies.
It was rumored that that
speech was to be replaced by a presentation of one
of the eight Polish librarians association, which
presumably had offered its services to denigrate
Cuba, but nor did the CIA Polish recruits dare to
confront the assembly of book professionals.
In addition to RSF, Humberto
Colas, the self-proclaimed founder of the
“independent libraries” – for some unknown reason –
likewise elected not to appear before the Congress
and stayed at home in Miami beside the swimming pool
of his luxury mansion, instead of lending his
services in the corridors and rooms of the venue.
Finally, on his own, with
his crumpled pants and inseparable beaten up green
canvas bag, CIA agent Robert Kent, the inventor of
the tiny Friends of Cuban Libraries group, appeared
to present his show between various unprofitable
strolls along the corridors of the Radisson Hotel,
headquarters of the event.
Excluded from the podium for
his lack of representation, the old CIA agent, a
“librarian” in New York, had no other remedy than to
speak in the final debate of the FIAFE session where
he was limited to 2.15 minutes to repeat his
habitual refrain on the so-called independent
libraries in Cuba – a phantom network that allows
the Havana U.S. Interests Section to recruit
informants.
The New Yorker received a
sound response from Eliades Acosta, director of the
José Martí National Library, who headed the Cuban
delegation.
“This moment of Mr. Kent is
a ritual,” he stated. “I would have liked to have
heard his opinion on the U.S. Patriot Act.”
“Mr. Kent introduces himself
as a representative of a group with two members,” he
added, noting that the issue of libraries in Cuba
has been “exhaustively dealt with by the IFLA.”
After listing various
characteristics of the Cuban social system, he
affirmed that there was no torture in Cuba, but that
it does exist in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. “Mr.
Kent has never talked of Abu Ghraib or of
Guantánamo,” Acosta commented.
“In Cuba there is no burning
of books like the burning of the Baghdad National
Library!” stated the Cuban librarian, while Kent
displayed signs of nervousness.
Acosta recalled that an IFLA
note of August 9 has condemned the confiscation by
the U.S. Customs, acting under direct orders from
Washington, of hundreds of English-language books en
route to the University of Havana Library, including
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince,
and the works of Ernest Hemingway, as well as dozens
of computers. The seizure took place on McAllen,
Texas border on July 21.
The Cuban representative
also showed a copy of one of the regulations of the
annexationist transition plan for Cuba, which notes
that a few million dollars have been set aside to
recruit, train and financially support agents in a
large number of Washington operations against Cuba.
“Perhaps we shall know one
day, through the very U.S. act on access to
information referred to here, how and for what
reason Mr. Kent traveled to Havana in 1999,” stated
the head of the Cuban delegation in reference to
Kent’s CIA links, clearly demonstrated in particular
by his trip to the Cuban capital in 1999 on a false
passport in the name of Robert Emmet.
Showing a recent copy of
Granma International to Congress participants,
Acosta pointed to a photo of Kent with Cuban State
Security agent Aleida Godínez, in Havana: “For now,
this newspaper carries the photo, and we are very
willing to share information with anyone who would
like to know more about Mr. Kent’s activities,” he
concluded to loud applause.
WHO NEEDS CULTURE?
In another speech a few
minutes later, a Dutch delegate offered an example
via a little anecdote of the poor faith of the White
House in relation to free expression and made a
final jab at a demoralized Kent. He said that he was
working as an advisor to the Ministry of Culture in
Iraq for some months until the U.S. embassy made it
known that his job had been eliminated. He then
asked for a meeting with an embassy representative
and was received by the assistant to the ambassador,
who brought the brief meeting to an end by asking
him: “Who needs culture?”
The short sentence reached
Kent like a knock-out blow to a boxer. The obsessive
sexagenarian left the venue visibly upset, no doubt
thinking of his upcoming retirement.
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