"Greetings!
Enclosed please find (a) report and additional information regarding the arbitrary application of the recently passed Anti-discrimination Law in Argentina.
Holocaust Revisionists and scholars of the Jewish Question in particular, and all free thinkers in general, experience their liberties under official attack of the Argentine government.
Argentina is the latest country to embrace this corrosive trend of censorship, in a current that is not familiar with the national tradition of intellectual freedom and tolerance. Our friends in that country have written a tome with the urgent appeal to translate their reports, as well as news clips from mainstream daily newspapers, and to propagate this report among people who will echo this cry for freedom of speech and thought.
I now appeal to you, as men who are in a position to divulge news and opinions crucial to the survival of our Western traditions, to publish this piece of news. I'm enclosing a report I've personally written. I've kept my opinions to a minimum in an effort to provide you with as much factual information as it is available.
Make no mistake, those enemies of our liberties who today perpetrate this attack upon the people of Argentina, are closely related to the same alien interest groups who have campaigned for the demise of free-speech in Canada, Germany, France and many other nations.
It would be greatly appreciated that my name and mailing address could be published along with this report, as a means of establishing contact with concerned and friendly people. Also, if this report is to be used in any fashion, please remit a copy of the edition where this matter appears, so we may keep proper record of reactions generated by this incident and forward them to our friends in Argentina.
Thank you in advance for your kind and prompt attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
From: Guillermo Coletti
P.O. Box 61221 Pasadena, CA 91106 voice mail (213) 960 5671
Included with that letter came this essay:
Book Confiscation in Argentina
by Guillermo Coletti
An alarming situation, involving gross violations to constitutionally protected freedom of speech, has been developing in Argentina since January 1996. According to official sources, the Israeli Ambassador to Argentina, Mr. Itzhak Avir, communicated his displeasure to the Argentine Minister of Foreign Relations, Dr. Guido Di Tella, over the easy availability of Holocaust Revisionist literature and other printed material considered anti-Semitic by the Jewish state.
Minister Di Tella, well known for his long pro-Israeli career, immediately took notice of this Jewish disapproval of Argentina internal affairs and ordered a government investigation that started in early to mid 1995 and involved the services of the SIDE (Intelligence Services of the State, commonly known as "Secret Police") and the Federal Police.
During the several months of the investigation, according to official record, the policing forces of the national government have produced a list of one hundred books and periodicals targeted for banning and confiscation. All along, the "Secret Police" worked hand-in-hand with the Delegation of Israeli-Argentine Associations (DAIA), a willing participant on this investigation upon intellectual activities in the South American country and an organization with ties to its American counterpart, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
The results of this combined effort of Jewish and national spying could be seen as this year started, when the local newspapers of January 4 1996 reported that the Federal Police have raided several bookstores and confiscated some of the blacklisted material. Several of the most trendy and long established book dealers have been affected by this police operation, without precedent in the Constitutional history of Argentina.
The publications sought by the police forces, to name a few, were: the weeklies "Patria Argentina" (founded by the now deceased scholar Beveraggi Allende) and "El Fort", and the monthly "Memoria", a highly intellectual traditionalist Catholic magazine, as well as the Spanish versions of Henry Ford's "The International Jew", "The Protocols of Zion", "The Leuchter Report" with an introduction by David Irving, Richard Harwood's "Did Six Millions Really Die?", the quote compilation "Antizion" released in Spanish under the name "150 Geniuses Opine About the Jews", Leon Degrelle's "Memorias de un Fascista". A variety of books authored by national writers have also been confiscated, such as "Hitler's Germany as seen by the Press" by W. Romero and, outrageously, all of the books ever written by Hugo Wast.
These proceedings have been ordered by Federal Judge Jorge Urso with the participation of the following prosecutors: Carlos Stornelli, Luis Salas and Germ, as filed in Cause No. 1770 in Federal Criminal Court No. 8. These actions were, according to Judge Urso, done under the provisions of the recently enacted Anti-Discrimination Law.
Judge Urso's interpretations of that law came under fire by the leading newspaper media in Argentina, who found the judge's decision to be very arbitrary and improper. Law 23.592, better known as the Anti-Discrimination Law, bans the obstruction of participation in commerce, industry, employment and free speech, rights guaranteed by the Argentine Constitution, of any person or group of individuals because of race, religion, national origin and/or political beliefs and/or political affiliation.
Most Argentines have interpreted this Law as a means to prevent such actions as those of Judge Urso, not as a governmental shield for ideological persecution. It has never been mentioned, in the debate that preceded the passing of this law, that it was meant to be a tool to be used by foreign governments to incrude internal affairs.
Excerpt from statement made the Argentina Council for Freedom of Expression:
" (these proceedings) ... violate Article 13 of the Pact of San Jose, Costa Rica and Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protect liberty of opinion. It is quite a paradox that a foreign state that just finishes legalizing torture appoints itself as a Supreme Tribunal of what the Argentine people can read or listen..."
Excerpt from editorial in the daily La Prensa:
"The error in perspective in which the Judge has incurred is incredible and inadmissible. One thing is to have a militant attitude which must always be made effective (in) concrete acts of racial discrimination, and another thing is to have a different opinion to that of others regarding men in history. This type of confusion leads directly to intellectual obscurantism."
Excerpt from editorial in daily La Nacida:
"The intervening judicial authority must order, without any further delay, ceasing such absurd and discriminatory measure."
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Today the pressure is on, but we have a choice. Mankind can either lie down and give up, or we can use all of our productive skills and knowledge to work for a better future."
Earl Butz