Reporters Without Borders founder keeps records on Muslim children

Por : JEAN-GUY ALLARD 

Robert Menard, the founder and former head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an organization that receives U.S. financing and never misses the chance to slander Cuba and Venezuela, has once again revealed his true political affinities by admitting that in the French city of Beziers where he currently serves as mayor, he has authorized records to be kept on Muslim children, marking them as such in their schools.

The French press is in an uproar over the situation and calling for Menard to be arrested for violating the law and engaging in neo-Nazi practices.  France’s Attorney General has already opened an investigation.

Menard, who was elected to his post as a member of the extreme rightwing National Front confessed in a television interview that he was keeping a file on the children in his municipality, classifying them by nationality, an illegal action that carries a five year prison sentence and a 300,000 Euro fine.

Invited to the French “Crossfire” program, and questioned by Anne-Sophie Lapix, Robert Menard revealed that 64.9% of the children in his city’s schools are Muslim.

And with that, this politician who for years claimed to be defending journalists and freedom of expression happened to reveal the existence of a file where all Beziers schoolchildren are classified by name and religion.  “These are the figures from my city.  I’m sorry to inform you that the mayor’s office has the names and surnames of these children.  I know I have no right to do that, yet there you have it.”

“Their names reveal their religion.  To claim otherwise is to deny the obvious,” he added.

Menard’s statements triggered an immediate backlash.  Among others, Karine Berger, a member of the National Assembly, posted on Twitter that this was “the ultimate insult to the Republic.”

When Menard was the director of Reporters Without Borders, he acknowledged receiving funding from the U.S. government through USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, two propaganda tools in the imperial intervention apparatus.

The embarrassing ties between Reporters Without Borders and U.S. intelligence were the subject of an extensive investigation by the Californian journalist Diana Barahona, who thanks to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was able to obtain official and irrefutable confirmation of the nexus.

Menard was tied – among others – to Frank “Paquito” Calzon, the patented CIA agent and head of the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) in Washington, and along with rightwing Spanish politician Jose Maria Aznar, beneficiary of the State Department’s propaganda mechanisms.

Menard then became famous for feeding at the USAID trough, enlarging his “Cuban” bank accounts in Virginia while back at the CFC, Felipe Sixto, Calzon’s right-hand man was investigated, arrested and sentenced for the embezzlement of half a million dollars.