The American Library Association — the librarian trade group — voted earlier this month against a resolution that would call for the release of 10 imprisoned librarians who broke the law in Cuba by disseminating copies of counterrevolutionary literature, like George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm,” or the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. “We are not a human rights organization. We are a library association,” said John W. Berry, the former president of the ALA and the chairman of the group’s international relations committee.

Certainly no legitimate human rights organization could so routinely disregard human rights violations. One can see Mr. Castro heartened by a report the group published recounting a May, 2001, visit to the island by several of the organization’s top leaders, including Mr. Berry and Barbara Ford, another former president. The stated purpose of the fact-finding mission was to give the ALA a first-hand look at Cuba’s independent libraries and to observe the book selection policies of the government-sanctioned libraries.

So what did they find? ALA spent seven days in Cuba but uncovered no evidence of repression or censorship. The report states: “Numerous Cuban librarians assured the delegates that their selection policy is not censured and that only financial resources limit access to books. They also asserted that the U.S. embargo prohibits many books, as well as the money to acquire them, from reaching their shores.”

One can almost see the ALA stooges nod with credulity while the government-controlled librarians recited mandatory talking points. In fact, informational materials, such as books and CDs, are exempt from the American embargo against Cuba. And many human rights organizations, including the Center for a Free Cuba, routinely ship books to Cuba that are banned by the government.

At this month’s ALA’s national meeting, the group stopped short of calling for the release of the detained librarians in Cuba. This is the same ALA that has thrown a temper tantrum over anti-pornography filters in libraries and over Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which allows a federal judge to authorize the government to demand records from American libraries as part of a specific anti-terrorism investigation.

Attorney General Ashcroft said in September that the Justice Department has never demanded any records from libraries, ALA executive director Emily Sheketoff huffed in a report carried on the CBS News Web site, “We don’t want anything to make people think twice about coming into the library and taking out books.” Asked the syndicated columnist Nat Hentoff about the ALA and Cuba: “What is the ALA leadership thinking?”