Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro calls Obama UN speech 'gibberish'

HAVANA: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused US President Barack Obama of speaking “gibberish” in his recent address to the United Nations and called NATO's actions in Libya a “monstrous crime” on Monday in his first opinion column since early July.

Castro, 85, has been mostly out of sight the past few months, which combined with the absence of his usual steady flow of columns, had prompted rumors his health was worsening. He wrote he was involved in work that occupied all his time and therefore he had not been writing what he calls his “reflections .” But he said he wanted to comment on the UN General Assembly in New York and in particular Obama's speech last week.

The reflection was published on Cuban government website www.cubadebate.cu. Castro was his vintage self in his latest piece, blasting Obama and the United States, his ideological foes and favorite rhetorical targets, for what he views as bellicose and hypocritical behavior.

He called Obama the “yankee president.” Castro quoted extensively from Obama's General Assembly speech, inserting paragraphs of his opinions of the US leader's words. “In spite of the shameful monopoly of the mass information media and the fascist methods of the United States and its allies to confuse and deceive world opinion, the resistance of the people grows, and that can be appreciated in the debates being produced in the United Nations,” he wrote.