Condoleezza Rice Grants Visa To Hardcore Taliban Supporter to Attend Yale

The Taliban's former spokesman is now a Yale student. Anyone see a problem with that?
Monday, February 27, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

Never has an article made me blink with astonishment as much as when I read in yesterday's New York Times magazine that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa... In the spring of 2001, I was one of several writers at The Wall Street Journal who interviewed Mr. Rahmatullah at our offices across the street from the World Trade Center. His official title was second foreign secretary; his mission was to explain the regime's decision to rid the country of two 1,000-year-old towering statues of Buddha carved out of rock 90 miles from the Afghan capital, Kabul. The archeological treasures were considered the greatest remaining examples of third- and fifth-century Greco-Indian art in the world. But Taliban leader Mullah Omar had ordered all statues in the country destroyed, calling them idols of infidels and repugnant to Islam. Even Muslim nations like Pakistan denounced the move... Mr. Rahmatullah made himself very clear when he said the West had no business worrying about the statues, because it had cut off trade and foreign aid to the Taliban. "When the world destroys the future of our children with economic sanctions, they have no right to worry about our past," he told us...

As for Osama bin Laden, Mr. Rahmatullah called the Saudi fugitive a "guest" of his government and said it hadn't been proved that bin Laden was linked to any terrorist acts, despite his indictment in the U.S. for planning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He said that if the embassy bombings were terrorist acts, then so was the Clinton administration's firing cruise missiles into his country in an attempt to kill bin Laden. "You killed 19 innocent people," he told us...

At the University of Southern California, Mr. Rahmatullah expressed irritation with a question about statues that at that point hadn't yet been blown up. "You know, really, I am asked so much about these statues that I have a headache now," he moaned. "If I go back to Afghanistan, I will blow them."... At a speech for the Atlantic Council, Mr. Rahmatullah was confronted by a woman in the audience who lifted the burkha she was wearing and chastised him for the Taliban's infamous treatment of women. "You have imprisoned the women--it's a horror, let me tell you," she cried. Mr. Rahmatullah responded with a sneer: "I'm really sorry to your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you." ...

After the fall of the Taliban, he persuaded Bob Schuster, an attorney friend of his from Wyoming who had gone to Yale, to help out. As the Times reported, "Schuster called the provost's office to ask how an ex-Taliban envoy with a fourth-grade education and a high-school equivalency degree might go about applying to one of the world's top universities."... There are many poor, bright students--American and foreign alike--who would jump at the opportunity to attend Yale. Why should Mr. Rahmatullah go to the line ahead of all of them? That's a question Yale alumni should ask when their alma mater comes looking for contributions. President Bush, who already has a well-known disdain for Yale elitism from his student days there, may also have some questions. In the wake of his being blindsided by his own administration over the Dubai port deal, he should be interested in finding out exactly who at the State Department approved Mr. Rahmatullah's application for a student visa.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110008020

to study in America

No doubt a future puppet leader of America's

I WANNNNA SCREAM RIGHT NOW AND USE NOTHING BUT CAPS IN THIS POST!!!!!!!!

Fuck you Condi! If you are the former spokeman for the TALIBAN, you should NOT be granted a visa for enter the country, especially to be a student at YALE!!!!! Democrats should attack Bush and Condi for this. "War-time President" my ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:hi:

fold. Meaning this "war on terror" is crap.

But then, we knew that.

so true


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=498215#498289

I want to see Scotty squirm like the worm he is.

Wake up Bush, have some coffee.

Q Did you get a -- did you get any information on the visa
for Mr. Rahmatullah?

MR. ERELI: I did. I thought we shared it with you. The
information is that he applied for a visa, and -- he applied for a
visa. We looked at the reasons for his wanting to come here, his
eligibility, determined he was eligible, and issued him a visa.

Q A question yesterday was also how does someone become an
ex-terrorist, if you will, member of the Taliban?

MR. ERELI: Well, I guess -- all I can tell you about that is
that at the time he applied, for the purposes for which he wished the

United -- to come to the United States, and based on a review of his
activity in the past, it was determined that there was no basis for
ineligibility.

Put in simple English, I think what you can conclude from that is
-- well, if -- I don't know that if -- if he was indeed a member of
the Taliban, being a member of the Taliban, in and of itself, is not
-- was not necessarily and is not -- was not necessarily at the time,
given what he was doing and what -- he wanted to come to the United
States, a grounds for ineligibility. :eyes:

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-state-department-regular-briefing-briefer-adam-ereli-deputy-/2006/03/01/1421259.htm

note: see post #21

Course...........guess the guy wasn't talaban when he toured the US promoting the talaban :eyes:

oh ya........that doesn't count.

:hi:

to ask how an ex-Taliban envoy with a fourth-grade education and a high-school
equivalency degree might go about applying to one of the world's top universities

It's anything goes. As long as it's part of THEIR plan.

Just what does this administration have in store for us next?

Hello Justice! Where the hell are you!

How are they going to rationalize this one?

hoover is the guy that did the vids of OBL that were in the news....
....before OBL started doing his own.

videos that * gave credit to yesterday for helping him win the election? Wow.. I gotta go find that link.. I think it was Yahoo.. * claimed that the OBL tapes did help him win the election.. Jesus.. Unfucking real, and then this guy gets a Visa and a spot in one of the top schools of our nation?? That is unreal, absolutely unreal..

edited to add link-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=538215

thanks for link :hi:

Did you get this....

Bloody Afghan prison siege over

Troops backed by tanks....

They included soldiers from the United States-led force battling the Taliban
....
Nader Nadery of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which
assisted negotiations, said riot ringleaders included Timoor Shah, who kidnapped
then freed an Italian aid worker last year and is under sentence of death.

Mr Nadery said about 200 of the Taliban prisoners, including some Pakistanis, were
being held without trial and had demanded to be tried or freed.

He said conditions at the prison had improved in the past two years, with
regular visits by rights monitors, but the siege showed the need for the
US-backed government to formulate legislation to deal with Taliban suspects caught in combat

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18322010%255E1702,00.html

that's what it's all about. Someone got a big payoff.

The headline of this post makes it sound like Condoleezza Rice personally granted the visa. But the article does not provide any insight into who at the State Department did.

Sure, Rice is responsible for what the State Department does. But I guess I was disappointed to learn that the article did not live up to the promise implied in your headline.

Mullah Muttawakil. under house arrest in Kabul....

He asked if Rahmatullah would like to return to Kabul and
clear his name with the American authorities. Yes, he would, he said....

An American woman who identified herself only as Michelle? :eyes:
showed up at the house, along with a man who smiled a lot but
didn't give his name.

She asked if he had seen Mullah Omar recently.

She asked if he knew of anyone who would pose a threat to Muttawakil a ex-Taliban.

He said he didn't know of anyone.

Michelle and the man returned for a second interview a few days later.

After 40 days, Michelle appeared for the third time....
"You can go," she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/magazine/26taliban.html?pagewanted=10


We're one, but we're not the same. We get to carry each other, carry each other... one ...:hi:

Thank you kurth