Former Taliban Official Enrolls at Yale

London, Asharq Al-Awsat - Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi, once a roving ambassador for the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan and undersecretary for the Taliban's foreign minister Mullah Wakil Ahmad Mutwakil, has shed his beard and turban and is now studying at Yale University.

The 27-year-old father of two enrolled in summer classes at the prestigious American institution and is currently studying political science. After the fall of the Taliban regime, Hashemi moved to Quetta, in Pakistan, where he disappeared from view until traveling to the United States in 2005. This is his second visit, as he had toured the country as a representative of the Taliban prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Hashemi hopes that Yale, the third oldest university, which counts the current US President George W. Bush, former presidents Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford as alumni, will accept him as a full-time degree student September 2006.

In our only meeting in Afghanistan, a few months before the Taliban were ousted from power; I was amazed by his excellent command of the English language and his intelligence. He was opposed to Osama bin Laden and would not recognize his fatwas, considering al Qaeda leader's "an American creation" to whose legend the Taliban had not contributed. "We inherited bin Laden. We had to and still do deal with him, according to the Islamic traditions that the Taliban follow by protecting its guests."