President's Alma Mater Welcomes Taliban
By Dave Gibson (03/02/06)
A former high-profile member of Afghanistan's Taliban government is now attending one this nation's Ivy League institutions. Sayed Rahnatullah Hashemi held the official title of 'ambassador at large' for the Taliban, he was basically a spokesman for the terrorist regime. Five years later...He is now a student at Yale University.
The fact that the spokes-terrorist for the Taliban is now attending one of this nation's premier universities is maddening for many reasons. As the chief propagandist for the organization which sponsored the 9/11 attacks, Hashemi should be in a prison cell rather than the ivy covered halls of Yale.
In fact, Hashemi realizes just how fortunate he is to have escaped justice. He recently told a New York Times reporter: "In some ways I'm the luckiest person in the world. I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Instead I ended up at Yale."
Why did the State Department issue a student visa to member of the Taliban? Why would Yale admit such a person?
I cannot answer the motives behind the State Department decision to issue a visa to a well known terrorist. However, it is hard to imagine that President Bush (a Yale alumnus) had no knowledge of the decision. I would like to see that question posed to President Bush's liar-for-hire Scott McClellan (Bush Administration Press Secretary).
As for Yale's motives... If you were considering the notion that Hashemi has proven himself as an academic aficionado or perhaps Yale was simply ignorant to Hashemi's past--you would be wrong on both counts! Hashemi has only a fourth-grade education and was forced to partake in intensive study to pass a GED exam. Hashemi is also well-known to the leadership of Yale. While on a 2001 propaganda tour, Hashemi spoke at Yale in a forum entitled "The Taliban: Pros and Cons."
Yale admissions official Richard Shaw claims that the university once lost another foreigner of Hashemi's "caliber" and they did not want to lose another one. Shaw said: "We lost him to Harvard and I didn't want that to happen again." (No word on whether Harvard is harboring a terrorist as well...Perhaps that is where Bin Laden is hiding!)
As the chief spokes-terrorist for the Taliban, Hashemi traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States. While speaking at the Atlantic Council in 2001, Hashemi was confronted with a woman who detailed the horrors facing the women of Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban. He dismissed her as if she were an insolent child and announced to the woman: "I'm really sorry for your husband. He might have a very difficult time with you. Hashemi's disgusting comments were immortalized in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911."
The fact that the U.S. government allows known terrorists to enter the country and live amongst the rest of us tells me that either the Bush administration still fails to understand the ferocity of our enemy, or the so-called "War on Terrorism" is bunk. As for Yale's role in this atrocity, it speaks to just how far our institutions of higher learning have fallen since they were filled with heroic WWII veterans attending college on the GI Bill. Now, our universities would not only choose to support our enemies, but educate them as well.
If we do not wake up and demand that our political leaders protect this nation in a meaningful way (i.e. close the borders and bring total war to radical Islam), this nation is doomed.
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