Yale Taliban...This is What They Were Thinking?

By Bill West

On March 1, AFP and Yahoo News carried an article wherein a US Department of State (DOS) spokesman, Adam Ereli, claimed "there was nothing improper about giving a visa to a former spokesman for the Taliban who has been studying at...Yale."

In the article, Ereli is quoted as saying, "At the time he applied, for the purposes for which he wished 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."

The subject of discussion, of course, is Rahmatullah Hashemi, who was initially identified in a 2/26 New York Times article as having been issued a student visa to come to the United States last year to enroll in and study at Yale University, where he is currently. Last night, Fox News tracked Hashemi down on the Yale campus and attempted to interview him, only to have Hashemi, the former "roving ambassador" for the Taliban who, as the spokesman for that murderous gang had the job of touting their glory and wonder before the world's media, shove his hands in front of the Fox camera, refuse to answer questions and demand the tape from the producer as he ran away (he didn't get the tape).

The DOS response is notably interesting. The Taliban was, and still is, the genuine military shooting enemy of the United States. The Taliban was a genuine state supporter of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, arguably America's most dangerous terrorist enemy. The Taliban was a regime that tortured its people. The Taliban was a regime that conducted extra-judicial killings. The Taliban was a regime that engaged in severe violations of religious freedom. Rahmatullah Hashemi was the officially recognized spokesman of the Taliban while the Taliban was in power. In his official position, he quite arguably aided and abetted and assisted Taliban authorities (and in turn al-Qaeda) in carrying out regime activities by attempting to deflect international attention away from the truth of the horrors occurring under that regime.

The United States Government (USG), in large part through the Department of State, has excluded from admission from the United States a number of other "high-profile" aliens due to their linkage to terrorism and terror support activities. These have included the former Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, who is alleged by the USG to have supported Palestinian terror groups via certain charities. Also so excluded has been Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss professor who is believed by the US Government to have used his position of prominence abroad to espouse support for terrorism. Controversial as those exclusions may have been, the Government took strong and pro-security postures in those cases and has, so far, bore the brunt of what is likely unjustified criticism.

That said, how can such actions possibly jive with the issuance of a visa and the admission into the US of the likes of Hashemi? Are Cat Stevens and Tariq Ramadan a threat to America, undeserving of a visa and entry, yet Rahmatullah Hashemi is an OK guy worthy of the red carpet at Yale? US Immigration and Nationality law is quite broad relative to the exclusion and removal of aliens who are known and potential security threats, and that includes aliens who engaged in activities in the past that were so notorious so as not to warrant any immigration benevolence even if the aliens no longer pose a current security threat. Given Hashemi's background representing a regime as murderous, literally tortuous and despicable as the Taliban, was rewarding him with a US visa and entry into America the proper course of action?

If the DOS actions in the Hashemi case are representative of how our foreign-posted Centurion gatekeepers are performing, then We the People have much to fear. Congress, where are you in this one?

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