A little over an hour from my house is Yale University. - it's even closer to where I work. I've been to the campus on several occasions, even taking a field trip to see their Anthropology folks when I was a kid. It was fascinating.

The best and brightest, the most privileged from all over the world - including a number of US Presidents - come to attend Yale.

And then there's this guy:

Currently attending Yale, on funding provided by Liberal friends, is an ex-senior official of the Taliban - (Sayed) Rahmatullah Hashemi.

How the flaming heck does THAT happen?????

Oh, certainly he's qualified. I mean, a 4th grade education and an association with terrorists looks great on an application, doesn't it? Hell, I didn't apply to Yale because I wasn’t sure that just a 1300+ on my SAT's and an A- average would cut it!!!!!!

And why did Yale admit him? Well, they didn't want to lose another star pupil to Harvard, of course. Ohhhhhhh……

OK, let's just get a few things straight:
1. We can afford to lose a member of an ousted, psychotic, terrorist-loving regime, associated directly with Bin Laden and 9/11, to anyone. Harvard…Podunk Community College…ANYONE!

2. The ONLY U.S. educational facility this guy should be attending is Gitmo U.

3. My state's always been a little off the Liberal deep end, but this is ridiculous.

4. Anyone who gives money to this guy - be they liberal or conservative - is out of their mind. And if they're Liberals, it's complete and utter hypocrisy. Aren’t you the folks who are the torchbearers for civil rights? Well, supporting a Taliban, oddly enough, doesn’t exactly mesh with that particular ideology. Sorry, but the survey says…..BUZZZZ.

And I have a few questions:
1. What brain donor allowed this?

2. Why is it that when researching links for this post, the majority of the ones I found (other than blogs) came from OUTSIDE the U.S. media?

3. What the @!#$%!@&^$@?????

According to the NY Times:

His road to America was paved largely by Mike Hoover, an American TV cameraman who had met Hashemi in Afghanistan.

"I thought he could do a lot as a student/teacher," Hoover said.

Ummm....okay....Sure, I suppose he could change the face of the sororities quite a bit, but I'm not exactly sure we want that…I have a hunch that burkhas and beatings would kind of dim the appeal. Birkenstocks, maybe...

Sure, Hashemi's distanced himself from the Taliban in recent times. From Asharq Alawsat, an Arabic newspaper:

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."

Ah. OK, so Bin Laden is our fault, and he was just an unwanted houseguest. Wow - thank GOODNESS we didn't let this star pupil slip away! Protecting its guests???? How about expelling its radical lunatics??? Give me a flippin' break. The poor Taliban were stuck with Bin Laden? PUH-lease.

More terrorist double-speak. As per usual. Same you-know-what, different mouthpiece.

Another of Hashemi's comments on the situation:

"in some ways I'm the luckiest person in the world," he was quoted as saying in the New York Times magazine.

"I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Instead, I ended up at Yale."

Indeed.



References:
A Taliban at Yale
Ex-Taliban enrolled at Yale
Former Taliban Spokesman Now Studying at Yale
Former Taliban Official Enrolls at Yale
Michelle Malkin: A TALIBAN MOUTHPIECE GOES TO YALE

Other Links:
Tammy Bruce: A Taliban Mouthpiece Goes to Yale
>bt: From Taliban to Yale
Taliban - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former Taliban spokesman now a Yale student - Yahoo! News
Terrorist Taliban Spokesman Going to Yale (The Conservative Voice)
Former Taliban Spokesman Now Yale U. Student (Newsmax)
Taliban Ambassador Now Yale Student " Outside The Beltway OTB
Chapomatic " Talibani At Yale, SOP
Strange Women Lying in Ponds: Former Taliban Spokesman Goes to Yale


UPDATE 3/3: In a further bit of hair-pulling related news....According to these folks, Yale actually recruited Hashemi, and though the Taliban can freely attend Yale, ROTC members need to do their training 70 miles away, at UCONN (my alma mater). Yale won't allow them on campus.

Oh, by the way, Hashemi has a 3.3 grade average - no doubt helped along by the fact that one of his first classes was on - wait for it - terrorism.

Labels: opinion, Taliban, Yale University