This is truly disgusting. Yale: Taliban, Yes; U.S. Military, No By Jim Kouri 3 March 2006 | Voices Magazine | While most American parents can only dream of sending their kids to an Ivy League university like Harvard or Yale, a former ambassador for the oppressive and brutal Afghan Taliban regime is now enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, even though he possesses none of the qualifications to attend such an institution for higher education. At the same time as Yale allows the Taliban on its campus, however, it bars the U.S. military. "Yale University enrolls the Taliban's former spokesman as a student, but continues to prohibit other students from organizing a Reserve Officer Training Corps chapter on campus and also seeks to deny students the right to hear from military recruiters about employment opportunities," say members of the student group Young America's Foundation. Under the guise of alleged sex discrimination as a result of the military's so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards homosexuals, Yale and other universities have blocked their students from partaking of ROTC training on campus. "Yet Yale University is allowing a member or former member of a group that not only discriminated against gays, but actually stoned them to death," says one outraged Yale student. On February 26, the New York Times Magazine reported that Yale admitted Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, the Deputy Foreign Secretary of the Taliban, into a non-degree program, with a chance to gain full degree status by 2006. "In some ways I'm the luckiest person in the world," Hashemi told the Times. "I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Instead I ended up at Yale." Prior to his arrival as a student, Hashemi was imprisoned at Bagram Air Base. He had been a member of the Taliban government, serving both in Afghanistan and in the United States as Second Foreign Secretary and Ambassador-at-Large. Yale has not commented on why the university, which accepts only ten percent of all applicants, granted admission to this former Taliban officer. One Yale official claims it's part of creating diversity on campus, but opponents of having a Taliban officer attend a premier college say that excuse has been used by colleges and universities to invite everyone including cop-killers to their campuses. Hashemi possesses a 4th grade formal education, never took the SATs and advocated violence against homosexuals. As the mouthpiece for the Taliban, Hashemi advocated the oppression of women, gays and non-Muslims. The Taliban are known associates and allies of Al-Qaeda. Not surprising, one intelligence report indicates Hashemi attended an Al-Qaeda terrorism training camp in Afghanistan. Yale alumnus and former U.S. Army Capt. Flagg Youngblood said, "That my alma mater would embrace an ambassador from one of America's declared and defeated enemies and in the same breath keep ROTC and military recruiters off campus shows where Yale's allegiance falls. Yale's actions show that they consider the US military more evil than the Taliban." While at Yale in the mid-nineties, Flagg worked with members of Congress and other Yale students and alumni to combat ROTC's second-class status on many campuses across the country. Flagg's frustration with the 70-mile drive to the University of Connecticut in order to participate in ROTC culminated in the passage of the Pombo and Solomon amendments which are currently before the US Supreme Court. Hashemi's enrollment at Yale was aided by CBS news cameraman Mike Hoover, who developed a friendship with the Taliban government apologist during several trips to Afghanistan, dating back to 1991. According to Hoover, he contacted an attorney in his hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. That attorney, Bob Schuster, who had earned his undergraduate degree at Yale, brought Hashemi to the attention of Richard Shaw, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. According to the Times, Shaw said of his interview with Hashemi, “My perception was,’ It’s the enemy!’ But, the interview with him was one of the most interesting I've ever had. I walked away with a sense: Whoa! This is a person to be reckoned with and who could educate us about the world.” Yale refuses to comment on how Hashemi's tuition -- almost $160,000 for four years -- is being paid. John Fund, writing for the Opinion Journal, does not view this admission as any great achievement, even though he quotes Richard Shaw as saying that "another foreign student of Rahmatullah’s [Hashemi's] caliber had applied for special student status. We lost him to Harvard. I didn’t want that to happen again.” Fund does not agree, saying, “This is taking the obsession that US universities have been promoting diversity a bit too far." However, Yale's response to criticism appeared in their campus newspaper: "This is our burden to tend to, and there is no better way to develop a clearer understanding of our differences and similarities to the Afghani people than to invite Hashemi to learn in our system. Despite our anxieties, we must maintain the energy and tolerance to seek the origins of other ideologies. If Hashemi's voice were absent from University discourse, we would risk crippling our perception of today's world." "I suspect they're already mentally crippled on that [Yale] campus and having an official from the Taliban isn't going to change that mental infirmity," says a former Marine combat officer. http://www.voicesmag.com/Archives/kouri/March2006/yale_taliban_us_military_030306.htm
they admitted a student on questionable grounds, they still admit US soldiers. if this guy tries to form a taliban group, but they still don't permit an ROTC to form, then there will be grounds to sue... until such time, it's just a crappy situation.
Did they say this guy openly hates gays, opposes women's rights & non Muslims! So, why don't we let Neo Nazi skin heads get a free education at Yale at tax payer's expense, while were at it!
I actually agree pretty heartily with this statement. Yale is not so much an American university as it is a global university located in the United States. Its students are meant learn about the world, past and present, and Taliban Afghanistan is part of that world. Nazi Rocket Scientists, working for the United States Government?!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Von_Braun
Kind of a non-story, don't you think? 1. It says he is in a non-degree program - completely different than being a real student. In fact this is a part-time non-degree program that is designed for non-traditional students who have fallen out of education in the past but want to return and show potential. You even pay by the class, not tuition. The article messed up about him being eligible for degree status in 2006 (odd for an article written in 2006). 2. Because of #1 he is treated differently. Further, he is foreign and from a 3rd world nation so I assume they factored other things as education or whatever. 3. Why does the article mention he didn't take the SAT? He is on a foreign student visa...the SAT is for American students. 4. Yale is not giving him a free education. They want their money...it is why they do stuff like this. 5. The titular comparison is not very sound as Yale is not promoting the Taliban or permitting a Taliban club. In fact, a decent number of students in this particular non-degree program are ex-military. 6. Yale: Money, yes; No Money, no.
If they don't allow ROTC because they feel it practices sex discrimination then they shouldn't allow members of the Talban which do the same thing (only worse). Besides, does this guy represent the Afgan people or the Taliban? I'm gonna bet there are a TON of Afgans who don't feel the Taliban speak for them. So why allow one and not the other? And couldn't you argue that allowing a military presence on the school is also supportive of diversity? If it's important for students to face things they disagree with then having the ROTC on campus would seem to be not only appropriate but right in line with their whole "diversity is good" philosophy.
Yale is a private institution. Even if this guy is getting his tuition paid for, it is not the "taxpayers" forking out the money.
They are allowing a person who happens to have been a Taliban member to attend their institution. They also allow ex-military people to attend their institution. So they are not allowing one and not the other, they are allowing both. They are not allowing a pro-Taliban student group just as they do not allow ROTC. Some people need to learn how to read and the author of this piece needs to learn how to write using facts rather than fear and ignorance.
Certainly a lot of assumptions on your part here. Frankly I'm not surprised at all that you would show no support of our nation's troops/military in this situation, yet you do attempt to turf up reasons for why it's acceptable to have Taliban members on campus. ...and some of you liberals still wonder why on Earth people question your loyalties? sheesh
And yet you have no intelligent response for the points Rimbaud makes. All you can do is question his "loyalty". Assumptions? You make them on a daily basis around here. You are no more than a mouthpiece. Truly pathetic.
Well, that settles it, folks. The article has no CREDITABILITY. lol I wonder if it could qualify for a new car loan without any creditability.
Do you even have the ability to address the substance? Allowing a student to enroll in a continuing education class is not the same as allowing a student group to organize on campus.
Ooh...I want to play! Please point out my numerous assumptions. Am I assuming that he is foreign? I am sooooo stupid so I probably got that wrong, right? You should not be surprised since I have repeatedly posted that I want all soldiers to be killed. Followed by their children. Then their spouses. Then their parents. Then their 6th grade English teachers (because English is the devil and turns them into evil soldiers). Okay, that last part was new but seriously...EVIL!