Educating Sayed

Consider me astonished, too.

Never has an article made me blink with astonishment as much as when I read in yesterday’s New York Times magazine that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa. This is taking the obsession that U.S. universities have with promoting diversity a bit too far.

This might be – might be – understandable if he had outstanding credentials, but apparently the only thing he brings to the table is a resume full of blood and some great connections.

Even though he evinces only semiregret for his actions in service to the Taliban, there is evidence that he has become quite a charmer. After the fall of the Taliban, he resumed a friendship he had developed with Mike Hoover, a CBS News cameraman who, according to a 2001 Associated Press story, had visited Afghanistan three times as a guest of the Taliban. Mr. Hoover inspired Mr. Rahmatullah to think about going to the U.S. to finish his studies. “I thought he could do a lot as a student/teacher,” said Mr. Hoover. He persuaded Bob Schuster, an attorney friend of his from Wyoming who had gone to Yale, to help out. As the Times reported, “Schuster called the provost’s office to ask how an ex-Taliban envoy with a fourth-grade education and a high-school equivalency degree might go about applying to one of the world’s top universities.”

Apparently with great ease.

At least he carried a decent GPA in that program, so that’s something.

I wonder whose money he’s using to go there? I can’t imagine the Foreign Minister of such a poor nation as Afghanistan getting paid a very princely sum. He’s been out of that position for a couple years. So I wonder who is paying his tuition and living expenses? I think it would be an interesting journalistic exercise for someone to find out.

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Category: Fighting the Islamists