just askin... are we living in Russia? (cont'd)

Politics Keeps Scholars Out of U.S., Critics Say
Withholding visas is said to endanger America's intellectual freedom
By BURTON BOLLAG (not his real name)

For nine months, Riyadh Lafta, an Iraqi professor of medicine, tried to get a visa to visit the University of Washington, where he had been invited to share his research on the unusually high rates of cancer among children in southern Iraq.

But by last March, with no visa forthcoming, the American institution came up with an alternative plan. Mr. Lafta would deliver his lecture at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and it would be broadcast by video to a public meeting long planned for the purpose at Washington.

The day before his mid-April flight, however, the British consulate in Amman, Jordan, turned down his request for a transit visa to change planes at London's Heathrow Airport. So Mr. Lafta, a faculty member at Baghdad's Al-Mustansiriya University, had to make the long and dangerous trip back to the Iraqi capital (in udder werds, go phokk yerseff, Mister Smartypants Islamofascist...)

His American research partners say they think they know why he never received a U.S. visa: The Iraqi was one of the principal authors of an October 2006 study published in the British medical journal The Lancet that controversially estimated that more than 650,000 Iraqis — far more than officially reported — had died as a result of the American-led invasion (in udder werds he should be happy he's not in Gitmo and shut da phokk up).

Academic and civil-liberties groups say Mr. Lafta's case is troubling, but not unique. They assert that during the last year or so the Bush administration has increased its use of heightened security measures, introduced after the 2001 terrorist attacks, to keep out foreign scholars whose politics or ideas it does not like. In such cases the government does not give reasons for denying a visa, making it nearly impossible to challenge the decision, academic advocates say. (Here's your reason: go phokk yourself {I thought we covered that already.})

"Each new case seems to underscore the doubts that the administration has any justifiable security basis" to exclude the scholars, says Jonathan Knight, director of the program on academic freedom and tenure at the American Association of University Professors. (Here's your justifiable security basis: people wid funny names, people who look fishy, people who dress funmy, people who don't agree wid da RezzziDUNCE {in udder wereds, wid da tarrists}...)

The pattern not only hurts the scholars in question, but also damages America's reputation for academic freedom, those groups say. Some academic associations have felt forced to move their meetings to Canada to ensure that members from other countries can attend. They also report that the United States has become a less appealing destination for foreign scholars. (Deres too many phokkin smartypants brainiacs in dis country already -- what we need are more dimwitz {see: elections of 2004, 2000; everything else.})

"There are many people who simply don't think of teaching or attending a conference in the United States because they don't want to put up with the humiliation of the visa process," says Barbara Weinstein, president of the 14,000-member American Historical Association. (In udder werds, da system works.)

Official Denial

When U.S. State Department officials were asked about Mr. Lafta's case, they denied that the government had intentionally kept the Iraqi professor out, saying they had simply been unable to reach him when his visa was ready last fall. His American colleagues find that explanation implausible, saying they contacted U.S. visa officials several times on Mr. Lafta's behalf without success. (Dere dey go again, trying to let dere smartypants brainiac "facts" interfere with some perfectly implausible bulls#i+.)

The State Department, which is responsible for issuing visas, declined requests for an interview for this article. (Shocking) But in an e-mail message, a department official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about this issue said that while the government considers such factors as national security and foreign policy, no one had been denied a visa "due to any expression of the applicant's views." (Repeat until brainwashed.)

Scholars who may have been barred recently because of their politics include Adam Habib, a prominent South African political scientist, and Yoannis Milios, a left-wing Greek political economist. Both had their visas revoked when they arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for academic meetings, and both say they were questioned about their political views before being put on flights back to their own countries. (Is same in MY country!)

Other scientists and social-science professors from a variety of countries, including Bolivia, Canada, and Switzerland, have been barred from attending academic conferences or taking teaching positions in the United States. Many of the scholars were frequent visitors to the United States before suddenly being declared undesirable. There appears to have been a de facto ban on most scholars from Cuba for the last three years. (When you come right down to it, really, aren't all foreigners undesirable? Even when they try to speak English, it's not like you can understand a word they say.)

Academic associations have issued protests in about a dozen cases. The groups say that since the government does not release figures (shocking), it is hard to know the true number of scholars who have been kept out.

Challenging the Government

In two or three cases, U.S. officials made vague references to a security threat. (I suppose the Surrendercrats would prefer that we make explicit references to security threats so da tarrists know everything we know.) But to the frustration of the scholars' supporters, the government has typically not provided any reasons for keeping the scholars out. Critics, however, believe the issue is politics, not security.

"Because it is draped in secrecy," says Melissa Goodman, a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, "they get to keep out people whose views they don't want [American] people to hear." (And the American people don't want to hear them either... sounds like a win-win...)

The secrecy also makes it all but impossible to challenge exclusions that appear to be simple mistakes, say academic advocates. For example, Nalini Ghuman, a British citizen who has lived for the last 10 years in the United States and is an assistant professor of music at Mills College, was sent back to Britain last August, eight hours after she returned from a research visit there. She and her college are convinced that her visa was canceled mistakenly, but they have been unable to get any explanation from U.S. authorities. (If you want to make a xenophobia omelet, sometimes you have to break a few eggs of inscrutably idiotic bureaucracy.)

"We're sort of flummoxed" (datz a big word dere Poindexter), says Robert F. Judd, executive director of the American Musicological Society (is dat a disease?), which recently issued a public appeal on Ms. Ghuman's behalf. "We don't know how to deal with this." (I guess da Rezz might be smarter den you phokkin brainiacs after all den...)
...
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, one-third of whose 370,000 members live outside the United States, now regularly holds some committee meetings in Canada to ensure that all members can attend. Chris J. Brantley, the group's managing director, says this step is still needed even though fewer of his members have been denied visas in the last two years. (Cool... maybe one day, all of da world's best engineers will hate America, and den we can truly declare victory in da war on tairrrrrrrrrrr...)