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Critics of Yale’s decision to admit former Taliban diplomat Rahmatullah Hashemi have suggested that the ensuing controversy was partially to blame for the decrease in applications to Yale this year... Applications to Yale for the class of 2011 decreased 9.7 percent ... While Yale administrators blamed the decline on last year’s record-low acceptance rate and natural year-to-year fluctuations, critics of the University have argued that high school students may have been disillusioned by Hashemi’s enrollment. Hashemi took classes at Yale through the Nondegree Students Program from the summer of 2005 through the end of the 2006 academic year, gaining national...

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who heads the religious militia fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, is living in Pakistan, though not in the same area where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is thought to be, according to a U.S. intelligence source. The elusive Taliban leader is believed to be in Quetta or its environs, a city of one million that is the capital of Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan. The intelligence source said of Mullah Omar's location: "At one point we had it down to a particular section of Quetta."

Yale now doesn't even attempt to claim that Mr. Hashemi has changed. In conversations with donors, president Richard Levin has fallen back on two arguments: that Mr. Hashemi currently is a nondegree student, and that the State Department issued him a visa. But Mr. Hashemi's application to become a sophomore in Yale's full degree program, the same type of program that Mr. Farivar graduated from at Harvard, is pending before Mr. Levin. That makes his continued presence at Yale especially relevant as Yale's Board of Governors, the body that supposedly runs the university, prepares to meet this week. Many in...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A prominent U.S.-based Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison. Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax was convicted in April of soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. The cleric addressed the court for 10 minutes before his sentencing. “I will not admit guilt nor seek the court’s mercy. I do this simply because I am innocent,” al-Timimi said. Prosecutors said...

WASHINGTON (AP) A purported Taliban spokesman reiterated a claim Thursday that his group is holding a missing U.S. Navy SEAL and said insurgent leaders had decided to kill him. He offered no proof to back up the claim. U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore, reacting to the claim, said: "We hope he is not in harm's way. We are making every effort to locate him." The purported spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, said previously that the Taliban are holding the commando, who has been missing in Afghanistan for 10 days. Hakimi frequently contacts news agencies claiming to speak for the rebels,...

Osama bin Laden and fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar are thought not to be in Afghanistan, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday, a day after a purported commander of the rebel group said the pair are alive and well. "Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan. I do not believe that Osama is in Afghanistan," Khalilzad told reporters at a press conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul. He did not say where the two were believed to be hiding. Officials have repeatedly said that the al-Qaida leader is thought to be some place in the rugged mountains between Afghanistan...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan security forces have captured Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's personal security chief as he travelled in a van to the southern city of Kandahar, provincial officials have told Reuters. The capture of Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan, who headed Mullah Omar's household security, could help U.S. and Afghan forces track down his boss, one of the most wanted fugitives in the U.S.-led war on terror. Osama bin Laden, who ran his al Qaeda network in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, is also believed to be at large in the region. "We have arrested top...

SAN FRANCISCO — John Walker Lindh (search) asked President Bush on Tuesday to commute his 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban. His lawyer, James Brosnahan, said that Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban (search) in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he is not a terrorist and that he never fought against U.S. troops. Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi (search), another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is being released after being held for three years as an enemy combatant.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 26 - A senior Taliban commander who had been released from the American detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was killed Saturday in Uruzgan Province, Afghan officials reported Sunday. The commander, Maulavi Ghaffar, had spent eight months in the Guantánamo prison, said the Interior Minister, Ali Jalali. He had been captured after fighting for the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, Mr. Jalali said. After his release over a year ago he was appointed the Taliban's regional commander in Uruzgan and Helmand Provinces, said Jan Mohammad Khan, the governor of Uruzgan Province. The governor said Mr. Ghaffar had carried...

EVERETT, Wash. — A National Guardsman suspected of trying to share military information with al-Qaida is a Muslim convert who complained bitterly in a letter to a newspaper about “bigotry, hatred and mindless rage” in the United States. Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, was arrested Thursday and was being held at Fort Lewis. The tank crew member from the Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade was taken into custody just days before he was to leave for duty in Iraq. Long before his arrest, he had made some of his beliefs known in strongly worded letters to the editor. “In my...

US SOLDIER 'ON TERROR CHARGES' A US soldier has been charged with trying to provide information to the al Qaeda terrorist network, US law enforcement official has said. The official told the Associated Press news agency that National Guardsman Ryan G. Anderson was charged with "aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al Qaeda terrorist network."   It was not immediately known what information Anderson was alleged to have provided.   Anderson was being held at Fort Lewis, an Army base south of Seattle.   Anderson, 26, is a tank crew member from the National...

WASHINGTON – As the Pakistani nuclear proliferation story widens, U.S. intelligence officials say top atomic scientists from that country met with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. Two former senior Pakistani nuclear scientists who were based in the Afghan town of Kandahar met Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden several times before the fall of the Taliban. They were later detained and questioned on their return to Pakistan. Last week, after it became clear that Pakistan was the center of what has become known internationally as the "nuclear bazaar," President Pervez Musharraf agreed to pardon nuclear scientist Abdul...

BIN LADEN 'IN AFGAHANISTAN' Osama bin Lada is alive and living in Afghanistan, according to the country's president Hamid Karzai. It is not known where the al Qaeda is hiding out, but previous reports have put him on the tribal borders with Pakistan. Mr Karzai said that was accurate. His remarks come as Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, a main ally of bin Laden, vowed to continue a holy war against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. The US military in Afghanistan said this week it was confident of capturing bin Laden this year as well as Mullah Omar and...

<p>KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — American and Afghan troops raided a compound in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight in which one suspect was injured, the U.S. military said Monday. The raid took place Sunday morning near Deh Rawood, spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty told The Associated Press. The town in Uruzgan province has been a focus of activity for suspected Taliban militants.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO - John Walker Lindh, the American imprisoned for taking up arms for the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites), was attacked by a fellow inmate and slightly bruised, his lawyer said Thursday. Law enforcement authorities confirmed the 21-year-old Lindh was attacked but would not disclose a possible motive. The incident happened Monday night at the medium-security federal prison in Victorville as Lindh was preparing to pray, said his lawyer Tony West. "Our understanding is that the inmate tackled John and began hitting him while screaming obscenities before running off," West said in a statement. Lindh suffered a...

Cairo, Egypt-AP -- There are celebrations reported across the Arab world, after the news of more American casualties in Iraq. Resistance to the occupation is applauded by some who see it as proof that Iraqis weren't totally humiliated by the relative ease of the U-S-led coalition's toppling of Saddam Hussein. Many Arabs had warned an invasion of Iraq could drag the region into chaos. In Damascus today, foreign ministers from countries bordering Iraq again called on the U-S to restore order in that country.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 (202) 514-2008WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514 - 1888 TWO DEFENDANTS IN 'PORTLAND CELL' CASE PLEAD GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO CONTRIBUTE SERVICES TO THE TALIBAN, FEDERAL WEAPONS CHARGES WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael W. Mosman of the District of Oregon announced today that Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal and Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, two defendants in the so-called "Portland cell" case, have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to provide services to the Taliban, and conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms in...

WEDNESDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2003 A SUSPECTED MEMBER OF THE AL-QAEDA WAS ARRESTED IN GREECE Athens, 7 October 2003 (22:18 UTC+2) A suspected member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network was arrested a few days ago in Greece on slave trade charges, according to the Athens television station “Alpha” citing statements by Shiite Muslims living in Athens. According to unconfirmed information, the suspect is a Taliban and is accused of killing 19 people in Pakistan, while he was trained in Afghanistan. The Greek Police has launched an investigation to determine the suspect's identity. The authorities do not confirm any information before the...

Top Taliban Commander Killed, Says Afghan Official Mon October 6, 2003 08:43 AM ET SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A close aid to supreme Taliban leader Mullah Omar has been killed in a clash in south Afghanistan, an Afghan official said on Monday, the second major blow to the hardline Islamic movement in under a month. News of the death of Mullah Abdul Razzaq Nafees, a member of the 10-strong Taliban shura (council) formed in June, came just days after the Taliban confirmed that Mullah Abdur Rahim, its top military commander in southern Afghanistan, had been killed. Abdul Razzaq Achakzai,...

Guantanamo interviews to be revised in spy scare By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 06/10/2003) A line-by-line review has been ordered of every interrogation at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp involving an air force interpreter suspected of espionage and treason. Intelligence officers face the nightmare prospect that Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian-born linguist who served at the camp in Cuba for eight months, may have edited or deliberately distorted information given by al-Qa'eda and Taliban suspects during interrogation sessions. Tapes of those interrogations - some lasting hours - are being freshly translated. "If the subject answered 'five' and [Halabi] told interrogators...