As a society, there is much we can learn about Islam, the Taliban and this incredible rift between the United States and the Middle East, she said. “If not, we are just making assumptions,” Maxwell said.

Ms. Maxwell’s immediate, credulous acceptance of Mullah Omar’s personal advisor sounds pathologically naïve, but she is not the only one.  Former Dean of Admissions for Yale Richard Shaw underwent a similar conversion when he first met Mr. Rahmatullah:

"When I first met him I was a little anxious,'' recalls Shaw, ... ''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."

Ms. Maxwell, to her credit, is active in charities and international organizations that aid refugees.  Yet within a few minutes she was offering the spare room to someone who, in the summer of 2001, was justifying the capital trials of international aid workers, perhaps workers like those Ms. Maxwell supports.

Ms. Maxwell is rightly appalled by violence and hatred against homosexuals.  When interviewed about a sculpture commemorating the murder of Matthew Shepherd, she responded that she was “moved” by the tribute to Shepherd: “I think the message is a wonderful one," she said. "It’s hard to go against ’Do not hate.’ The mere thought of a human being left on a fence is highly emotional for me."  Yet after a dose of Mr. Rahmatullah’s blandishments, she helped pay for his freshman year at Yale. 

The Taliban he advised and defended, of course, used to debate whether homosexuals should be pushed from a high wall to their deaths, or crushed by bulldozing the wall on top of them.  Eventually the crushers won out.  While a the idea of a human being on a fence may be highly emotional for Ms. Maxwell, the idea of a human being crushed beneath one must be somewhat less compelling.

After Dick Cheney’s recent hunting accident, Ms. Maxwell welcomed him to Jackson Hole wearing a sign that proclaimed, “Dick Cheney is not a straight shooter.” Yet, this guy in Mr. Rahmatullah’s Taliban is a straight shooter:

The Taliban certainly do some bad things, to use Ms. Maxwell’s modest phrase.  Books have been written about the bizarre, totalitarian, misogynist, immiserating, barbaric nature of their reign.  One of them, Ahmad Rashid’s Taliban, is referenced in the Jackson Hole article linked above, but only to make the point that Unocal might possibly stand to profit from a pipeline through Afghanistan.  The litany of their horrors, with which both the reporter and Ms. Maxwell are obviously familiar, is omitted. 

Uncanny, isn’t it?  There’s a reason the Taliban sent this fellow abroad to lie for them.  He’s good.  He’s smooth.  He plays limousine liberals like fine violins.  Even now the Yale administration and most of its faculty and students—especially those on usually vocal left—are refusing to speak out against the evil he represented.  Their ignorance is willful.  Their gullibility is inexcusable.  Their silence is damning.

In an effort to hold Yale accountable for its frighteningly bad judgment, we have urged concerned citizens to contact Yale’s President.   He has raised the drawbridge, hoping the problem will go away.  It won’t. 

Yale is accountable, ultimately, to the members of its Corporation, which is meeting in mid-April.  We have posted their mailing addresses—as well as some fax and e-mail contacts—on our blog here.  We hope you will join us now in spreading the word and contacting as many members of the Yale Corporation as you can.  Urge them to take responsibility for Yale’s blunder and put this ridiculous episode behind them.