"Advocates Say U.S. Bars Many Academics"

Read the full article by Anushka Asthana in The Washington Post, August 4, 2006.

Subtitle: "Government Says It Rarely Uses Law Regarding Those Who 'Espoused Terrorism'"

This article implies that a growing number of foreign scholars have had visas have been revoked or visa applications denied becaues of their ideological or political views. It illustrates the situation using the cases of:

* Waskar Ari (A Bolivian Aymara Indian seeking to take up his professorship at the University of Nebraska after completing his PhD in the U.S.)
* Yoannis Milios (a professor from Greece, who was detained and interrogated about his politics for several hours at JFK Airport before his visa was revoked.)
* Dora Maria Téllez (A Nicaraguan who gave up a post at Harvard University after the government rejected her visa application.)
* Tariq Ramadan (a prominent Swiss Islamic scholar whose visa was revoked.)

A spokesperson for the American Association of University Professors said that the says "the problem is growing. 'This places a serious chill on the exercise of academic freedom.'"

"The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking up to 15 cases.......in which it thinks people have been banned for their beliefs. While ideology is rarely given as the official reason, the ACLU said academics increasingly are being interrogated about their political beliefs when they apply for visas."

The article concludes:

If the United States is excluding visa applicants based on ideology, there will be ramifications, said Robert M. O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

"It is not just the people who are turned down," he said. "If there are a number of sensitive and conscientious people who decide it is not worth coming at all and decide to go to another country, then we in the U.S. are the losers."