Sami is my former co-worker, and is a decent, hard-working, and polite guy who also happens to be a caring father and very considerate husband. I know him pretty well through my work here at the University of Idaho, and needless to say, I don't take kindly to your suggestion that his hands should be cut off. You aren't even managing to make a decent ethnic slur--fundamentalist Islam law, or sharia, requires thieves' left hands to be amputated, not both. Examine the facts--not the innuendo, not the hysteria, not the bullshit--and quit with the knee-jerk racism.
Sami's visa was current at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and it was current when he was arrested. I know this because I'm the human resources contact for the department Sami worked for at one point here at the University of Idaho, and I helped him take care of some visa issues about 6 months before he was arrested. Furthermore, our HR department is incredibly anal and rigid about foreign students' paperwork--we are notified several weeks in advance of any expirations, deadlines, or other issues that may arise. If the slightest thing is out of order with a student's paperwork, I receive a request to pull that student out of the payroll system. There's no way that Sami could have been working for our department or attending school on an expired visa.
For those of you who are wondering, I was helping him deal with the fact that his visa renewal application had not granted for the next academic year. The main reason given for this denial at the time was that he was from Saudi Arabia, and the US was refusing to renew a great many student visas for students from the Middle East, just on general post-9/11 principle. I helped him draft a letter to the Graduate Student Office requesting that he be allowed to finish and defend his dissertation via videoconference from Saudi Arabia, as he would not be able to continue at the University of Idaho in person. Permission was granted.
Sami is a good guy, and a great co-worker. He's getting shafted. I've spent the past year reading bullshit posts like this one, and my distaste for all of the rumor, innuendo, bullshit, and straight-up lying has finally overcome my desire to be professional about the matter.
Sami is my former co-worker, and is a decent, hard-working, and polite guy who also happens to be a caring father and very considerate husband. I know him pretty well through my work here at the University of Idaho, and needless to say, I don't take kindly to your suggestion that his hands should be cut off. You aren't even managing to make a decent ethnic slur--fundamentalist Islam law, or sharia, requires thieves' left hands to be amputated, not both. Examine the facts--not the innuendo, not the hysteria, not the bullshit--and quit with the knee-jerk racism.
Sami's visa was current at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and it was current when he was arrested. I know this because I'm the human resources contact for the department Sami worked for at one point here at the University of Idaho, and I helped him take care of some visa issues about 6 months before he was arrested. Furthermore, our HR department is incredibly anal and rigid about foreign students' paperwork--we are notified several weeks in advance of any expirations, deadlines, or other issues that may arise. If the slightest thing is out of order with a student's paperwork, I receive a request to pull that student out of the payroll system. There's no way that Sami could have been working for our department or attending school on an expired visa.
For those of you who are wondering, I was helping him deal with the fact that his visa renewal application had not granted for the next academic year. The main reason given for this denial at the time was that he was from Saudi Arabia, and the US was refusing to renew a great many student visas for students from the Middle East, just on general post-9/11 principle. I helped him draft a letter to the Graduate Student Office requesting that he be allowed to finish and defend his dissertation via videoconference from Saudi Arabia, as he would not be able to continue at the University of Idaho in person. Permission was granted.
Sami is a good guy, and a great co-worker. He's getting shafted. I've spent the past year reading bullshit posts like this one, and my distaste for all of the rumor, innuendo, bullshit, and straight-up lying has finally overcome my desire to be professional about the matter.