The State Department has banned yet another intellectual from the country because of his political views. Columbian journalist Hollman Morris won a prestigious fellowship at Harvard University but was denied a visa to study in this country under the Patriot Act. His crime? He dares to criticize the ties between illegal paramilitary groups and outgoing Columbian President Alvaro Uribe, one of Washington's closest allies.
The Patriot Act was supposed to defend us from terrorists, not ideas. Yet the ideological exclusion provision of the Patriot Act allows the State Department to ban people because of their political views. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of noted Oxford scholar Tariq Ramadan who was banned from the United States in 2004 after he was invited to teach at Notre Dame University. We were successful in securing Tariq Ramadan's eventual entry into this country.
Ideas are not nearly as dangerous as censorship. Ideological exclusion harms the scholars, journalists and others who are banned from this country, but ideological exclusion harms America even more. Who are we when we, as a nation, can no longer accept the free exchange of ideas?
Let Secretary of State Clinton know how you feel.
