Tim Lambert (deltoidblog AT gmail.com) is a computer scientist at the University of New South Wales.
The Globe and Mail reports:
After he couldn't get a visa to tell Americans about an alarming rise in cancer levels among Iraqi children, a renowned Iraqi epidemiologist has been told he can't fly through Britain en route to give a similar talk in Canada.
Riyadh Lafta -- best known for a controversial study in the respected medical journal The Lancet that estimated Iraq's war dead at more than half a million -- said in an e-mail to his U.S. research colleagues that he had two choices: Fly to England without the transit visa, or turn around and go home.
University officials were working hard to bring him to Canada through France or Switzerland, but while flights could be arranged, officials have not heard from those countries about whether they would grant him a visa. With Dr. Lafta are scores of documents that will help researchers from Simon Fraser, Washington and Iraq determine how badly the U.S.-led war in Iraq affects children -- whether birth defects in Iraq are on the rise, and whether Iraqi children are suffering a tenfold increase in cancers such as leukemia, said Simon Fraser professor Tim Takaro.
"We need this data and, as unpopular as it is, we need to complete this work," Dr. Takaro said. "It's extraordinary that the British would have held up something, and it makes me think that they were influenced to do it -- we'd love to know why."
Dr. Lafta had applied for a U.S. visa on July 20, 2006, to speak to students at the University of Washington about the death toll of the war in Iraq. He was helped by a U.S. congressman and a senator, but his application was not approved. His Canadian visa was issued during that time.
Hey, they could rename it "The Coalition of Countries that won't give Lafta a visa".
Via Kevin Donoghue.
Comments
They could, you know, always use the internet.
Posted by: ben | April 18, 2007 2:17 PM
Nice to see the Harper government doing something right.
Posted by: LogicallySpeaking | April 18, 2007 2:32 PM
Unbelievable. Orwell would not know whether to laugh or cry.
Posted by: Jeff Harvey | April 19, 2007 4:10 AM
As I commented over at CrookedTimber, I have a seeking suspicion that this whole incident may have to do with high cancer rates attributable to use of depleted Uranium munitions in the first and second Gulf Wars.
Posted by: Matt | April 19, 2007 6:34 PM
Hey, they could if they wanted to be misleading about it, like you clearly want to be.
The article explains that he didn't get a US visa because he fudged the application and didn't respond to requests for completion of the application. The fact that these requests were made is corroborated in the story.
This would contradict any suggestion that the US denied his visa out of hand for political reasons, considering their only known actions were attempts to help him get it.
The sharing of travel, and immigration data between the US and UK for counterterrorism purposes is well known.
The situation here is the US has denied a visa for a middle eastern resident travelling from the middle east to US, and that rrejection of a visa application is known to be shared with the UK.
So, you may think you can guess the most likely conclusion for the UK then denying a visa to the same individual while using the same traveller data the US provides for who should be denied visas.
Unfortunately you'd be wrong according to Deltoid, which in this matter would like to forego reasonable, supported conclusions for inferring some conspiracy theory is afoot.
Posted by: Kilo | April 22, 2007 12:54 AM
Or mail. But who knows. Perhaps this very important data has been stored on and backed up on some medium other than CDs, DVDs, tape, hard drive or paper.
Perhaps the guy is using stone tablets to record his data and the costs of mailing this are just too prohibitive.
Posted by: Kilo | April 22, 2007 12:58 AM