Last night we watched CNN for a little while. Mostly it was just babbling in the background while we chatted and looked for something good to watch on TV, but then I saw the face of our very own congressman on screen. I pointed that out to Lin, and we paid attention to what was being reported, knowing it couldn’t be anything good. Our congressman is a moron, and anything he has his hands on tends to be ridiculously stupid. Once again, he has proven this to be fact.

The report was about a documentary called “Karachi Kids” about two American boys being held against their will at a madrassa in Pakistan … a radical madrassa … a hotbed of terrorist training. The horror! Those poor kids, right? Well, that’s what Congressman McCaul thought, and he made it his personal mission to rescue these boys from Pakistan, going so far as to introduce legislation and visiting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf about the matter. McCaul was a man on a righteous mission, and apparently news sources we don’t frequent have been having a field day with this story for some weeks now (Fox News videos here and here.)

There’s just one huge problem. It was all bullshit, and CNN actually did some investigative journalism that caught the mistakes in the documentary’s story, things one might expect one’s congressman to look into before going on a crusade or things a filmmaker might have known while spending three years working on a documentary^† Things like reports stating the particular madrassa in question is often mistaken for one which is considered radical and linked to the Taliban, or the fact the U.S. State Department considers the madrassa in the documentary to be a “moderate institution favored by Pakistani-Americans for its moderate and tolerant Islamic instruction.” Furthermore, the kids’ father was surprised to hear that McCaul had freed his children “without asking him if they needed rescuing.” I’d suggest watching the CNN video for the whole story or read the transcript, which I have stashed behind the cut.

The biggest problem the father had in bringing his children home after their four years at the school? Getting them exit visas. Why was that a problem? Thanks to Congressman McCaul and his meddling, Musharraf rescinded the education visas of all foreign students, and that left them in something of a legal black hole, with their only option for leaving being turning themselves over for deportation or waiting for the government to come take them and deport them. Many other students are now in this same situation. This information doesn’t fully appear in the CNN report, but after reading far too many news reports about the situation, that’s how it all gets spelled out. Thanks, McCaul for “freeing” the children!

And what does Congressman McCaul have to say for himself now? Oh, he’s sticking my his beliefs on the matter, and trust me, I’d expect no less from him. His brain is apparently incapable of making corrections in his thinking in light of new information. He’s definitely one to stay-the-course, no matter what^††. Maybe next he’ll make it his personal mission to rescue all the American students being held against their will in Catholic schools in the USA and abroad! Oh, but I doubt the news outlets would give him nearly as much face-time on camera for a crusade like that. Not enough fear, uncertainty and doubt in a story like that.

Behind the cut, the CNN transcript of the report. I’d really suggest watching the video though, if for no other reason than to hear the ominous voice-overs during the documentary clips and to watch the filmmaker squirm and sweat while having his say about hoe he takes responsibility for the fact his documentary was less than factual.

CNN Transcript:

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a documentary with an alarming message for America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The story of the subjugation and indoctrination of youth behind the secrecy of these walls.

SAYAH: Two American teenagers held captive in a madrassa, a Pakistani religious school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I miss my family so much. I hate the food here.

SAYAH: Accusations of a Taliban-linked school training the boys to hate America.

REP. MIKE MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: It very much got my attention.

SAYAH: When U.S. Congressman Mike McCaul saw the film “Karachi Kids,” he was convinced.

MCCAUL: Was clearly being held against their will.

SAYAH: CNN first learned about the boys when the filmmaker, Imran Raza, offered CNN the documentary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over the next several years, Noor and Mehoob will be immersed into a world in which every moment of their lives will be spent actualizing the Deobandi ambitions and becoming emissaries of their totalitarian doctrine.

SAYAH: The film focuses on American teens Noor and Mehoob Khan. In 2004, their father, a Pakistani-born taxi driver in Atlanta, sent the boys to Karachi, to one of 13,000 registered religious schools in Pakistan, where students spend years studying every detail of their faith.

But in the film, Raza describes the teens as captives, being force-fed radical jihad. He started a campaign to return the boys to the U.S. Congressman McCaul offered to help, asking Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf to intervene.

MCCAUL: When I watched the documentary, they wanted out. It’s a very radical madrassa. The fact that bin Laden has spoken at this madrassa and was associated with it is one piece of evidence.

SAYAH: In fact, some Pakistani madrassas have been linked to extremist Islamic groups. When we first spoke to the filmmaker, we asked him if this was one of them.

IMRAN RAZA, DIRECTOR, “KARACHI KIDS”: There are connections between this institution and the Taliban. Osama bin Laden spoke there before September 11th. And these are things that are not being told to the parents. SAYAH: We came here to Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi looking for the two boys from Atlanta. It didn’t take us long to find them. They were packing to head back home.

(on camera): This is your room?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SAYAH (voice-over): The two boys, now 16 and 17, clearly missed Atlanta.

(on camera): So that’s the food that you miss most, pizza?

MEHOOB KHAN, SON: Hot wings.

SAYAH: Hot wings.

(voice-over): While the previous four years had been tough academically, Mehoob was proud at what he had achieved. Hafez, the memorization of the entire Quran.

(on camera): How has it been here, how have these four years been here?

M. KHAN: The first year was difficult. The second year was a little difficult. Now it’s easy.

SAYAH: They say they train militants, they train people to hate the U.S. Have you seen any indication of that here?

M. KHAN: No. I haven’t seen it for the four years I’ve been here. I haven’t seen any of that stuff. People just — they talk about Bush and they talk about a lot of presidents. But they never talk about like guns and stuff like that.

SAYAH (voice-over): The principal of the school, the mufti, agreed to answer questions. The first, were you holding the boys against their will?

MUFTI MUHAMMED NAEEM, JAMIA BINORIA PRINCIPAL (through translator): The children were staying of their own accord. We didn’t force them to stay. This madrassa is not some jail.

SAYAH: And he insisted, despite what the documentary claims, the madrassa had never hosted Osama bin Laden and has never had ties to any militant jihadi groups, including the Taliban.

NAEEM (through translator): Look, there are two things, one is upbringing. And within that upbringing is included that children throughout their life don’t use drugs, don’t commit adultery, don’t drink alcohol, don’t do wrong things, don’t steal, don’t plunder. Based on these principles, we tell them to live. Don’t kill anyone. These are our principles. And these are what the religion teaches.

SAYAH: So where does the truth lie? In the words of the mufti or the congressman and the filmmaker? We’ll provide some answers when we come back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Continuing our look at “Karachi Kids,” a documentary that sent ripples from Pakistan to Capitol Hill. These are pretty serious accusations, American boys held captive in a school that plants the seeds of radical Islam.

Here again is CNN’s Reza Sayah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAYAH (voice-over): This is the Jamia Binoria madrassa, the religious school where the “Karachi Kids” documentary said Noor and Mehoob Khan were being held against their will in a school, the film, with ties to the Taliban and al Qaeda. We looked the boys madrassa up in the International Crisis Group report on Pakistani religious schools. A report sent to us both by Congressman Mike McCaul’s office and the documentary producer.

What we found was startling. Under the listing for Jamia Binoria madrassa, quote: “Because of its name, this madrassa is often confused with the more prominent and powerful Binori Town Madrassa.”

This is that Binori Town Madrassa, just across the street. The ICG report says it is the fountainhead of Deobandi militancy countrywide. It also boasts close ties to the Taliban. Intelligence sources tell CNN that is the school where Osama bin Laden spoke before 9/11, it’s not the school the boys went to.

Did the documentary filmmaker spend three years working on his film at the wrong madrassa? We asked the U.S. State Department what it knows about the school the boys attended, the answer, it is known to U.S. officials as a moderate institution, favored by Pakistani- Americans for its moderate and tolerant Islamic instruction.

In fact, it didn’t take long for us to find pictures of the school’s principal posing with the U.S. vice consul general in the local newspaper.

Two days after the boys returned to Atlanta, we went to talk to them and their father. He says he was astonished by the allegations made in the “Karachi Kids” documentary.

FAZAL KHAN, FATHER: They have don’t hold my children. If I knew something, something going on or something wrong in there against the United States or against the British or against anything, I will be happy to send my children? No.

SAYAH: Fazal Khan says his main goal was to teach his boys to be good people.

F. KHAN: For this purpose I send my children to learn good morals, good behavior, good citizens. NOOR KHAN, SON: I wasn’t brainwashed at all. The only thing they taught me how to do was read the Quran. That’s it. That’s the only thing I learned was how to read the Quran and a little bit of understanding it, about the history of Islam.

SAYAH: The boy’s father tells CNN his sons never needed rescuing, just an exit visa. He was surprised when he saw media reports that a congressman freed his children from an allegedly radical madrassa without asking him if they needed rescuing.

By now the story took a life of its own. Congressman Mike McCaul even sponsored a congressional resolution asking the State Department to bring home all American children from Pakistani religious schools.

Some blogs even called the two boys “home-grown terrorists.”

So what does Congressman McCaul say about the apparent confusion of the two madrassas? He says, quote: “The Taliban is known to recruit from Deobandi madrassas, including Jamia Binoria, and train their recruits as terrorists. Any Americans among the recruits represent a potential threat to the United States because of their unfettered access to this country.”

What does the filmmaker say now? He stands by his depiction of how the madrassa transformed the teens, but is re-editing his film to make some corrections.

RAZA: At the end of the day, I’m the director of this project. I have to take responsibility for the mistakes. I take responsibility for the error in the allegation that Osama bin Laden was there. I take responsibility for the error in that several of the Taliban leaders were there. Yes, I do need to take responsibility for these things in terms of these were errors that sort of spun out of control.

SAYAH: Raza tells CNN he has stopped printing his film. Meanwhile two boys sent to school in Pakistan to become better people, have returned home to learn that not everyone does their homework.

Reza Sayah, CNN, Karachi.

1. † I suspect he did know he was full of shit and didn’t care, because he wanted to make a documentary that would get notice and acclaim. [↩]
2. †† Oh please, oh please, can we get someone else elected as our representative? Please?! Gods, how I hate my congressman. [↩]