Michael Fumento

In an earlier blog I noted that the ISN News Service, in an article by Anuj Chopra, stated: "Negotiating with the Taliban is like going to dinner with Hannibal Lector," Michael Fumento, an American author and columnist on the West's engagement in Afghanistan, told ISN Security Watch. "You cannot gain." I also noted that while that quote appeared in any number of similar articles of mine, neither Chopra nor ISN ever contacted me. So I wrote to them and they both very nicely apologized. I have since then learned that mistakes like these, prompted by overzealous copy editors, certainly do happen. And perhaps Chopra's article was a bit too close to mine in some ways but I'm sure I've done the same thing with other authors in 20 years of writing. The Internet makes it all too easy. I have no reason to think either Chopra or ISN acted dishonorably. Indeed, Chopra was at least smart enough to quote from one of my articles! Maybe in the future somebody at ISN will interview me!