[conspire] NYLXS Press Release on the OLPC Project

[Rick Moen]

Quoting prosolutions at gmx.net (prosolutions at gmx.net):

> "U.S. ban words 'Mujahideen' and 'Jihad'"
> http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2008/04/28/9520.shtml

This story has mutated quite a bit as it's been passed around (and the
above version isn't very accurate).  It appears that the first credible
person to claim to have actually seen the cited Homeland Security
report, and a similar 14-point memo from National Counter Terrorism
Center of language recommendations for diplomats, was Associated Press's
New York correspondent Matthew Lee:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3X6Gha4z-MCq9pU0vC4FWqDCXrwD908CUGO0

He was alerted to the report and memo's claimed existence (and says he
tracked down physical copies), based on a claim a day earlier by blogger
Robert Spencer.  Lee details the memo's bit about the word "jihad" (his
paraphrasing, here):

  For example, while Americans may understand "jihad" to mean "holy
  war," it is in fact a broader Islamic concept of the struggle to do
  good, says the guidance prepared for diplomats and other officials
  tasked with explaining the war on terror to the public.

(Among other things, that word and others were, of course, not "banned".)

(Felicia, at first, when I started researching the claim in your
hyperlink, above, it seemed squirrely, but tracking down the AP 
link resolved some of the vagueness and contradictions elsewhere.
However, you probably want to be careful of third-hand reporting by 
bloggers and others engaged in cut-and-paste journalism.  ;-> )