Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for the 24th of November. It's Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we're not going to pretend it's not. Welcome, everyone. I'm here with David Plotz. Emily Bazelon is in New Haven. I'm John Dickerson. We're going to talk about the TSA and the pat-downs. Then we're going to talk about the Pope and his evolving or not evolving views on condom use. And then we are going to end with a Taliban leader who turns out was no Taliban leader at all, despite the fact we, the United States had been negotiating with him for years. It turns out he owns a small chain of restaurants in Poughkeepsie. That was a good joke. Thank you. You're welcome. You know that the brother of Hamid Karzai owns a chain of restaurants in Baltimore? But this is not the one the CIA is paying. This isn't the corruptia. This is the one he owns a really, a restaurant I was going to long before I'd ever heard of Hamid Karzai.

This is like a...

I think it's called the Helmand.

Oh, I love those restaurants.

There's one in Boston too, I think.

I don't know.

I imagine maybe it's, maybe it's, maybe it's across North America.

There is a small chain of Helmand Afghani restaurants.

So if you're talking about the same thing.

Well, I know the one in Baltimore. So I don't know if there's one in Poughkeepsie. That would be cool if there was. Well, you know, please write in if you live in Poughkeepsie and you've been frequenting the restaurants of fake Taliban leaders. Also speaking of which upstate New York and that that Hana once took a

photo, there was just, Hannah once wrote a great story. My wife once wrote a great story right after 9-11 about a guy who was, I think, in Afghan who had been, he was a pizza delivery guy in Poughkeepsie, I believe it was Pekypsey, which is why it stuck in my head, who took a picture and in the background of the picture

with like a nuclear power plant

or something was in the background.

He was just a... my head, who took a picture and in the background of the picture with like a nuclear power plant

or something was in the background. He was just an innocent guy. But this is the craziness after 9-11.

Someone saw him taking his picture. He ends up getting picked up by, you know, I guess this was

the INS or the FBI, held in communicato for months, you know, deported. He wasn't even illegal, but he was deported for some kind of totally trumped up reason. It was a totally tragic story. He was a guy who was just make it in America who took a bad picture in Poughkeepsie at the wrong time. Oh my gosh. And an incredible segue into the hyper national security

state in which we live. Right. Bring it. Wow. It was like we scripted this show. Emily, are you going to opt out of a pat down if you know what I mean? No, I am not going to opt out of anything. If they want me to take my close off in the airport. I would. I just

can't believe the fuck over this.

You're such an exhibitionist.

This is where this has hit some true mark

with you. close off in the airport, I would. I just can't believe the fuss over this.

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