Actually, Suresh Ale Magar (SAM) -- a former teacher of English at the Nepal Law Campus -- has been to the US before on a valid visa. In the Fall of '97, he was in Boston to attend a conference on janajati/indigenous people's issues at the Harvard Divinity School. At that time, I remember SAM's making quite an impression on the organizers with his impassioned, fiery, activism-oriented speeches. Another US-based Nepali academic -- Dr. Pramod Parjuli -- was also there at that conference. SAM later to spoke to a group of Nepalis at MIT. At that time, I did NOT know that SAM would be a big Maoist figure someday in Nepal, though his anti-bahun/anti-Kathmandu position was clear to anyone who listened to him then. oohi ashu