VS Naipaul 'killed off by FBI in court footnote'

[Bangyai]

The novelist VS Naipaul has been "killed off" by the FBI in court documents filed in a case against suspected Islamist terrorists.


By Matthew Moore
Published: 10:06AM GMT 28 Oct 2009

The mistake was made in documents presented to a Chicago court


The very-much-alive British writer is referred to as "the late V.S Naipaul, a Nobel prize winning author" in the footnote of sworn testimony from an FBI agent.
The error is included in documents filed at a court in Chicago for the trial of two men accused of plotting to attack staff of the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.


VS Naipaul is mentioned in connection with his wife Lady Naipaul, a journalist and the sister of a Pakistani general who was allegedly killed by Islamic militants last year.
The slip-up in the footnotes of evidence submitted by Special Agent Lorenzo Benedict was spotted by the entertainment and crime news website The Smoking Gun after the documents were unsealed on Tuesday.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian, and David Headley, a US citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani, are accused of conspiring with Pakistani terrorist groups to take revenge on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper for "making fun of Islam".
It is alleged that the two men, who are both in their late 40s and live in Chicago, planned a reconnaissance mission to Copenhagen during which Headley filmed the newspaper's officers as well as the central train station and a synagogue.
VS Naipaul, 77, is widely considered to be one of the finest living novelists writing in English. His works include A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River and The Enigma of Arrival, and he received the Nobel Literature Prize in 2001.

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Oooops, sorry about that me lud.

[panama hat]

Aside from being a total prat, according to those who know him, he is a brilliant author

[Begbie]

They were probably confusing him with the late Salman Rushdie

[Hovis]

Aside from being a total prat, according to those who know him, he is a brilliant author

Quite possibly, but having just finished 'Sir Vidia's Shadow' by Paul Theroux, I'm left undecided on which of those two wins the prat-dom prize. I'm tilted toward Theroux though...

[panama hat]

They were probably confusing him with the late Salman Rushdie

Nice wife, though! What did that Irishman say about deaths being reported a tad too early?

Quite possibly, but having just finished 'Sir Vidia's Shadow' by Paul Theroux, I'm left undecided on which of those two wins the prat-dom prize. I'm tilted toward Theroux though...

uuuhhh, neck and neck!

[Bangyai]

They were probably confusing him with the late Salman Rushdie

Yep, the names probably sound very similar .............. to an FBI agent.

[Bangyai]

Aside from being a total prat, according to those who know him, he is a brilliant author

Quite possibly, but having just finished 'Sir Vidia's Shadow' by Paul Theroux, I'm left undecided on which of those two wins the prat-dom prize. I'm tilted toward Theroux though...

I'm not so sure. Although they both probably carry hand mirrors to look at themselves all day, I reckon Theroux has a better developed sense of humour.

[Hovis]

Aside from being a total prat, according to those who know him, he is a brilliant author

Quite possibly, but having just finished 'Sir Vidia's Shadow' by Paul Theroux, I'm left undecided on which of those two wins the prat-dom prize. I'm tilted toward Theroux though...

I'm not so sure. Although they both probably carry hand mirrors to look at themselves all day, I reckon Theroux has a better developed sense of humour.

Agreed - but didn't you just cringe when he (Theroux) admitted letting his children go without presents because - once again - he had to pay for V.S's lavish lunch.

As an aside, I liked the first part of the book a lot. The descriptions of Uganda, its university and the ex-pat community there closely paralleled some aspects of er...Thailand (!) 'Infies!' indeed!