** I got something working **

[Benson Margulies]

After this rather embarrassing mountain of email, I think something clicked.

I offer the following query for critique.

PREFIX rex:   <http://www.basistech.com/ontologies/2010/6/rex.owl#>
PREFIX owl:   <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>
PREFIX x-arq: <urn:x-arq:>
PREFIX rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

CONSTRUCT{
  ?s1 ?p ?o .
  ?s2 ?p ?o .
  ?s3 ?p ?o .
  ?s4 ?p ?o .
  ?root ?p ?o .
  ?root rex:root "true"
}
WHERE
{
      { ?root rex:hasNormalizedText "Taliban" .
        ?root ?p ?o }
      UNION
      { _:b1 rex:hasNormalizedText "Taliban" .
        ?s1 (owl:sameAs|^owl:sameAs)* _:b1 .
        ?s1 ?p ?o .
      }
      UNION
      {
        _:b2 rex:hasNormalizedText "Taliban" .
        _:b2 ?pred ?s2 .
        ?pred rdfs:subClassOf* rex:relationship .
        ?s2 ?p ?o .
      }
      UNION
      {
        _:b3 rex:hasNormalizedText "Taliban" .
        _:b3 (owl:sameAs|^owl:sameAs)* _:b4 .
        _:b4 ?pred ?s3 .
        ?pred rdfs:subClassOf* rex:relationship .
        ?s3 ?p ?o .
      }
      UNION
      {
        _:b5 rex:hasNormalizedText "Taliban" .
        _:b5 ?pred _:b6 .
        ?pred rdfs:subClassOf* rex:relationship .
        _:b6 (owl:sameAs|^owl:sameAs)* ?s4 .
        ?s4 ?p ?o .
      }
}