Britain complains to US over Cat Stevens deportation

[JoFerret]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=afp/us_attacks_air_britain

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Britain complained to the United States over the deportation of pop singer turned Islamic activist Cat Stevens, who was denied entry on national security grounds.

But Stevens, who is now known as Yusuf Islam, was to be put on a flight to London late Wednesday, a day after the London-Washington flight he was on was diverted and he was taken off.

And the United States' domestic security chief insisted that tough new anti-terrorism regulations introduced after the September 11, 2001 attacks applied equally to a "celebrity or a complete unknown".

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) that Islam, who became a Muslim and turned his back on pop music in 1977, should not have been deported, a spokesman told Britain's Press Association news agency.
<more>

[truthseeker1]

1. Right! Cat Stevens is a terrorist!

Please....
What dumbasses. I can't believe this!

[LynnTheDem]

2. Cat was in Serbia helping Serbian victims...

That makes Cat a TERRA IST!!!

According to the idiots squating in the White House.

[LiberalFighter]

8. His lyrics might have a hidden message

[Jacobin]

14. YES. And that Donovan dude? I mean, he was kinda spooky too

ya know.

All that "I'm just mad about saffron...stuff" I mean, isn't saffron like a terrorist herb?

I'm pretty sure it is. It sure ain't American, I know that!!!

When are they gonna pick up Donovan! Thats what I wanna know.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

16. Yes... played backwards... they say... election 2000 was a fraud.... n/t

[Jerseygirltoo]

3. Cat donated money to the 9/11 victims fund

That tears it,send him to Guantanamo!

[bahrbearian]

4. Didn't he write that song " War Train A Coming"

[54anickel]

5. Well according to this Ted Kennedy shouldn't have been allowed to

fly either.

snip>

Ridge said that if "that name appears on a watch list that says you're not to fly on airplanes, for whatever reason, the individual at the port of entry ... is responsible to make sure that the information is acted upon, and that's precisely what we did.

Ridge criticised United Airlines for letting Islam on the plane in London.

"Unfortunately, United Airlines had the information and they didn't act on it before he got on the airplane. But we made that information available to national security's home targeting center, we took that action."

However a US spokesman for United Airlines, Jeff Green, said Islam's passport and reservation data had all been cross-checked with government data.

[Jacobin]

6. Hell we let Henry Fucking Kissinger stay here and don't deport him

Go figure!!!

[camero]

10. Only peaceful individuals get deported

Only war criminals and Nazis get to stay in the US. Bobby Fischer goes to Gitmo apparently.

[Myrina]

7. Play Bush some 60's Cat Stevens music....

Chances are he and Pickles toked a few to Tea For the Tillerman ... maybe THEN he'll remember who he is and take him off the 'terra list' ...


:smoke:

[rooboy]

9. Just curious...

but has anybody heard of any white supremacists or other right wing fanatics being detained on this terror watch list?

[SalParadise]

11. Of course not -

Do you really think they'd tick off their base by telling them they were terrorists?

[LynnTheDem]

12. Nope...gee, would that be why that US terrorist

caught in Texas last year never made more than the local media news? Can't be accusing rightwingnut American white boys of being terrorists; it might wake up the stupids in this country.

[Charles19]

13. No, Bush wouldn't want to offend his "base"

[Kool Kitty]

21. Certainly not!

You wouldn't want them to alienate their base, would you?

[Nicholas_J]

15. Yusef Islam

Has been given many international awards for the great many humanitarian works he has been responsible for since his conversion to Islam.

[LynnTheDem]

18. HUMANITARIAN???!!! Oh well then...for sure he's a terra ist!

bushCartel don't have any of them sissy humanitarian buddies!

[HuckleB]

17. At least the Brits used common sense for once.

It's time to end this "Watch List" now. It's clearly ridiculous.

[hlthe2b]

19. Good. I'm glad to see the Brits standing up to this nonsense!

Cat Stevens had been here in May, for God's sakes and was traveling with his daughter according to published interview with his brother...

I'm so damned sick of this stupidity... How are we safer? I personally came within an inch of being refused to fly, just because of a name similarity and because my workplace had tagged a one-way ticket to an existing itinerary to save money....As I'm as "lilly white and female" as they come, I can only imagine how bad things must be for anyone who looks dark or Muslim....

So damned stupid...

[Scairp]

23. That's the part I don't get

He was already here this year once; he hasn't hid who he is, otherwise he would travel under his birth name. And that isn't "Cat" Stevens.

[OneBlueSky]

20. it's just because they don't have John Lennon to kick around . . . n/t

.

[NVMojo]

22. embarassing

to say the least. If this country doesn't work out, where is the closest to normal????

[donheld]

24. this story does have 1 bright side

according to Amazon.com his CD sales jumped substantially

:bounce: :evilgrin: