..: schmeeve / a blog :..

A now a govt mea culpa:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=Entertainment&cat=Cat_Stevens

Short version: it was a spelling error. Too bad, so sad.

Buffoonery!

First of all, in Ashcroft/Rummy/Ridge world, if the janitor at one of these "terrorist organizations" had a 4 minute conversation with bin Laden's limo driver, it'd be labeled a "terrorist organization." I'd have to see really incriminating evidence that he gave money knowing it'd be used for terrorism before I'd even let something like that float. And even then, it's his money, and he can do whatever he wants with it! It's not like he was intending to "sneak' into this country and do us harm. Totally ridiculous.

Secondly, why was he on the plane in the first place if he was so dangerous? They didn't know he was on a watch list until he was half way over the Atlantic, making the 777 land in Bangor, Maine. Call me nuts, but seems to me we should keep the baddies off the planes in the first place.

Honestly, I think it just makes us all look like a bunch of paranoid incompetent fools.

I think an argument can be made for denying him entry. Search for "stevens" on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie

He is quoted as condemning the 9/11 attacks. But he supposedly has been identified as a financial supporter of groups linked to terrorism. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. I'm just saying that I think an argument can be made.