i cant think: No-Fly List Grounds Cat Stevens

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September 22, 2004

No-Fly List Grounds Cat Stevens

The major news organizations reported today that Cat Stevens, now known under the name Yusuf Islam, was denied entry into the U.S. based on the fact that his name appeared on the now infamous "No-fly" list maintained by the Department of Homeland Security in tight secrecy. It is being reported that the plane that Islam was flying from London to Dulles Airport was diverted midflight to Bangor, Maine where he was then detained and driven to Boston. In Boston he was apparently interviewed by the FBI and INS who decided that he should be denied entry and deported on the next available flight out of the country.

If there was ever conclusive evidence that we are living in a country governed by principles that have come from the pages of George Orwell and Franz Kafka, this would be it. I, for one, certainly feel safer knowing that the crazed madman responsible for such incendiary music as "Peace Train" and "Where do the Children Play" will not be allowed to come near myself or my family.

Yusuf visited the U.S. as recently as May of this year to promote a new DVD release of his music, and was presumably allowed to come and go freely at that time. He has been very active since the mid-70's in promoting peace and human rights around the globe. Two weeks ago he published on his official website a moving tribute to the victims of the Beslan massacre in which he strongly denounced the use of violence in the name of the Islamic faith.

Crimes against innocent bystanders taken hostage in any circumstance have no foundation whatsoever in the life of Islam and the model example of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The concept that Islam allows the taking of one person's life in exchange for another person's sin is absolutely warped, the Qur'an in fact put an end to the concept of sins being passed on from generation to generation, father to son, or from one soul to another. God says, '…And every soul earns not [blame] except against itself, and no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return and He will inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.'

And he also goes on to say, even more strongly,

Also, 'Whoever takes a life without due justice, it will be as if he has killed the whole of mankind…' and, 'Do not take the life which God has made sacred except through (due process of) law.'

Now, I do not know this man personally. I only know him through his artistic creations and his public persona of the past 35 years. And I would not claim that is impossible that he may have experienced an epiphany in the recent past that caused him to disregard everything he has said up until this time. After all, nearly anything is possible. But, surely, this is highly improbable. And I am by no means the only person to question this act. Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary for Great Britain, was quoted by the London Telegraph as saying to U.S. Secretary Of State Colin Powell that the action "should not have been taken".

And what of the "No-fly" list itself? Is this a useful tool to combat terrorism in the U.S.? The criminals who took down the World Trade Center by highjacking aircraft had no history of supporting terrorism, and therefore would not have found themselves on such a list. And if the criminals know that such a list exists, doesn't it stand to reason that they would go to great lengths to find someone who would not possibly be on the list if they wished to infiltrate an aircraft? Or, perhaps, find another avenue of attack entirely? Bruce Schneier has written a short piece on this very subject in his latest Crypto-gram newsletter (which is, by the way, an excellent read for anyone who wants an unbiased look at security and secure systems).

There is no recourse for those on the list, and their stories quickly take on a Kafkaesque tone. People can be put on the list for any reason; no standards exist. There's no ability to review any evidence against you, or even confirm that you are actually on the list. And for most people, there's no way to get off the list or to "prove" once and for all that they're not whoever the list is really looking for. It took Senator Kennedy three weeks to get his name off the list. People without his political pull have spent years futilely trying to clear their names.

And in the same article, Schneier targets the very reason that someone such as Yusuf Islam would find themselves in this situation:

Any watch list where it's easy to put names on and difficult to take names off will quickly fill with false positives. These false positives eventually overwhelm any real information on the list, and soon the list does no more than flag innocents -- which is what we see happening today, and why the list hasn't resulted in any arrests.

Let's bring this madness to an end, now, before I begin to see banners hanging in the streets of America saying things such as "War is Peace" and "Ignorance is Strength". And above all, we should do our best to remember that freedom is not made possible by Democracy, it is Democracy which is made possible by freedom.

Posted by bcoffee at September 22, 2004 08:53 PM