[Stealth]

Originally posted by karajorma


Cause he might stage a concert?

Even if he is raising money for terrorists I somehow doubt that Cat Stevens is a big enough threat to the US that there was any need to do that. Just arrest and deport him when the plane gets to Washington.

hey, don't ask me man...  you just said you wondered why they didn't let him get to washington, and i just said the most reasonable thing that came to my mind:  because it's a big city

[karajorma]

I know why they choose to land in Bangor rather than Washington as you say but it's only sensible if they believed that Cat Stevens was going to hijack the plane.

Quite frankly that's absolute nonsense isn't it?

[NGTM-1R]

Does anybody have details of how he got on the watch list? I mean, real details, not a misc. "he was fundraising" thingie.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by ngtm1r
Does anybody have details of how he got on the watch list? I mean, real details, not a misc. "he was fundraising" thingie.

He changed his name to 'Islam'



Cat Stevens 'shock' at US refusal (22/9/03)
Israel bans former pop star(13/7/00)

EDIT; IIRC Bangor is an Air Force Base.  I certainly remember rows of b-52s sitting by the runway from refuelling stops there when going to Florida.

[Clave]

And of course Pennywise is there to deal with troublemakers....

[Vaelinx]

I tell you, they Department of Homeland Security needs to get it's act together.  It's not like anyone will ever be able to take another American plane.  At least not in the near future.  Any passenger of able body would fight, because we've learned that overcoming the hijackers is the way to survive.  Back in the '80's when it was people interested in money or political recognition/assylum hijacking planes, they weren't interested in hurting the passengers really.  But now we know we can't trust our captors anymore...  Goodbye Stockholm Syndrome...

But anyway, they really need to fix their methods for airline security...  They've been found to be grossly ineffective.

[Flipside]

Apparently the reason Cat Stevens gave up his career as a singer was because radical Muslims convinced him that it was against the Quoran to do so.....30 years ago. He also allegedly gave money to Hamas.

Cat Stevens + 'Radical' Muslims (even 30 years ago) = FBI Wet Dream.

[karajorma]

That would be a bit odd since he has repeatedly denounced terrorism.

[ionia23]

Unfortunately, in the 1980's, he went on public record that he supported the death warrant issued against Salman Rushdie for "The Satanic Verses".  Not a good way to win friends and influence people, but certainly no reason to put him on a watch list.

[01010]

Maybe that'll teach Salman Rushdie to write a book worth reading.

[Grey Wolf]

And the funniest things about this thread: "Cat's in the Cradle" was written and sung by Harry Chapin, not Cat Stevens.

[Flipside]

I know, but it was better than my alternate Lyrics for 'Morning has Broken' trust me