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Cat Stevens saga 'a spelling error'

From correspondents in New York

26sep04

CAT Stevens was deported from the United States because of a spelling error, with American officials confusing the former pop star with a man with a similar name on a "no-fly" list, Time magazine reported today.

Stevens, 57, gave up his successful pop career in the late 1970s, taking the name Yusuf Islam and converting to Islam.
He had been travelling from London to Washington on Tuesday when his flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained on "national security grounds".

He was then put on a plane back to London, according to US security officials.

Asa Hutchinson, the US Department of Homeland Security's under secretary for border and transportation security, refused to specify the allegations against him.

Time, in its online edition, quoted aviation sources with access to the "no-fly" list as saying there was no entry on the list under the name Yusuf Islam, but there was a Youssouf Islam listed.

Because Islam's name was spelled Yusuf on his passport, said the sources, he was allowed to board a plane in London bound for the United States.

Islam said on Friday he had begun legal action against US authorities.

"We have now initiated a legal process to try to find out exactly what is going on, and to take all necessary steps to undo the very serious, and wholly unfounded, injustice which I have suffered," he said.

"The amazing thing is that I was not given, and have still not been given, any explanation whatsoever as to what it is I am accused of, or why I am now deemed an apparent security threat - let alone given an opportunity to respond to these allegations.

"I was simply told that the order had come from on high."

© Herald and Weekly Times

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10886578%255E1702,00.html