thanks to vatoengland for this link

[winterbadger]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3531469

More on the Yusuf Islam issue. It looks as if TSA is still trusting the Israeli report that Yusuf Islam had "donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Islamic terrorist group, Hamas"; my guess is that no amount of contradiction will shift information provided by the Israelis, and that, frankly, its entirely possible that Islam contributed to a Hamas charity. It's my understanding that plenty of people did, either because they didn't know that the charity was linked to Hamas or because they felt the charities' work was worthwhile and not directly connected to its terrorist activities.

It's an explanation, but IMO it's still pretty stupid.

Comments

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

He may have contributed to a charity that had no choice but to deal with armed militants at some point to get the goods to where they were needed. Sort of like the US sending food "to Somalia" and having it end up, through no choice of ours, in the hands of the warlords who actually control distribution there. Donors generally can't control how - or if - their donations reach their intended recipients. If what you give ends up being used as a political tool or weapon...oh well, that's not necessarily worse than not giving at all.

Also, the bureaucrats who ordered Mr. Islam's flight diverted may have had no leeway in the matter; but someone higher up should have caught the error, realized who the guy was, and let him enter the US, possibly with a little extra monitoring of his movements. Of course, in today's climate, what higher-ups would dare make such an exception?