You Say Yusuf, I Say Youssouf...

I note that Yusuf Islam also known as Cat Stevens was denied entry to the USA recently. This may have due to a misspelling. Youssouf Islam was on the no fly list not Yusuf Islam. The TSA has also managed to stop a Federal Air Marshall from flying for several weeks and Senator Ted Kennedy. As my experience from biometrics proved without a shadow of a doubt, relying on one indicator is a waste of everyone's time.

Mrs Egghead's first name begins with 'A' in English. In Hebrew it can be alpeh or ein. She spells it with ein. Everyone else tries to do it with aleph. Of all the official documents she has, not one agrees with any of the others. Only the ID number stays the same and that's wrong on her army release papers. Trying to get this put right is expensive and time consuming and in a few cases, impossible. Terrorists called John Smith or Muhammed Ali get by easily I presume. I don't have an alternative though except for a better passport system which is coming.