[Moshe]

BACHIR ATTAR & THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA DENIED ENTRY INTO UNITED STATES TOUR DATES AND KEYNOTE ADDRESS CANCELLED
The legendary Moroccan musical group *The Master Musicians of Jajouka*, led by *Bachir Attar*, had to cancel their July 2008 US tour dates this week due to highly unusual delays in the issuance of their US visas.
Although the group’s US visa petition was approved by the Department of Homeland Security, and they were granted P3 status which is only awarded to “culturally unique artists,” nonetheless we have been informed that several of the group members’ names were *similar* to those on a Department of Justice “watchlist” and that *therefore the additional processing time for the delivery of their visas would take 3 months* after their US consular interview. The normal processing time for issuance of visas post-consular interview (the final stage in obtaining the actual physical visa) is 24 hours in most cases, and perhaps a few days to a week in unusual circumstances.
*Bachir Attar* was scheduled to give a keynote speech at the *Concert of Colors Festival* in Detroit, which had to be cancelled along with a major performance. Shows in Seattle and New York City were cancelled as well, creating a severe financial burden for the tour.
*Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians* have been internationally recognized and highly acclaimed for over four decades and have performed and recorded with *Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones, Ornette Coleman, Lee Ranaldo, Donovan, Deborah Harry, Talvin Singh*, and many other high-profile musicians. Artists as diverse as *Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, *and* Robert Palmer *have written extensively about the group’s utterly unique and ancient music, which can be traced back literally
thousands of years.
This action sends a discouraging message to those who take the financial risk entailed in promoting and producing music from outside the United States, but the ultimate losers are listeners in the United States, whose access to world culture in recent years has been restricted.
These highly regarded, internationally recognized artists, who have been active for decades, who are acknowledged as “culturally unique” by the US government, and who have no known criminal record, should not be subject to such unusual and unfair security scrutiny *after their visa petition has been already been approved*.
In common with the arts community nation-wide, we feel that the US visa application process is opaque and needlessly confusing, and we call for greater transparency and accountability.

[therealglenstyler]

Wtf!
bearing in mind the sophistication demonstrated by US government bodies in the tracking and identification of its percieved enemies when they feel motivated to do so, it simply beggars belief that these same bodies can be thrown into a state of paralysing confusion when presented with names that are "similar" to those who they deem to be suspect.
It's the hi-tech equivalent of saying "they all look the same to me" and as a governmentally enshrined national outlook it harms noone more than it does the american people.
sad.

[krastian]

Ain't that a bitch.....would love to see them.

[MellySingsDoom]

Britain's no better in regards to "insane security" measures. It is a damn shame that you US-ers won't get to see the Master Musicians any time soon.