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A watch list is a compilation of the names of foreign nationals considered undesirable by the State Department of the United States. Persons whose names are on the list are to be denied entry into the US under any circumstances.
Grounds for placement on the list vary, and can include persons suspected of criminal activity, such as drug smuggling; but the most highly-publicized placements have concerned individuals who have been placed on the list for political reasons.
In 1987, former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim (then president of Austria) was found to have been placed on the list due to alleged involvement in war crimes, committed during World War II while he was serving in the German Wehrmacht.
On September 22, 2004, British singer Cat Stevens was denied entry into the United States on the grounds of his alleged ties to Muslim terrorist organizations, connections that Stevens — today known as Yusuf Islam — has repeatedly denied.
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