Posted on 08/10/2006 2:29:53 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
Chicago police on Thursday morning arrested one of the 11 Egyptian students who were wanted for failing to show up for an exchange program in Montana.
At 8 a.m., about four hours after heightened security restrictions went into effect following a foiled terror plot in Britain, a man at the Delta terminal at O’Hare International Airport tried to use a ticket to go to Bozeman, Montana, but his ticket was out of New York rather than Chicago, police Supt. Philip Cline said at a news conference.
A disturbance then ensued. “He was raising his voice for the level for the counter agent to call for the police officer to come over,” Cline said.
The man, Ahmed Abou El Ela, 21, was found to be one of the missing Egyptian students, Cline said.
”He was acting in a strange, erratic behavior, and the Delta supervisor and they went a little farther in their investigation with the ticket, and they discovered that he was one of the missing students that they were looking for,” said Chicago police officer Tim Bulger, who arrived at the scene.
The Delta supervisor contacted the university, who in turn told her to call the Chicago Police Department and the FBI, Bulger said.
“They say he was kind of fidgety, moving around and kind of talking in a loud voice, which caused for a little bit of alarm,” Bulger said.
El Ela was calm when Bulgar arrived. He was taken into custody and turned over to federal authorities, Bulgar said.
Authorities began searching for the 11 Egyptian students after they arrived in the United States last month, but failed to show up for an exchange program at Montana State University.
Two other students were arrested Thursday in suburban Baltimore. Three more were arrested on Wednesday -- one in Minnesota and two in New Jersey. The other six arrived as planned at the Montana school.
The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who arrived in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas, according to U.S. authorities and university officials.
The missing students pose no terrorism threat, FBI officials said.
Not the brightest bulb in the box, I'd say.
"The missing students pose no terrorism threat, FBI officials said."
Oh. OK.
I would think that after today they would change this statement!
Must not have heard that the whole country was looking for him. Must also have missed the media alerts about beefed up security at airports.
And CNN tvs are everywhere at the airport.
What kind of dipwad at the airline counter calls the school instead of the police ASAP?
"Not the brightest bulb in the box, I'd say."
I'd have to agree. LOL
Now wait to hear this from the left:
"You would be upset and act like that too if you were lost trying to find your college in the wrong state".
Um, I guess we can now assume that these Egyptians are not innocent. Anyway, what innocent person would hear the huge media uproar about his AWOL status and not go to the local police station to clear his name?
How did he get to Chicago from NYC - if he took a bus, why didn't he just go all the way to Montana?
Three down, eight to go.
Gee, if he only spoke some Spanish he'd qualify for catch-n-release, and maybe a Guest Worker permit!
He must have gone to NYC or Chicago public schools.
Well, my sister lives in Cairo.... Egyptians are not the smartest people around. Lots of inbreeding.
Just what I was going to say. I mean how do they determine this? Does this guy say "I am not involved with terror" and that is that?
So, will the Fed's investigate how he got from NYC to Chicago? Do we have a Islamist underground railroad?
It's hard to find good, qualified suicide-bombers these days!
Strange...very strange
No, I think we have at least 6 of the 11.
What if these missing students are related to the "disrupted" plans in the UK?
I assume his belongings were searched for "sports drinks"...
"Gee, if he only spoke some Spanish he'd qualify for catch-n-release, and maybe a Guest Worker permit!"
ROFLMAO!
Don't forget college tuition discount. That would've come in handy with him being a student and all.
WTF? Why didn't he call the police immediately?
Too close to the Sears Tower for my tastes.
I'm sure there is one... and one of the stops must be Dearborn.
There's hundreds of "missing" foreign students here and unless the FBI thought something was wrong they wouldn't have came out public with this one.
Oh, no. They are just young men from a turd world country so fascinated by what Amerika has to offer that they wanted to tour and experience our wonderful country before reporting to school. < / sarcasm>
if they didn't pose a threat, why did the FBI put out a nationwide alert for them? Maybe the FBI was just trying to help them find their way to Montana.
I agree. In light of the incident in the UK, I cannot be quite so blase about the actions of these 11 creeps. They were acting very suspicious if you ask me and I'm for erroring on the side of caution here. The 11 need to be deported at once, and we need to seriously re-evaluate allowing any more student visas from Muslims nations.
Now, if they'd spoken Spanish they could have gotten directions at the McDonald's Fur Shur.
From all information these 11 Egyptian men appear to be wandering around the country clueless...which begs the question: "Why the hell were they let in in the first place?".
Just because the f.b.i. has been known to lie through their teeth and have innocent Americans put into jail knowingly for decades is no reason to have any distrust of the f.b.i.
Have any of you seen the pictures of these guys? The same kind of emotionless steel cold faces similar to those of the 9/11s
They couldn't get on a plane to Bozeman, Montana but they can find their way to and around in OHare during all the contruction? something doesn't add up here and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.
"Too close to the Sears Tower for my tastes."
Mine too; my father helped build it.
All they had on them was some bottles of gel and funny smelling liquids in Gatorade bottles?
OIC
if they make it to LA, the City Council will give cover under Special Order 40 (no LAPD stops for phony immigrants)
I only wish your implication were true. Believe me, he qualifies.
"It's hard to find good, qualified suicide-bombers these days!"
They blow up so young these days, and the retirement program sucks....
How did he get to Chicago from NYC
They all, as a group, missed their connecting flight that day then wound up scattered around the country? Then, with all the news about them they declined to report in? Sounds perfectly normal to me!
Why the hell did they call the school AFTER they found out the FBI was looking for them?
And you are right: something REALLY does not make sense here.........and I'm sick of them not telling me the truth.
On another note, the Egytians could have been just a distraction....pea and shell game. It's knida what it looks like.
I get the impression from the story that no one bothered to flag the tickets for the 11 missing students and quite possibly, if this guy had just kept his mouth shut, could have boarded a flight. As someone else said, how did the get there from NYC?
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