Posted on 07/15/2005 3:04:52 PM PDT by phoenix_004
The biochemist detained in Cairo in connection with the London bombings is an intelligent, quiet young man who advanced to one of Egypt's most prestigious research centers and whose lower middle-class family spent heavily for him to study abroad, neighbors say.
Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar, 33, had been teaching chemistry at Leeds University in northern England, and returned to Egypt a week before the deadly July 7 bombings in the British capital.
He was arrested four or five days ago in Cairo after British officials supplied his name to Egyptian authorities over the weekend, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was revealing information not announced by the Interior Ministry. However el-Nashar's brother said el-Nashar was arrested on Thursday, after he'd gone to pray at a local mosque and did not return.
It was unclear why there was a discrepancy between the two accounts.
A security official said Britain was pressuring Egypt to hand el-Nashar over. If Egypt hands him over, it may also seek the return from Britain of militant suspects Egypt has been seeking, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
In questioning by Egyptian officials, he denied any role in the attacks and said he was planning to return to Leeds after a vacation in Egypt, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. He was still being held, the ministry said, without saying whether he would be handed over to Britain.
British authorities said they found signs in el-Nashar's Leeds home that quantities of a compound called TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, had been converted into a powerful explosive, The Times newspaper reported.
El-Nashar grew up in crowded, impoverished Ezbet Fahmy, an illegally built neighborhood of ramshackle buildings and small alleyways on the edge of one of Cairo's most posh suburbs, Maadi, in the southern part of the capital.
His father, a retired employee from a construction company, owned a welding shop next to their apartment. Several years ago, his family moved to a somewhat better neighborhood.
``They were very isolated from people. He (el-Nashar) was rarely seen talking to people,'' Rifai Sayed Taha, whose brother is married to el-Nashar's sister, told The Associated Press outside the former family home.
His youngest brother Mohammed said el-Nashar returned to Egypt on June 30 and was arrested on Thursday. El-Nashar was vacationing in Cairo and planned to return to London, said the brother, wearing a gray baseball cap and t-shirt.
``I believe in his innocence. Ask anyone in the street or at the college, they will say that all his attention was focused on his studies and research,'' Mohammed el-Nashar, in his late 20s, told The Associated Press. ``I want the whole world, America and the British, to know that we know nothing and don't know why this is all happening.''
El-Nashar studied chemistry at Cairo University and for his doctorate studies was accepted by the National Research Center, one of Egypt's most prestigious institutions. In late 1999, the center sponsored him for a winter semester at North Carolina State University, and then for the teaching and research position at Leeds, where he moved in late 2000.
Leeds University said he earned a doctorate on May 6.
His research at Leeds focused on biocatalysis and enzyme immobilization, according to a biography of him at the university's Web site.
That kind of research ``wouldn't have anything directly to do with explosives'' or with biological weapons, said Constance Ann Schall, an associate professor at the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Toledo in Ohio.
Based on the description on the Web site, Schall said it appeared el-Nashar was working on using enzymes - biological molecules usually taken from plants - as catalysts to speed up chemical reactions, a common field of research that can have commercial uses in making pharmaceuticals, laundry detergents and some food products.
Hani el-Nazer, the director of the National Research Center in Cairo, said el-Nashar came home on vacation two weeks ago - about a week before the London blasts. He spent his first days at the center, presenting a copy of the doctoral thesis that he completed at Leeds.
He then told his friends he was going on vacation, el-Nazer said.
El-Nazer said he was surprised by the reports el-Nashar was being sought in the London attacks.
``I think it is difficult to believe such things,'' he said. After el-Nashar returned to the center, I asked colleagues if they noticed anything about him, and they said he was behaving normally during the last week before he went on vacation.''
Gee he sounds like a "moderate muslim" untill you get to the terrorism part.
Figures.
I didn't do it, it wasn't me, I wasn't there, you can't prove anything...
Ill spare eveyone time....."He was such a fine student...outstanding actually. Never bothered anyone and was spoken highly of. We are shocked to learn this. Its really just one of those random things and people should in no way infer that we have any problem in this area. In fact our admission processes have never been tighter."
...can anyone here see an application not listed?
I'm confused. Isn't the mantra we always hear for bringing in people from areas of the world that hate us that exposing them to U.S. education will convince them to love us? Seems like it just helps them advance their skills for killing us.
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