Posted on 08/08/2006 11:24:51 AM PDT by mojito
The FBI has issued an urgent nationwide alert for 11 Egyptian students who entered the United States last week but failed to show up for their courses at Montana State University.
An FBI advisory says there are, at present, no known connections to any terrorist group but that the students are to be "approached with caution" and taken into custody. They "are here illegally and wanted for questioning," the advisory says.
The advisory comes just over a month before the five-year anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
"This is of very serious concern and is being closely tracked," said Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
The FBI says the Egyptians arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on July 29 and disappeared. The advisory says the alert is nationwide but that there is specific concern the Egyptians may be on the Eastern Seaboard.
According to the advisory the 11 missing Egyptians are:
1. Ibrahim, El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed; DOB OF 4/29/1986.
2. El Dessouki, Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed; DOB OF 02/21/1985.
3. El Bahnasawi, Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali; DOB OF 04/02/1986.
4. Abd Alla, Mohamed Ragab Mohamed; DOB OF 02/15/1984.
5. El Laket, Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi; DOB OF 09/01/1986.
6. El Ela, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou; DOB OF 02/02/1985.
7. El Moghazy, Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed; DOB OF 08/08/1986.
8. Abdou, Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa; DOB OF 02/25/1984.
9. El Gafary, Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa; DOB OF 07/01/1988.
10.Maray, Mohamed Saleh Ahmed; DOB OF 09/12/1985.
11.El Shenawy, Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad; DOB OF 08/12/1988.
And, no e-mails or bank transactions either? If they just decided to be late for class, wouldn't they have e-mailed someone at the University, or at least their families by now? How much cash does a college student carry these days, anyhow?
Well, at the very least, there are 11 college students, in a foreign land that are "lost". They may have been mugged, kidnapped, fallen prey to a meth dealer and are already hooked and working off their debt by selling it in the streets or by selling their bodies. We are a compassionate people afterall. Who knows what could have happened to these poor, impressionable, young men who just want to go to college and study...
For some reason this is reminding me of the South Park episode where OJ, Jon Benet Ramsey's parents and I think Butter's parents blame everything on "some puerto rican guy", even though we all suspect whatwas really up. Only now we are looking for some egyptian guys, and we all suspect what is really up.
Somebody is lying?
I think what they are saying is that if they are legitimate, they would be creating bank transactions and would be responding from previously used e-mail addresses. One needs to ask why they haven't called authorities to report their whereabouts, if in fact, they have done nothing wrong.
No, but happy-go-luck students gone AWOL wouldn't have a prob withdrawing money and e-mailing their family and friends. They'd leave tracks.
"After 9/11 he hoped that the authorities were tracking those businesses..."
After 9/11 I was hoping the Feds would be going door-to-door, but they didn't. They did bust some people, that I will say. The local paper managed to include some coverage of it in between their daily "hug a muslim" articles.
I'm pretty sure they would have checked out the check cashing places, at least I'd like to think so.
And, just in case anyone thinks I'm paranoid, the guy who went back for the deposit on the rental truck the first time the WTC was bombed lived directly across the street from me, in one of the nicer sections of JC.
O.K. So it's the fact that they AREN'T doing these things that spells potential trouble. This makes sense. In a very scary way.
I don't think the FBI thought a "terrorist" would use e-mail or bank transactions, but a legitimate foreign exchange student would have. NOT finding any e-mails or bank transactions would have been a sign to the FBI that this MAY not just be a case of some foreign students deciding to play tourist before hitting the books.
FWIW, you've got company :)
My theory I posted earlier as to why 3 were denied:
They were tragically killed this summer while doing their summer internships in Beirut with Hezbollah by the evil jooz.
I just ran an Expedia search for flights from Cairo to Boseman leaving September 23rd and returning 30 days later, and the least expensive Air Eygpt flight is through JFK at a cost of $1188 round trip. The second lowest price is through Denver at a cost of $2728 round trip.
Exactly. This situation is certainly unsettling. It seems quite obvious that these 11 had no intention whatsoever of attending the Montana University. They didn't have to keep the commitment so they could vanish easier. It seems to me their vanishing act was pre-planned and apparently orchestrated well.....so far. Hopefully that will change ASAP.
Yeah, but we all know they only fly one way...how much are those?
It's obvious they had a contact in NYC - they knew somebody who knew they were coming - and baked them a cake.
You may be on to something with the Hispanic names. I was thinking all 11 of them would have to have a friend with a van or Suburban, but maybe it's just a Chevy!
I think the FBI was just moving through their paces, one step at a time. The most obvious thing to check in the first place would be e-mail, bank transactions, vehicle rentals, etc. To not have done so would have been an incredible oversight.
Be interesting to see when the tickets were purchased and the exchange class was arranged.
You're welcome. :)
MSU still missing 11 Egyptian exchange students
August 08, 2006 -- by Annette Trinity-Stevens, MSU News
Montana State University still has not heard from 11 Egyptian students due to arrive last week for a cultural exchange program on the Bozeman campus.
"At this point, we have no information about what has happened to these students and cannot speculate. We are doing everything we can to work with the federal authorities," said MSU spokeswoman Cathy Conover.
The 11 students from Mansoura University in Cairo are part of a group of 17 students who were expected to travel to Montana from a connection at JFK airport on July 29. Only one student arrived in Montana July 29, another student arrived July 30, and four students arrived July 31.
Norm Peterson, MSU's vice provost for international education, said it's not uncommon for foreign students to arrive in Bozeman later than expected, owing to the sometimes lengthy process of getting through Immigration Services. However, this is the first time foreign students have failed to arrive within a few days of their scheduled date of arrival.
MSU reported the 11 remaining students as "no shows" Aug. 3 to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. Known as SEVIS, the system is the official database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.
The FBI issued a nationwide alert for the students Aug. 5, according to MSU police chief Robert Putzke.
The 17 students, all male, are between the ages of 18 and 22.
They were scheduled to participate in a 32-day program of English as a Second Language classes at MSU plus lectures on various cultural topics. In addition to academic work, the program includes a number of cultural/recreational activities, including a trip to nearby Yellowstone National Park.
The program, in its first year, was developed in cooperation with Mansoura University, a comprehensive public university with about 13,000 students.
The students were selected by Mansoura University. MSU provided the certificate of eligibility, verifying that the program is a legitimate academic program. The students traveled to the U.S. on F1 student visas.
The six students who arrived at MSU are beginning the program and are doing well, according to Conover.
"This is a valuable program, like other international programs, not only to our campus, but our community as well," Conover said. "We want the six who are here to have a rich and rewarding experience before returning home."
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