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.
The fact that these dudes aren't showing up at the nearest embassy tells us a lot. They know how the system works.
Your reason for the Feds not releasing the photos is the only one that makes any sense. Hopefully, we're all off base on this one and these students will be found soon. Time will tell....and I hope the clock stops soon.
That's what bothers me too. I know that this sort of thing has happened before, but for all 11 of them to be missing. Well, that is seriously disturbing.
They would de-plane, clear immigrations, pick up luggage, and then conveniently miss their connecting flight.
The would have been photographed and fingerprinted when they were clearing immigration as well as having their passports and visas swiped by the immigration agent at JFK.
Parents are not distressed (as of this afternoon)
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2006/08/08/breakingnews/20egyptians.txt
"The 11 students' parents aren't frantically phoning MSU, Peterson said. They apparently know where the young men are."
This is from today's afternoon Bozeman paper, Mojito. What is strange is that if this is still true, why would not the parents have been contacted by FBI and then let everybody know what was happening?
Also
MSU still missing 11 Egyptian exchange students
http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=3920
FWIW, FBI has no information on these students that I could find.
Did look at the 10 most wanted Terrorists.
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/fugitives.htm
I didn't see names like Ricky Bobby on there....
Also, the Egyptian embassy isn't talking. If they were concerned wouldn't they be the ones talking and demanding that our government do something to find these young men?
Plus, I understand it took most of them 2 days to clear customs.
A couple of DAYS to clear customs?
The feds would have 3 photographs of the muzzies:
1. Passport photo
2. Visa photo
3. Immigration clearance photo taken after arrival
Just trying to understand here.
Are you saying that with these procedures, the 11 must be who their papers purport them to be?
Information from the Counterterrorism Blog at http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/08/11_awol_egyptian_students_bein.php
Excerpts: "Consequently, I am not reassured when the FBI says that they do not know of any terrorist affiliations that these illegal aliens may have. It is not reassuring that we do not know, as these public relations spokespersons claim. The point is that I find it curious that there are millions of illegal aliens currently present in our country, but these 11 are the subject of a "Be on the lookout" alert. I do not believe that there are many other such illegal aliens who are the subject of a similar alert."
Excerpt: "MSU alerted federal Homeland Security and Mansoura officials and notified the students via e-mail they had 24 hours to show up in Bozeman. None of them did, Dooley said."
Excerpt: " Officials at the Egyptian Consulate in New York and the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said they were unfamiliar with the situation. "
The last two excerpts were on that site and from an article from the NY Post.
Visiting relatives and looking for jobs in NY?
What about the class in Montana that they paid $2,000 to attend?
Ping to you, Peach, for some more information thanks to bwteim.
bwteim, I didn't find any info at the FBI site either. I found that to be very strange as well. Why wouldn't they have posted this information on their website?
Tomorrow I'll look around some of the terrorism blogs to see if there's more information. That was a good idea.
Here's the article about the boys clearing customs
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/egyptian_students_vanish_in_big_apple_regionalnews_dan_mangan.htm
Yes - some soup and quiet time helped. Thanks for asking.
The fingerprints of the person at arrival is checked by immigration to ensure they match the fingerprints of the person who received the visa.
If the visa was issued under a fake identity, it would not be caught.
Three photos and we can't even get a copy of one of them so we know who to look for? Amazing.
... gone missing on the island of Aruba.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.