[Gone GF]

"Either these 11 Egyptian "students" are the biggest meatheads in their country, or they are terrorists."

And even if they're terrorists, they're meatheads. If you don't show up at college, that triggers an alarm. If they had gone on to the college, nobody would have been looking for or at them.

My bet? They're meatheads, but not meathead terrorists.

[VOA]

And even if they're terrorists, they're meatheads. If you don't show
up at college, that triggers an alarm.

Or they just found out how many hours (or days) will elapse before
the alarm is sounded.

This is invaluable information in figuring out the "time window" in
which a crucial courier-terrorist can freely move about the USA.

Also, if they have covert operatives in/near the FBI or other agencies,
they may now be able to gauge how many such "alarms" they have to
pull off simultaneously in order to saturate our defense/monitoring system.

[fivecatsandadog]

I still think they're somehow connected with the bigger plot. Maybe they cut loose from the other "students" to draw attention away from the big one going down. Maybe their assignment was yet to be carried out.