EGYPTIAN STUDENTS VANISH IN BIG APPLE [New York]

[Mark]

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/egyptian_students_vanish_in_big_apple_regionalnews_dan_mangan.htm

EGYPTIAN STUDENTS VANISH IN BIG APPLE

August 8, 2006 -- Eleven Egyptian students who were supposed to travel to a Montana university after flying to JFK airport late last month disappeared in New York, spurring federal authorities to issue a nationwide alert, officials said yesterday.

The students - who were traveling with six classmates from Mansoura University in Egypt - had their student visas revoked for failing to show up at Montana State University in Bozeman, the officials said.

The other six students made it to the college.

"The FBI and ICE [Immigration and Custom Enforcement] would like to locate these 11 students in order to speak with them," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko after the "be-on-the-lookout" alert was issued to all police in the United States.

Kolko said there is no reason to believe the missing students, all men around 20 years old, represent a threat.

"At this point, all they have done is not show up for a scheduled academic program, and their visas have been revoked," Kolko said.

"We do not know of any association with any terrorist or criminal groups. There is no threat associated with these men. We have simply asked law enforcement's assistance in locating them so that the FBI and ICE may interview them."

Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the situation "has to be taken very seriously."

"Having a number of students from an Arab country arriving on student visas and disappearing is cause for concern," he said.

Montana State University Provost David Dooley said 17 Mansoura University students signed up for a 32-day cultural-exchange program to intensively study English, learn about Montana history and go on several field trips.

They arrived at JFK on a flight from Egypt on July 29, but only one managed to clear immigration in time to make a connecting flight, Dooley said.

By July 31, five others had arrived in Bozeman, but the rest were unaccounted for.

Dooley said the ones who showed up "were not certain about the status of their fellow students and why they haven't made it."

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.

He added, "We're very disappointed by this. It would be regrettable if the misadventures or irresponsibility of a number of students damaged these kinds of programs."

Officials at the Egyptian Consulate in New York and the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said they were unfamiliar with the situation.

And the clappers for "shock and awe" chime in :

http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/08/08/broad-strata-alert-11-egyptian-exchange-students-go-missing-in-nyc/

road strata alert: 11 Egyptian exchange students go missing in NYC (Update: FBI says "approach with caution")
posted at 10:18 am on August 8, 2006 by Allahpundit


ONE WEEK BEFORE ZAWAHIRI ANNOUNCES THE MERGER OF AQ WITH AN EGYPTIAN TERROR GROUP!!!

Seriously, it's worth keeping an eye on. Sonorous bromides about the dangers of profiling are all well and good, but when even the Guardian thinks this is newsworthy, you know no one's fooling anyone anymore.

Update: Like I said, worth keeping an eye on.

 

[Laura]

Did anybody ever think they might have been kidnapped and/or murdered simply because they are MiddleEastern? I mean, why the instant assumption that THEY are wrongdoers and not that wrong may have been done against them?

 

[Mark]

Did anybody ever think they might have been kidnapped and/or murdered simply because they are MiddleEastern? I mean, why the instant assumption that THEY are wrongdoers and not that wrong may have been done against them?

Ya, I did. My initial thought was what a great way to set up a group of people for the next staged terror attack: Kidnap people, stage the crime, then blame it on them, and if necessary dispose of them as if they were a newspaper. Sheesh.

 

[dhess31]

Yeah,
It seems odd that a group that large would all disappear at once if they were "terrorists". Because you'd think they'd be more subtle. Arousing suspicion like this wouldn't gain them anything.

Don

 

[Alana]

When i read the title, it reminded me of when a student of my university in Big Apple was vanished for days, and was later found dead, chopped and with parts of him eaten apparently, by another, well off student, who's father was a lawyer. Needles to say, the criminal did not go to jail, but to a fancy psychiatric residence, because apparently he was bipolar! Do i hear the word psychopath???

When students vanish, usually something bad happens TO them, old news stories can prove this.

Something tells me we'll know soon...

 

[Ruth]

My first thought (and probably it wasn't really original), but what if their identities were stolen for nepharious purposes? Its a nasty thought and I hope you are right Irini. We shall know soon and (hopefully) before any damage can be done to their memories -if they were 'real' people in the first place, that is.

 

[Cyre2067]

Capture, Greenbaum, Release.

 

[PopHistorian]

Laura wrote:

Did anybody ever think they might have been kidnapped and/or murdered simply because they are MiddleEastern?

That was my first thought, actually. Next thought was that this was on the News to spread fear and suspicion of Muslims.

Cyre wrote:

Capture, Greenbaum, Release.

Geez, you and Ruth can out-cynic me! But, the horrifying thing is the truth that these could be a possibilities, and there's no reason I shouldn't have practiced "unlimited thinking" and thought of it, too.

By the way, another thought just sprang to me that I've had for months. People wondered if those Haliburton detainment camps are meant for US political dissidents, then I recall Laura suggested maybe for illegal Mexican aliens. I was thinking more along the lines of resident Muslims, if the MidEast wars widen. I'm sure someone else must've postulated and mentioned this, too, but I've somehow missed it.

 

[Mark]

http://www.fox6.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=5B651A6C-8233-4C5C-A29E-BC3C60D66053&rss=tick

Egyptian student arrested in New Jersey and Minnesota

MANVILLE, N.J. (AP) - The feds can now account for three of the Egyptian college students who vanished soon after arriving in the U.S.

Two of them turned up in New Jersey. According to the FBI, they turned themselves in to police after hearing media reports urging them to do just that. They surrendered in Manville, New Jersey, about 40 miles southwest of New York City, and are being held on immigration charges.

A third student was arrested today at a home in Minneapolis. Authorities stress they don't consider any of the students to pose a threat.

Unclear right now is what they were doing in Minnesota and New Jersey. Also unknown are the whereabouts of eight other students who never showed up for a college class in Montana.

 

[PopHistorian]

I'm flabbergasted that so many of them are now "in custody" (for skipping school?), though the authorities say they're not a terror threat, and yet, there isn't a peep (as of yesterday) about why they didn't show up in Montana. Surely, the first thing the students did was give an explanation!! Heck, if they didn't, they'd be assumed to be a terror threat. What the hell is going on? If I missed the news, and if anyone finds out, please post it here. Thanks.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Just a quick update on this topic.
From:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/08/09/us-student-visas.html

U.S. authorities hold 6 of 11 missing Egyptian students
Last Updated Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:57:09 EDT
The Associated Press
Six of 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up for a college program in Montana are now in custody after three students were arrested Thursday, the FBI said.
El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20, and Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20, were arrested at a residence in Dundalk, Md., outside Baltimore, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Chicago police detained Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, at O'Hare International Airport as he was attempting to book a flight to Montana, the FBI said. Immigration agents later took El Ela into custody.
All are being held on administrative immigration violations because they did not report on time to their month-long program at Montana State University in Bozeman.
None of the students is considered a terrorism risk, FBI officials stressed, and there are no ties between the Egyptians and the alleged terror plot broken up by British authorities on Thursday.
The U.S. government tightened the student visa process after the Sept. 11 attacks. One of the hijackers involved in the attacks had arrived in the country with a student visa, and immigration officials approved student visas for two other hijackers after they entered the country. A fourth attended flight training school without a student visa.
On Wednesday, one student was arrested in Minnesota, and two others surrendered to authorities in New Jersey.
Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, was taken into custody in Minneapolis on an immigration violation. Two other students - Mohamed Ragab Mohamed Abd Alla and Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa Abdou, both 22 - surrendered to police in Manville, N.J.
The students arrived in New York on July 29 as part of a group of 17 students. Six students reported to Bozeman on time.

2 words. Scare tactics! I think they are just making a big deal out of an immigration and student-visa case so as to generate more fear amongst North-Americans. As AdPop said above, these people were as far as we know just skipping school. And even the FBI says that none of the students are considered a "terrorist threat", so why all this?