Well hell, then I will
Posted on 08/13/2006 3:22:59 PM PDT by cornfedcowboy
WASHINGTON -- Immigration officials have now picked up all but two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who came to the U.S. for a summer course in Montana but never showed up for classes.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tracked three of the students to Des Moines. They were arrested at about 8 p.m. Friday, and are being held in the Polk County Jail.
They will be here until a federal immigration judge decides if they will face charges or be deported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents won't say what led them to find these students in Des Moines or where they were staying. The students are Ahmed Laket, 19, Mohamed Moghazy, 20, and 18-year-old Moustafa Gafary. Agents are not releasing their pictures.
Others were picked up earlier in New Jersey, Maryland, Chicago and Minnesota. They were part of a group of 17 who arrived in New York July 29 en route to a month-long program at Montana State University in Bozeman. Six reported on time, but the 11 others were no-shows.
Immigration officials said the students are not considered a terrorism risk, but all the no-shows now face deportation.
Montana State contacted Homeland Security officials after repeatedly trying to contact the missing students, under procedures put into place after Sept. 11, 2001, to track foreign students.
How did these 11 guys all get lost in different states? It doesn't make sense since they were travelling as a group.
And once they realized they were "lost" they made no attempt to contact the school.
To me at least, it doesn't add up.
They may have been "encouraged" to visit family and friends prior to the start of the program to see what our response would be.
Were there just 11 who were coming here for the courses, and ALL of them somehow never made it ---- or were there 11 of a much larger group, and these 11 played hooky?
Well, there was the famous German tourist who spent two weeks in Bangor, Maine under the impression he was in San Francisco*, so maybe they hadn't figured out they were lost yet.
*Not impossible; Bangor has hills, lots of very good Victorian architecture and an ocean semi-nearby, so what's not to confuse?
Federal agents arrested the three men around 8 p.m. Friday at an undisclosed Des Moines residence. Agents tracked the men to Des Moines from San Francisco, Counts said.
Counts declined to say how the men were found or why they were in Des Moines. He cited an ongoing investigation that also involves the FBI. An FBI spokesman referred calls to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Counts said the details of Friday's arrests were not a matter of public record. He said the arrests were publicized by federal officials only because of the high-profile nature of the Egyptians' disappearance, which has been in the news nationwide since Sunday.
The residents of the house where the arrests occurred are not accused of any crimes."
From the Des Moines Register. Interesting that they made it to SF.
There's something going on since the Feds are all so tight lipped.
I'll be at MSU next week and inquire locally about this program.
Sun doesn't set in the west?
bump
Well hell, then I will
Seventeen arrive here for school. Six report to the school, but the other eleven take off for various parts of the country. Two are still missing. I believe the six that reported were probably a decoy to keep the school(s) from being concerned about the ones that hadn't shown up. I'd like to know if the school questioned any of the six that showed up, about the whereabouts of the 11 that didn't...and if so, what they said. I'd also like to know why 11 individuals all decided to go AWOL at the same time, and were apprehended in most cases...in pairs. Coinky dink? I doubt it. Call me a skeptical, non-tolerant Miss Piggy too.
I live in DSM and what really bothers me is that they were found at a residence and not a hotel/motel. That means they have connections here.
Yeah...lost...in pairs.
I hope the last two are just as stupid.
whose private residence?
is the FBI going to do their job this time - or are they going to blow this off, like they did with those syrian "band members" on annie jacobsen's flight a couple years back.
exactly right. all these US based connections need to be broken down - who they called, check their financial transactions, everything.
Send 'em to Gitmo.
Like I typed in #18. It almost appears as though they were allowed to get 'lost'. I just hope their not decoys.
#17
:)
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