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.
It's interesting that we haven't heard much from the Egyptian government about its 'missing' students.
So what happened?
I certainly don't know!
Wait a minute...these all look like Arabic young men, possibly Muslim, between 17 and 25 years old! Hummmm...
HA HA HA, well go figure, it seems to be a trend.
Here is an interesting take:
Did authorities visit with the parents of the missing students? If so, were they concerned that their child has dissappeared?
The way you get lost at a very large airport in a really strange country is go there. Everything goes downhill from that point on.
They are not all ending up in different states. 3 of them were caught right there in Maryland. Best bet is they got a flight from New York to Manassas, then a cab to a distant relative in Baltimore.
The first one was a guy who was found in Minnesota.
The clue is they had "ticketing" that said "MN...." somewhere.
BTW, once inside the United States the telephone number to reach the school changed. To call from Egypt to the United States you must dial "001", then the Area Code, then the number. To call the same number in the United States you simply dial "1" and then the Area Code, etc.
If you have a cellphone you don't dial "1".
From the US to Mexico you first dial "01152". From Egypt to Mexico that's "0052".
You can discover all this neat stuff at http://www.countrycallingcodes.com/
O.K. Personal attack me,if you you must. I'm sorry. After reading your biography on your "Look at me and what I think" page I can see that I am clearly inferior to your superiority
Way to go, you should feel proud
The trick are the international three digit airport codes with "MN". They are:
MNT for MONTSERRAT AIRWAYS,
AMN Alma, MI [Gratiot Community Airport], USA.
MMN Stow, MA [Minute Man Air Field], USA.
MNA Melangguane, Indonesia.
MNB Moanda, Zaire.
MNC Nacala, Mozambique.
MND Medina, CA, USA.
MNE Mungeranie, South Australia, Australia.
MNF Mana, Fiji.
MNG Maningrida, Northern Territory, Australia.
MNH Minneriya, Sri Lanka.
MNI Montserrat (Plymouth) [Blackburne], Montserrat.
MNJ Mananjary, Madagascar.
MNK Maiana, Kiribati.
MNL Manila [Ninoy Aquino International Airport], Philippines.
MNM Menominee, MI [Menominee-Marinette Twin County Airport] USA.
. MNN Marion, OH [Marion Municipal Airport], USA.
MNO Manono, Zaire., MNP Maron, Papua New Guinea
MNQ Monto, Queensland, Australia,
MNR Mongu, Zambia, MNS Mansa, Zambia,
MNT Minto, AK [Minto Airport], USA,
MNU Maulmyine (Moulmein), Myanmar,
MNV Mountain Valley, Australia,
MNW MacDonald Downs, Australia,
MNX Manicore, AM, Brazil,
MNY Mono, Solomon Islands,
MNZ Manassas, VA [Manassas Regional Airport/Harry P. Davis Field], USA,
I strongly suspect an astute Homeland Security Analyst got hold of this early on and did the obvious ~ namely, assume they got lost and might be looking for places in MN ~ then, upon noticing that MNZ (Manassas) is a Washington DC suburb, got the FBI on the phone and 'splained things (lest these fellows turn out to be terrorists).
BTW, whenever I get lost I find somebody who can speak English ~ and that's getting harder and harder.
Moslem taxicab driver from Egypt more than likely. Wish we knew more about the circumstances, but we don't.
Sure, on the average they were lost in pairs, but some of them were lost in threes and ones.
Weren't they, in fact, members of a band?
according to jacobsen (savage interviewed her just last week) - the only verification of that was the "manager" that the band members themselves gave the FBI information about. they called him, he validated it. big deal.
And no, frankly, I don't care if your bigoted, or whatever ~ just be yourself, but don't invite abuse.
Well, I disagree with your take. I've flown internationally (by myself) since I was 16, and I never found myself wandering around on the wrong side of whatever country clueless about my true destination.
These are college students, surely they know how to use maps, and researched their exchange program. It's doubtful that they are so stupid that the country code for dialing the phone would render them helpless and lost. There are infinite ways they could have made contact with the school, like, asking people for help?
I would imagine it to be incredibly easy for an Egyptian to get lost in the United States since so few of them have any experience in foreign travel.
The fact that they're from Egypt doesn't mean squat as far as their ability to navigate or use maps or...ask people for help.
They loved the snow. They did not love gloves or keeping their hats and scarves on.
We had to let them get near frostbite with some serious numbing before they learned.
Middle Easterners are usually not as well acquainted with modern life as Americans.
"the fellow picked up in Chicago was at an airline counter actually trying to go to Bozeman, Montana"
Only a week late and only after his picture was plastered all over the internet, captioned with a "BOLO" and "Approach with Caution"
"Lost" for one entire week? Don't think so.
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