Posted on 06/16/2010 3:13:58 PM PDT by too_cool_for_skool
CAIRO — A Virginia man, stuck in Egypt for the last six weeks living in a cheap hotel and surviving on fast food, said Wednesday his name was placed on a U.S. no-fly list because of a trip to Yemen.
Yahya Wehelie, 26, who was born in Fairfax, Virginia, to Somali parents was returning with his brother Yusuf from 18 months studying in Yemen, when Egyptian authorities stopped him from boarding his flight to New York saying the FBI wanted to speak with him.
Wehelie said he was then told by FBI agents in Egypt that his name was on a no-fly list because of people he met in Yemen and he now cannot board a U.S. airline or enter American airspace. His passport was also canceled and new one issued only for travel to the United States, which expires on Sept. 12. He does not have Somali citizenship.
...
"It's amazing how the U.S. government can do something like this," he told The Associated Press from his ramshackle hotel in downtown Cairo.
"I'm cool with all their fighting terrorism and all that, I'm cool with that, I like that, more power to them," he said in American accented English, wearing baggy basketball shorts and a long white T-shirt.
"My home is America and I don't know why I can't go back there," he said, adding that he even suggested to the FBI to "put me in like ConAir or something ... in an airplane with a bunch of U.S. marshals or whatever, in handcuffs just get me back home."
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
How to pick up 9 year old boys
Oh the horror! Oh the hugh manatee!
You couldn't find, say a community college in VA to study information tech? Is yemen the pinnacle for this kind of study?
I doubt it but we do know that it is the go to place for another kind of study.
" his mother Shamsa Noor said she sent her sons to Yemen to learn Arabic and get some direction in their lives".
Yeah I think we can figure that one out.
This guy has more red flags than a may day parade and he wonders how he got in this predicament?
I take it that his brother, Yusuf, was allowed to fly back to the US while he was not. Is that a correct assumption?
OFF THREAD TOPIC, but interesting and ON THE INTERNET:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2155483/posts
“Somalis in U.S. draw FBI attention”
WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | nday, December 29, 2008 | Sara A. Carter
Posted on December 29, 2008 3:43:22 AM PST by Cindy
#
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2147450/posts
“Somalis Leaving U.S. for Jihad”
PAJAMAS MEDIA via FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com ^ | December 12, 2008 | Patrick Poole
Posted on December 12, 2008 3:57:22 AM PST by Cindy
Yep, I’m sure the poor guy would love to get back to good ole America so he can use what he learned in Yemen.
Something stinks to high hell.
What was he studying in Yemen that he couldn’t study here? I don’t care where he was born if his loyalty is somewhere else.
The no-fly designation doesn't sound unreasonable.
The FBI seems to finally be prioritizing their targets - a young Somali man, "studying" in Yemen, talking to people designated as dangerous, and probably much more with the help of the Egyptian Intel. Also, the guy says he's "cool" with authorities protecting his native soil from enemy combatants... not the most definitive endorsement for the WOT I've ever heard.
He's not allowed to travel back to America on an airship flying at 40,000 ft. Maybe he can catch a ride back to The States on one of the Somali pirate skiffs? ;-)
If you read the article, his passport was canceled and replaced w/ one that only allows travel to the US, so he couldn’t fly to Canada or Mexico and then walk across the border even if he wanted to.
If he is completely innocent, I’m sympathetic to his plight because I’ve done my share of international travel and some of the US Border bureaucracy is downright Kafka-esque.
Different details in an article from the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/world/middleeast/16yemen.html?hp
If the usurper can get a fake BC, this guy can get a fake passport into Mexico.
Have they confiscated his shoes and underwear yet?
meanwhile our southern border is wide open.
I agree with you but if they can do it to him, they can do it to you. He is a citizen and is entitled to due process.
“If he is completely innocent, ...”
Time someone said it, so:
He is Muslim!
1. His beliefs are antithetical to America.
2. His beliefs are irreconcilable with America.
FOX NEWS.com: "INTEL MEMOS WARN RADICAL CLERIC'S CALL TO KILL AMERICANS MAY INSPIRE ATTACKS" by Katherine Herridge (SNIPPET: "Two new intelligence memos obtained by Fox News point to increasing alarm over radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's recent call to kill American civilians.") (June 15, 2010) (Reead More...)
They’re not saying he can’t come back into the country, they’re just saying he’s not allowed to fly into the country. Ok fine, then let him fly into Mexico and he can take a bus home - that protects us from any plane-bombing or hijacking funny business. But some reason they disallow that too. But they say he can take a boat directly into the states. Whaa?
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