Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Missing Egyptian Exchange Students

Breaking news from Fox:

FBI Warns Law Enforcement to Look Out for 11 Missing Egyptian Exchange Students

The FBI alerted state and local authorities Monday to be on the lookout for 11 Egyptian exchange students who arrived in the U.S. last month but never showed up for class.

The men, who range in age from 18 to 22, were scheduled to attend a month-long program in U.S. history and culture, plus English language instruction, at Montana State University along with six other students. The group flew from Cairo and arrived in the U.S. on July 29. All entered the U.S. legally, but officials said the no-shows violated the terms of their visas and that the government would likely send them home once they turn up.

And the obligatory disclaimer:

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko emphasized that there was no indication that the men were involved in any illicit activity.

Here’s the part I like best - something in the post-9/11 security systems apparently is working right:

Montana State has tried repeatedly to contact the students, university spokeswoman Cathy Conover said. When that failed, the school notified Homeland Security officials and registered the Egyptians as “no-shows” in the system developed after Sept. 11 to track foreign students.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this story.

5 comments:

dick said...

Nothing to worry about here. They elected to study at flight school instead.

Sticky Notes said...

I mentioned this this morning on Sticky Notes and figured... no issue here, they probably just could not find Montana. Riiiiight.

Consul-At-Arms said...

Pre-9/11 we wouldn't even know they were no-shows until one of them was arrested, perhaps years later.

Reliapundit said...

has our govt posted passport photos of these criminals online?

if not, then why in the heck not?

Papa Ray said...

While we do need to find them, lets be liberal about this. They could have been enticed by our American beauties in tightey whities on the way to school.

I can relate as that happened to me once, long ago, and as I recall, I not only didn't make it to school that day, I didn't make it there for a whole week.

The only reason I went back to school is because I was utterly exausted and needed to escape.

American Women, there is nothing else like them on this whole wide world!

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA