CBS News reported yesterday that eleven Egyptian men in the US on student visas failed to show up for their educational program. They were part of a group of 17 Egyptians headed for a program at Montana State University.
The other six have arrived at the Bozeman, Mont., campus for a monthlong program on English language instruction and U.S. history and culture, university spokeswoman Cathy Conover said.
When the 11 didn't turn up by the end of the last week, the FBI issued a lookout to state and local law enforcement, said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko.
"At this point all they have done is not show up for a scheduled academic program," Kolko said. "There is no threat associated with these men."
Not a threat? Their first action after hitting the ground here is to skip out on their student visa, and there's not a threat?
Sure, since Bozeman is near the main entrance to Yellowstone National Park, maybe these guys decided to get in a little sightseeing. It could happen (but it won't if they go to the government website I linked to, because that has got the be the crappiest picture of Yellowstone ever. Here's a better one).
Attempts by the University to contact The Eleven proved fruitless, which is when they decided to notify the FBI.
The government probably will seek to send the students home once they are located because they have violated the terms of their visas, the official said.
I would hope "probably" will turn into "definitely" on the deportation question. Unless they're lost in the Yellowstone backcountry and have to be rescued. Then maybe they can stay and finish the program. But then all 17 of them have to go home. Definitely.
5 comments:
When I heard about this my first thought was "what's the FBI and INS going to do"? And we see the benefit of doubt will be given to the missing muslims. The same can not be said for our brave fighting men being held at Camp Pendleton.
Janice,
I saw another report after I posted that said officials were speculating that the Eleven may have thought New York offered more diversions than Montana (they landed in New York).
Yes, but New York also offers more targets than Montana...
While Egypt is not a terrorist state (they've even got peace with Israel), their news media still spews anti-American rhetoric. We can't afford to have our protectors in the FBI and INS drop their vigilence.
While listening to Tammy Bruce fill in for Laura Ingraham, she read the names of the 11 missing "students" and they weren't Nordic or Italian. Thought it was kinda funny the FBI wanted us to "be on the look out" for these 11 students but waited 2 days before releasing the names.
I just thought of this, have they interviewed the 6 that did show up for class? If I were traveling with 16 other people and 11 wanted to go "sightseeing" before enrolling in school I would think 1 of the 11 would tell 1 of the other 6.
Just a side note. mohammad atta was an Egyptian.
Janice,
The thing that gets me is they released the names, but do they have any pictures? Maybe from when they came through Customs?
How in the world are we supposed to be on the lookout for these guys when we have no idea what they look like?
This whole "Nothing to see. Not terrorism. Move along." thing drives me nuts. Our government is schizophrenic.
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