3 Missing Egyptian Students In Custody

(AP)  Three Egyptian students sought along with eight others who failed to show up for an exchange program in Montana were taken into custody on Wednesday, authorities said.

Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, was taken into custody in Minnesota on what was termed an administrative immigration violation as an out-of-status student, according to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Two other students, whose names were not yet released, turned themselves into authorities in New Jersey.

"The FBI remains extremely interested in interviewing," the other missing Egyptian students, said Paul McCabe, a spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis.

The missing students pose no terrorism threat, the agency said.

Authorities began searching for the 11 Egyptian students after they arrived in the United States last month, but failed to show up for an exchange program at Montana State University.

The Egyptian men were among a group of 17 students who arrived in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas, according to U.S. authorities and university officials.

The other six arrived as planned at the Montana school.

Montana State repeatedly tried to contact the missing students, including via e-mail, a school official said earlier this week. When that failed, the school notified Homeland Security officials and registered the Egyptians as "no-shows" in the system developed after the Sept. 11 attacks to track foreign students.

The students were participating in an exchange program with Mansoura University in Mansoura, Egypt.

Norm Peterson, vice provost for international education at Montana State, said he doubts the school will have any future contact with the missing students.

"I guess I'm not optimistic that we are ever going to hear from them," he said Wednesday. "It's more likely that they will hopefully depart from the country as soon as possible voluntarily — or the federal authorities will continue to track them down and deal with them appropriately."

The six students who did arrive for the month-long program of English instruction and U.S. history and culture "are doing fine under the circumstances," Peterson said.

"But it is really a challenging situation for them to suddenly have so much press attention" for simply being the ones who showed up, he said.

The U.S. government tightened the student visa process after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. One of the hijackers involved in the attacks had arrived in the United States on a student visa, and immigration officials approved student visas for two other hijackers after they entered the country. A fourth attended flight training school without a student visa.

[yeahright7]

continued reply to rawda:

fact is nobody wouldn be there if there wasn't the concern that some "dimwitted" leader of one of those earlier named places wouldn't be stupid or psychopathic enough (which I thnk they have already shown themselves to be) to give some complete nutcase a suitcase full of enriched uranium and tell him he's going to get (whatever it is) 75 virgins and life in paradise if he goes and blows up something along with thousands maybe millions of people....


and here's a big one - I don't have a problem with lebaneese people in fact my neighbor and his wife are lebaneese and our families are good friends (he's a good man) and in fact I "fished" one time with a guy who was from Lebanon and he at the time knew there were going to be problems and told me so - so it's not like the lebaneese people didn't know this was coming......

but it's hard to imagine that I as a "non-muslim" am an infadel and have "no-right" to exist... that my friend is why there is this problem!

which brings me back to the same point muslims need to "CLEAN" your own house and things WILL get better - get rid of leaders who have these views and are willing to do these things get rid of these extremists whithin your own homes single them out arrest them and stop this hatred....

[yeahright7]

replying to radwa:
ok so now were getting down to the points
You have the "leader" of one of YOUR "great" muslim nations spewing nothing but hatred for an entire race of people - there is one point which stands on it's own......

you have the fact that the Lebaneese people were told (not exactly sure when) back around 1998 or something that they had a terrorist group "hezzbalah" within their country and that THEY needed to get them out / control them and their hatred / murderous ways or there would again be trouble - they did nothing, and here they are...

alqada - is was rampant throughout afganistan and is was being funded/supported by several more of those "model" muslim country's next to it, so the same thing goes for your response if we can't get the "alqada" to stop then it turns out iran iraq and not sure who else support them so as you said we will get to them - and until someone whether it be the U.S. or the country's who are supporting this and harboring these idiots stop there will continue to be problems for a long time to come
continued above.....

[radwa-2009]

muslims who do that feel powerless b/c they have seen their whole families killed like in lebanon now and what the 'US POLITICAL LEADERS' say is that the israeli response was quite reasonable..
what did the lebananese people do? they are innocents just like the americans..they shouldn't be killed. do u get my point?

[radwa-2009]

quote "well then why are the "muslims" attacking us, trying at any cost at any time to kill us one and all"
i will tell u why
in israel, israeli soldiers kill palestinians..children, women, elderly, youth but with what?
with guns, armed tanks that were supplied by who...WOW IT TURNED OUT TO BE THAT THE US IS SUPPLYING ISRAEL
what a shock!!!
this is what goes on in the mind of a youth in palestine..my mom was tortured, my brother was killed, my father was slaughtered..well then if i can't get to the ppl who actually did that then why not get to the ppl who helped them do that..
IN MY OPINION, I DON'T THINK IT IS RIGHT B/C AFTER ALL THE AMERICAN PPL ARE NOT BAD..IN FACT THEY ARE REALLY NICE AND HELPFUL PEOPLE..i say that b/c i was there before..so that means that they shouldn't suffer from POOR decisions done by their political leaders
but hey, not all americans are good..
in school i used to have this really really mean girl in my class..but i never said that americans are awful b/c of this girl
why? b/c she is a minority..
all the rest treated me with respect
that is why i will never judge the american ppl by the behavior of one american
same thing applies to muslims
we are a billion and something
u r judging us by some hundred ppl u hear about in tv and see in the movies hijack planes and stuff..

[yeahright7]

replying to radwa:
quote: if u understand arabic u would know that the word "islam" means peace, go ask any translator if u don't believe me or go check it up in a dictionary, we are FORBIDDEN to START a war in islam

well then why are the "muslims" attacking us, trying at any cost at any time to kill us one and all? if they are so peace oriented? and why do they talk of Israel as having no right to exist? that they (man women and "child") should be "wiped" off the earth.............

quote:
these students were INVITED as a part of an exchange program

well then go to school and do what you intended to do in a lawful and appreciative mannor, and if you don't well then you will/should be treated as such....

fact is peoples perceptions are based on things that have happened or that are happening that they witnessed. so if you think our perception of islam is "tainted or wrong" it isn't because we woke up one day and decided you were this way - YOU have done things to us and continue to do things to us to form our perceptions. when I hear the leader of one of your "great" islamic nations say that the Israeli people have no right to exist, and that they should be wiped from the earth, well..... that just speaks for itself!

like I said earlier - the problem is YOURS - clean your house and things might get better....

[tsbank1]

this current situation is the natural bain of organized religion.
god,allah or yawhee is crying in the heavens.
when did the few get sooo much power to wage war on the rest of us.
christian fundamentalist here,zionest there and radical islam EVERYWHERE.

[tsbank1]

this current situation is the natural bain of organized religion.
god,allah or yawhee is crying in the heavens.
when did the few get sooo much power to wage war on the rest of us.
christian fundamentalist here,zionest there and radical islam EVERYWHERE.

[radwa-2009]

replying to yeahright7:
quote "well if your MUSLIM you've got a problem period because jihad is war and war is war"
if u understand arabic u would know that the word "islam" means peace
go ask any translator if u don't believe me or go check it up in a dictionary
we are FORBIDDEN to START a war in islam
we can only fight the ppl who start to fight us first..if u don't believe me surf the net or read about Islam in any book
during wars, soldiers CAN NOT BY ANY MEANS harm an infant, or an elderly person, or a woman b/c they are unarmed ppl
quote "don't complain about being observed, questioned or even looked at funny when you walk down OUR streets, if you don't like it go back to your paradise....."
u ARE RIGHT..i CAN'T complain about out it b/c i am seen as a GUEST which should be treated with respect..i mean these students were INVITED as a part of an exchange program
i am sure the American students here receive great welcoming and help from anyone even if it happens to be a passer-by in the street. ask anyone who has ever been to Egypt.
Having got the wrong perception of Islam doesn't give u the right to say who is a terrorist and who is not..

[robocoder]

Hmm... Seems to me like we used to know how to do criminal investigations. In fact, if I recall correctly there's a title for people who do this type of investigation...


They're called Profilers! They develop a profile of the criminal suspect and they look for a person that matches that profile. Seems like a logical way to catch the crooks to me. But hey, that's just me.

Oh, and guess what. Look's like some Pakistanis just tried to blow up some planes. Who'd a thunk it. They're muslisms, they're middle eastern, they're swarthy, they're young men. Wow, they fit the profile!

Must be a coincidence.

[scottj191]

To question and challenge as we walk through life is only normal. To protect and extinguish evil is how the human race continues to exist. All law enforcement agencies set profiles to solve crimes. Nothing is perfect in life, however may the good float to the top and the garbage sink to a pit of fire. proud to have served in USMC