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 (AP) - An Egyptian student sought along with 10
others who failed to show up for an exchange program in Montana was
arrested in Minnesota on Wednesday, authorities said.

      Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed El-Dessouki, 21, was taken into custody at
a residence here around 11 a.m., on what was termed an
administrative immigration violation as an out-of-status student,
according to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

      "The FBI remains extremely interested in interviewing the 10
other missing Egyptian students," said Paul McCabe, a spokesman
for the FBI in Minneapolis.

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

      Later Wednesday, two other students surrendered to police in New
Jersey, the FBI said. Steven Siegal, a spokesman for the FBI's
Newark office, said the students came to police headquarters in
Manville, N.J. after hearing media reports that they were wanted.

      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
at John F. Kennedy International Airport 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 Bozeman, Mont., campus.

      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.

      They were participating in an exchange program the university
arranged 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 monthlong program on
English language 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 government tightened the student visa process after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of the hijackers involved in the
attacks had arrived in the U.S. with 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.

Gallery

Crime, Law and Justice

Gregg Aamot

Author

An Egyptian student sought along with 10
others who failed to show up for an exchange program in Montana was
arrested in Minneapolis on Wednesday, authorities said.


One of 11 missing Egyptian students arrested in Minnesota

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