# 11 Egyptian "Sudents" Disaapear-Homeland Security, anybody? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 9, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988 "2006-08-09T11:08:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/21 "2006-08-09T13:44:23Z")
[QUOTE=RTA] I believe there are people in the West Wing who think that a terror attack on US soil before November would be like pennies straight from heaven. [/QUOTE] Is that show still on? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/22 "2006-08-09T13:47:42Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] As i say, it is troubling that 5 years AFTER 9/11, we are still admitting people from places like Egypt, and have NO capability to track them. [/QUOTE] I think you’re just the man for such a job. Why don’t you fly out to Montana and keep an eye on them other six folks. Keep us posted. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/23 "2006-08-09T13:52:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Now, Iranian president 9and suspected nutjob) Ahmadenajad is promising that the US will experience "something big’ on August 22. Did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/24 "2006-08-09T13:54:12Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Figure it out–the current way to get re-elected is [ol] [li]Scare the Hell outta everybody[/li][li]Blame the Opposition. If the Opposition is actually to blame, so much the better, but it ain’t necessary.[/li][li]Pass laws crafted expressly to be as ineffective as possible, so the problem will remain.[/li][li]Blame the opposition for the bad laws, & the remaining problem.[/li][li]Keep scaring the Hell outta people, right up until Election Day.[/li][li]PROFIT![/li][/ol] [/QUOTE] Never mind the pesky detail that no one in the West Wing is running for reelection. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/25 "2006-08-09T14:01:40Z")
What a lot of people are overlooking here is that **before** 9/11, people were coming in on student visas and overstaying them all the time, and no one gave a crap about it. That’s how most of the hijackers got into the country. Now, Homeland Security is actually checking up on people who say they are coming into the country to go to school. When they don’t show up where they said they were going to be, we start looking for them. How is this **less** secure than it was before? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/26 "2006-08-09T14:03:26Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Never mind the pesky detail that no one in the West Wing is running for reelection. [/QUOTE] Umm…I wasn’t quoting the West Wing. I am aware that there is such a show, & I have been e-mail about something similar stated there, but I have _never seen_ the show. My observation was independently arrived at, & I stand by it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/27 "2006-08-09T14:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu] unless McVeigh actually had ties to any number of terrorist organizations, he is not an actual terrorist. [/QUOTE] Man blows up building with a truck bomb, kills hundreds of innocent civilians, with no warning, in an act of terrorism. But he isn’t a terrorist. :dubious: Uh… count me out of this yet-another-new definition of “terrorist”. (Wondering if Mr McVeigh’s act were committed after 9/11 and he happened to be a [lone Muslim nut](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=381815) rather than a lone Christian one, whether you’d be so keen to count him out?) ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/28 "2006-08-09T14:16:20Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I’d find it far more ominous if government agencies _were_ able to track people’s movements with such ease. [/QUOTE] This just proves that we’re not doing enough! Cerebral implats for everyone! Then we’ll finally be safe! Don’t like it? Why not? Do you hate America? Are you a terrorist? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/29 "2006-08-09T14:16:48Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Umm…I wasn’t quoting the West Wing. [/quote] I think you might have missed the point, Bosda. I suspect that Carol Stream was speaking of the actual, really real west wing of the actual, really real Whitehouse. There’s nobody currently employed there that’s going to be running for elective office in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/30 "2006-08-09T14:20:21Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] As i say, it is troubling that 5 years AFTER 9/11, we are still admitting people from places like Egypt, and have NO capability to track them. [/QUOTE] Why do you hate Egypt so much? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/31 "2006-08-09T14:20:51Z")
1. It is definitely troubling that eleven Egyptian exchange students vanish without a trace. 2. We do have domestic agencies adept at tracking stuff of this sort, to find them. 3. What is meant by: > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by ralph124c > As i say, it is troubling that 5 years AFTER 9/11, we are still admitting people from places like Egypt… What are “places like Egypt”? Desert nations with fertile river valleys? Cradles of civilization? Countries that cross arbitrary continental-edge boundaries? (I grant the latter is something to watch out for; look at the USSR 1945-91.) I trust you didn’t mean something racist like “places where them eee-vul Ay-rabs come from”!! (Note: given the rise in interest/activity/membership of radical Islamic groups with anti-US attitudes in several Arabic countries including Egypt, you may have a valid issue there. But it still sounds, you know, a mite prejudiced.) > [@](#): > > Originally posted by Carol Stream > Never mind the pesky detail that no one in the West Wing is running for reelection. Right. And we all know that the large Democratic majorities during 1934-1940 had absolutely nothing to do with FDR being in the White House, right? Having a reasonably content Republican majority in Congress is important to Mr. Bush and his colleagues, even if one sees no nefariousness in that. As far as I can tell, Karl Rove has never held elective office since becoming Student Council President (partly by chicanery) in high school. Does that mean we should pay no attention to what he does? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/32 "2006-08-09T14:26:56Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] My observation was independently arrived at, & I stand by it. [/QUOTE] Nah, you just haven’t been paying attention that **Carol** is just a reprise of yet another ABA’er. See, things will be willfully ignored to make it seem like you were obviously claiming it was a quote directly from the Bush/Rove BFF Diary. If course, when you point out that you haven’t done so, it’s “what you meant” or she’ll claim “what I acutally meant was” until you either get sick of refuting her or she manages to distract everyone from what people were actually talking about. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/33 "2006-08-09T14:35:30Z")
[QUOTE=Martiju] You’re absolutely right. Best seal the borders now, because at least no [home-bred individual](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/mcveigh/dawning_1.html) will be a threat… [/QUOTE] Uh-huh. Because some of the locals are nutjobs you shouldn’t worry about a few of the foreign ones…? Brilliant, just absofuckinglutely brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/34 "2006-08-09T14:40:49Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Man blows up building with a truck bomb, kills hundreds of innocent civilians, with no warning, in an act of terrorism. But he isn’t a terrorist. :dubious: Uh… count me out of this yet-another-new definition of “terrorist”. (Wondering if Mr McVeigh’s act were committed after 9/11 and he happened to be a [lone Muslim nut](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=381815) rather than a lone Christian one, whether you’d be so keen to count him out?) [/QUOTE] I don’t consider the “lone Muslim nut” to be a terrorist really. A nut, yes. A murderer yes. Terrorist, no. I really don’t want to sit here and split hairs over the definition of terrorist. That is not the point at all. The point is, 11 Egyptian students came into this country on student visas. All 11 are now incommunicado. That doesn’t concern you just a little bit? Yeah, the whole Patriot Act scares the hell out of me too but I am not going to jump on the PC wagon and say that it’s not ok to be worried about what these guys are up to. ---
**Author:** ![Firebringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@Firebringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firebringer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/35 "2006-08-09T14:48:11Z")
[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu] I don’t consider the “lone Muslim nut” to be a terrorist really. A nut, yes. A murderer yes. Terrorist, no. I really don’t want to sit here and split hairs over the definition of terrorist. That is not the point at all. The point is, 11 Egyptian students came into this country on student visas. All 11 are now incommunicado. That doesn’t concern you just a little bit? Yeah, the whole Patriot Act scares the hell out of me too but I am not going to jump on the PC wagon and say that it’s not ok to be worried about what these guys are up to. [/QUOTE] Why does everyone assume terrorism or black helicopter snatch squads. 11 Egyptians! Perhaps it was just a family of cannibals with a liking for foreign food. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/36 "2006-08-09T14:50:24Z")
Well, there are a hell of a lot of people in Egypt. The proportion of Egyptians who are likely terrorists is tiny. Granted, these guys’ disappearance is odd, but it’s not unprecedented for people from developing countries to [do a runner](http://africanmigrants.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_africanmigrants_archive.html) when given permission to spend time in a rich western country. Their nationality, while not irrelevant, does seem to be exhibited in this thread with more than a pinch of hysteria. (But if you redefine a word on the fly, expect people to nitpick it!) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/37 "2006-08-09T14:55:30Z")
I would like to beieve that our Homeland Security agents are on the case, whether the kids disappeared thorugh misfortune or because they’re terrorists. But the FEMA experience leaves me cynical about that. How can we believe that Bush’s appointees to Homeland Security are any less a crew of hapless fuckups than his appointees to FEMA? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/38 "2006-08-09T15:00:19Z")
Egyptians, you say? Perhaps it’s some kind of pyramid scheme? Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/39 "2006-08-09T15:05:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat] Egyptians, you say? Perhaps it’s some kind of pyramid scheme? Sailboat [/QUOTE] For _that_ pun, you should only be a-nile-ated. 😛😛😛😛😛 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988/40 "2006-08-09T15:09:07Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] For _that_ pun, you should only be a-nile-ated. [/QUOTE] I think that attitude Sphinx. Leave the old Giza alone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/11-egyptian-sudents-disaapear-homeland-security-anybody/367988.md?page=3)