The FBI has located three out of eleven missing exchange students from Egypt. That leaves eight missing Egyptian students presumably roaming freely about the country, doing whatever it is that makes incognito Egyptian students happy in the U.S.
All of this is treated with an offhand, almost bored air in the television alphabet media, when they finally touch upon it two or three segments into their "info-tainment" broadcasts. Ho-hum. So the kids didn't show up for school. Boys will be boys.
But wait a minute. Let's think about this. Eight men are missing, all hailing from the country of Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker. If they're not at school, as they should be, then they came to this country under false pretenses. If they came under false pretenses, then in a post 9/11 world a logical person would have to assume that they're up to no good.
Haven't we learned our lesson yet with the phoney foreign students gig? Talk about loose cannon! For all the criticism about unconnected dots pre-9/11, there's not much concern about these eight rolling around the country.
Ask yourself this question: How many Japanese or German exchange students do you think would have been admitted to the U.S. in the 1940s? Nothing against Egyptians per se, but in light of recent history, I do think that anyone from that nation who is intent on entering the U.S. is deserving of some special scrutiny. Am I acting xenophobic? Considering 3,000 Americans murdered within a couple of hours, I'd say no. "Cautious" would be a better description of my approach.
And "relieved" will be the best description of my frame of mind if the FBI is successful in rounding up those eight missing Egyptian dots--before anything explodes.
UPDATE 8/14: All of the missing students are now in custody.
