Two of the missing students were found and arrested in Dundalk, but the family that housed the students said they weren’t aware the students were missing.
The students were found staying with Jennifer Evans and her husband, who had introduced the pair to her as family friends from his village in Egypt. Thinking nothing of it, the couple welcomed the students into their home where they resided for a week before INS officials arrived to take custody of the students.
El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed Ibrahim, 20, and Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali El Bahnasawi, 20, were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
It was then that Evans realized the students should have been staying in Bozeman, Mont. attending a month-long academic program at Montana State University.
The husband (last name “Evans”??) didn’t know they were missing? Really; he had no clue? How did he happen to bring them home? Did he meet them at the airport in New York, or just find them on the street? What did he think they were doing there?
The employment explanation comes up again:
Evans’ housguests [sic] will now face some major immigration violations and may be deported. Authorities believe they were looking for jobs in a place of opportunity.
Mr. Evans, who is from Egypt, thought they were looking for work. Did he not know about the student visas they carried, which specifically prohibited their holding employment in the United States? Or did he turn a blind eye to it, knowing that such visas are routinely abused by “students” who obtain employment?
Notice that the husband’s first name is never mentioned. Do you suppose it might begin with “M”? And is his last name Evans, or did his wife simply retain her maiden name? The WJZ account coyly avoids the whole issue.
This story raises more questions than it answers.
But there’s one thing we can always count on:
Immigration officials say the two students who stayed with Evans are not a terror risk.
The Mandatory No-Terror DisclaimerTM.
Update: Thanks to CP and commenter Johnnie for digging up the name of the husband. He is Attia Gouda, and a pizza shop owner, according to the Baltimore Sun.
A woman called Jennifer Evans writes regularly for the Egyptian publication, Weekly Al-Ahram (which also has an entire section of its website devoted to Yasser Arafat, as a matter of interest). I have no idea whether it’s the same person.
Also: three more of the students have been arrested, leaving only two at large. I’ll be posting on the topic later.
7 comments:
Baron Bodissey, if I use on my blog "The Mandatory No-Terror Disclaimer TM." Do I need to worry about being sued? ;-)
Great post by the way!
After some sleuthing, the husband is pizza shop owner from Egypt, Attia Gouda.
(Baltiimore Sun) _ says they are from the same village...
Debbie Schlussel's blog has more information on the Maryland arrests. The pizza shop's owner has a history.
I bet Jennifer Evans is the same woman who writes for the weekly.
As for what Scott has to say about the repercussions of the UN-brokered truce, I agree, those will all come true. And, we will all get hit even harder than ever before. They are emboldened by what they perceive as our defeats.
It's better not to jump to conclusions. I am the Jennifer Evand you all are talking about, the writer for the Al Ahram Weekly but I'm not the same Jennifer Evans with the Egyptian houseguests. As AlAndalus said, there are thousands of people who share this name and you should be careful getting sensational over a connection in a country of 70 million people. I was there in a journalistic capacity during an internship with the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations who sends young journalists to developing countries to promote relations. Get it? Got it? Good. Now back to the drawing table.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Evans
By the way, it's pretty scary when you're looking on the Internet for links to your published work and find a bunch of people trying to tie you into something you've got nothing to do with.
Ms. Evans, on the off-chance that you return here --
Good to hear from you. You might have noticed that I said:
I have no idea whether it’s the same person.
i.e., I did not assert that the Egyptian woman was in fact you.
BTW, if it's an old post, it's always a good idea to send an email rather than a comment. I'm more likely to see it.
Post a Comment
All comments are subject to pre-approval by blog admins.
Gates of Vienna's rules about comments require that they be civil, temperate, on-topic, and show decorum. For more information, click here.
Users are asked to limit each comment to about 500 words. If you need to say more, leave a link to your own blog.
Also: long or off-topic comments may be posted on news feed threads.
To add a link in a comment, use this format:
<a href="http://mywebsite.com">My Title</a>
Please do not paste long URLs!
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.