Media frenzy hits MSU over missing students
August 10th, 2006 | by Walter Greenspan |According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, “Montana State University has been bombarded with national media queries and a few nasty e-mail messages ever since the FBI issued an alert for 11 Egyptian students who failed to show up for a cultural exchange program in Bozeman.”
16 Responses to “Media frenzy hits MSU over missing students”
By Wulfgar on Aug 10, 2006 | Reply
Yeah, and?
The media, on certain stories, tends far more right than left. The dirty-laundry sniffers are hoping for any angle when these Egyptian boys become crazed psycho ax murderers. MSU had nothing to do with any of this, except offering higher education … which would be it’s mandate, yes?
I’ve no idea why this was even a story for the paper, much less the blogs.
(And for the record, you character-assasinating-haters, I’m a Griz fan!)
By Walter Greenspan on Aug 10, 2006 | Reply
Wulfgar, MSU invited 20 students, I seem to recall, and 3 of them, again I seem to recall, could not pass muster to get a visa.
I, and others, wonder what were/are MSU’s standards as to whom they invite to be “exchange students”.
By JP on Aug 10, 2006 | Reply
“The dirty-laundry sniffers are hoping for any angle…”
Dirty laundry sniffers. Love it. Will be stealing it for use at some future point. Thanks Wulfgar!
By Jeff on Aug 10, 2006 | Reply
And others think perhaps the application process is based the standard academic things and that it’s the government’s job to screen them through the visa process. It’s not like a terrorist would put “graduate of the Al Qaeda school of jihad” on the application.
Of course, I suppose MSU could dispatch their crack squad of international terrorism investigators.
The students were actually selected by Mansoura University, anyway.
By Walter Greenspan on Aug 10, 2006 | Reply
This raises another issue: I was informed that there was no kosher dining facility at MSU and I assumed that this also meant that there was no halal food, either. Does anyone have any thoughts on what the exchange students will be eating while attending MSU?
By Sick Of Em on Aug 10, 2006 | Reply
How come the enviros in Bozeman don’t go after MSU for polluting our society?
By Mark T on Aug 12, 2006 | Reply
What would the story be if 20 Israeli students, or 20 Danish kids had gone Disney? This country is in the grips of paranoia, kicking Arab ass all over the globe, and peeing its pants whenever one of them shows up in Smallville.
I wonder if it’s any saner in Canada? Maybe they are not so in the grips of propaganda?
By Jimmy don't play that on Aug 12, 2006 | Reply
Disingenuous claptrap! The paper (which won’t keep articles online for more than a couple of days, the chickenshits) claimed the boy’s parents were not alarmed at not knowing their whereabouts, as if somehow this is supposed to make me feel safer! Exactly when did the Israelis or the Danes enter into this by terrorizing the US? The probable level of threat posed by young male Muslims considered as a group is higher when compared statistically to virtually any other demographic outside of, say, recidivist mass murderers. Since when is it discriminatory to be cautious? I can’t buy lead-based paint because some child MIGHT ingest it. I can’t burn my trash because an asthmatic MIGHT be discomfited thereby. I can’t leave junk cars in my front yard because my neighbors MIGHT be annoyed… but I am prohibited from inquiring about a couple dozen exchange students who fit a threat profile when they suddenly go missing (and not to Disneyland either), even though they MIGHT be connected to threats to my life? Please permit me to wrap your political correctness around the toe of my boot before, in the words of Red Foreman, I have to kick your ass. Attempting to equate a group of visa-jumping Egyptians with the Teletubbies so you can preen about “innocent until proven guilty” is a brilliant strategy to display your propensity to appear stupid until proven dead.
By Mark T on Aug 12, 2006 | Reply
Oh listen to you … you should fear a lightening strike more than a terrorist act. Weeny.
By Mark T on Aug 12, 2006 | Reply
PS - just going by death count, they have much more to fear from us than we from them. We’re good at this killing game - we’re the best!
And the US is never a victim.
By SallyT on Aug 13, 2006 | Reply
Correction, Wulfgar, MSU had plenty to do with this–apparently it’s truly a novelty that a University would report missing arab students. That’s why the media swarmed. Do you know how many arab students don’t make it to class on their student visas every semester?? Didn’t think so.
I think the most fascinating aspect is that (still) no one emphasizes to visitors to this country that they must comply with the stated purpose of their visas. A visa still appears to be considered a ‘get into the country, then do your own thing’ pass. Since when does a student visa allow one to wander the country in search of work?
By Shane Mason on Aug 13, 2006 | Reply
Sally,
Do you know the answer? Didn’t think so. I recall missing students reported in Colorado a few years ago…
By Walter Greenspan on Aug 14, 2006 | Reply
The last two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up at their college program were apprehended Sunday in Richmond, Va., customs officials said.
By Jimmy don't play that on Aug 15, 2006 | Reply
Mark T. (#8) - Jolly good riposte! Obviously your rhetorical skills are second only to your stunning ability to craft an epithet. Do I detect the subtle nuance of a West Coast public school education? Further, (#9) - you aver that “the US is never a victim”. How droll! How erudite! O hail and well met, sir. Your intellectual profundity and cosmopolitan multiculturalism leave me breathless. Have you moved to Missoula yet?
By Craig on Aug 16, 2006 | Reply
Jimmy–
Do you have a functional e-mail address?
By Jimmy don't play that on Aug 17, 2006 | Reply
Whoops, sorry Craig - apparently I can’t even type my own email address properly, being in a fit of brusque pique over being called a “ninny” - er, “weeny” - yeah, that was it. I think I’ve got it fixed now. One to many Es in the previous incantation.