Update: American Students Arrested for Alleged Firebombing Leave Egypt
- Posted on November 26, 2011 at 8:54am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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American students Luke Gates, Derrik Sweeney and Gregory Porter have all left Egypt after being arrested during Cairo unrest. (AP Photo/Egyptian TV, File)
CAIRO (AP) — Three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo caught flights out of Egypt early Saturday, according to an airport official and an attorney for one of the trio.
The three Americans were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo’s Tahrir Square last Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.
Luke Gates, 21, and Derrik Sweeney, 19, left the Egyptian capital Saturday on separate flights to Frankfurt, Germany, an airport official in Cairo said. Gregory Porter, 19, also left the country, his attorney said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
An Egyptian court ordered the release of Gates, Porter and Sweeney on Thursday. All were studying at the American University in Cairo.
Attorney Theodore Simon, who represents Porter, a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said police escorted the three students to the Cairo airport Friday. Simon later said his client was on a flight.
“I am pleased and thankful to report that Gregory Porter is in the air. He has departed Egyptian airspace and is on his way home,” Simon said, though he declined to say when Porter was expected back in the U.S.
Simon said he and Porter’s mother both spoke by phone with the student, who is from the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside.
“He clearly conveyed to me … that he was OK,” Simon told The Associated Press.
Gates is a student at Indiana University. It wasn’t clear when he was expected back in the U.S.
Joy Sweeney told the AP her son, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Missouri, would fly from Frankfurt to Washington, then on to St. Louis. She said family will meet him when he arrives late Saturday.
“I am ecstatic,” Sweeney said Friday. “I can’t wait for him to get home tomorrow night. I can‘t believe he’s actually going to get on a plane. It is so wonderful.”
Sweeney said she had talked with her son Friday afternoon and “he seemed jubilant.”
“He thought he was going to be able to go back to his dorm room and get his stuff,” she said. “We said, ‘No, no, don’t get your stuff, we just want you here.’”
She said the American University in Cairo will ship his belongings home.
Sweeney had earlier said she did not prepare a Thanksgiving celebration this week because the idea seemed “absolutely irrelevant” while her son still was being held.
“I’m getting ready to head out and buy turkey and stuffing and all the good fixings so that we can make a good Thanksgiving dinner,” she said Friday.
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Comments (41)
thegreatcarnac
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 2:04pmWhat is with these ‘innocent’ American kids? They are hiking and climbing mountains on the border of Iran in the middle of (what amounts to) a cold war between them and us. THey are on rooftops in Cairo during giagantic protests and maybe even throwing molotovs. Hmmmm. Seems like a pattern. I can’t stand Iran nor even Egypt…but I can see their…..‘concern’ …..with these people.
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 6:18pmPay attention, these bums are in charge of the next phase of “Operation Chaos”.
Mission field of Obamaism
Report Post »Servant Of YHVH
Posted on November 27, 2011 at 4:17amI agree and it will continue to be like this the way the other government’s are handling this. If these kids are innocent then yes send them home. If they are involved and NOT innocent then hold them fully accountable for their actions, whether it is the US government or the Egyptian government or whoever.
Report Post »texasfarmer
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 1:01pmJust a warmup before joining the OWS crowd.
Report Post »mtcountrygrl
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 1:35pmI don’t want these guys back in this country. Who besides Muslim Extremists, says I think I will go to college in Egypt. Not exactly an academic hotbed.
Report Post »SLARTIBARTFAST
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:58amDo ANY of these articles touch on the evidence the police had against them? I don’t hear any “they were framed” chants either. If they had the goods on these guys they should have held them. I want to hear what they did, not that they were Americans. Iran at least kept those three dopes of theirs for three years!
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:45amIt seems as though these three knuckle heads read about all the OWS goings on in the U.S. and felt left out attending school in Egypt. Didn’t anyone tell them that “fire-bombing“ was to be reserved for the ”end-game” grand finale, not as a starting point. More youthful stupidity. They’re just lucky to be American because, otherwise, they’d never see the light of day again. A-holes!
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:43amNext on the travel itinerary: hiking the northern side of the DMZ…..
Report Post »LukeAppling
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:10amI think these three were very much like the two boys and a woman who “mistakenly wandered into Iran” for the publicity it turned out. The lamestream media made a big deal of it but it was a scam from the beginnminjg. I believe these three will be an equal scam on us.This is how Bill Ayers began “wandering into the Chicago riots”.
Report Post »wordweaver
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:04amPlease, mainstream media, can we not turn these ‘excellent adventurers’ into heroes by tripping over ourselves to get them on TV as they return to the USA? Can we resist the temptation to not reward the poor decision to let three guys with questionable judgment skills study in one of the most unstable nations on earth? Ah, I suspect not. We’ll see.
Report Post »ares338
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:55amThe Egyptians probably figured it would be the best problem for America to send these fine examples of our patriotic youth back home to firebomb us.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:05amSomething tells me that they will be hiking on the Iran/Iraq border very soon….. Morons
Report Post »GetRight
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:43amWhat is missing from this story? How about the parents being unhappy with what their little jerks were doing and embarrassed by their behavior! Instead lets hurry and make them a Thanksgiving feast and hand them some more money so they can now head to OWS! Typical parents these days.
Report Post »SergeantMajor
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:28amShould have have left ‘em there…
Report Post »Look4DBigPicture
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:16amOne has to wonder what kind of parent (or exchange program administrator) encourages their students to study in a dangerous country experiencing a civil war. I know these ‘boys’ are of age to go where they want … but seriously … what were they thinking?
Report Post »pecosval
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:06amThey weren’t
Report Post »lcallday
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:13amLove the look on their faces. I guess they were pondering the adventures awaiting handsome young men in an Egyptian prison. Lol
Report Post »RichNGadsden
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 11:03amDeer in the headlights idiots! As with the statement above regarding what kind of foreign exchange student program sends students into such a violent surrounding. That befuddles me too, except I believe the program is much like the professor types currently teaching the nation’s brain dead youth. They want to put them in harm’s way and allow them to learn how to act like the Arab Spring. Now, upon their return I bet all three of them will join with their local OWS turds. We will see them in the news again before Christmas.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:07am.
Report Post »Egypt should have done us a favor and kept then………..
kentuckypatriot
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:06amI thought I read somewhere that these students said they wished they could drop the firebombs in OWS. I wonder if it’s true?
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 10:04amYou have to be a brain dead liberal idiot to be in Egypt at all. I wish they had kept them and showed them a little Sharia Law…
Report Post »But their stupid a@@ parents will welcome them home to their basement so they can go give a story to Huffpo and then join the OWS awipes. Nice going liberal idiots!
AynRandsBiotch
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:52amStupid is as stupid does.
Report Post »KusoJiJi
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:51amwhat? no ticker tape parade for our returning heroes who put down their game controllers long enough to risk their lives (and personal belongings) climbing to the roof of some far away university and dropping Molotov cocktails on policemen heads. you make us proud fellas. our future looks good!
Report Post »hi
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:35amDo the boys love freedom or will they join the OWS movement begging for oppression?
Report Post »therealconservative
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:45amWe will probable see them again, doing what they learned in Eygpt, firebombing the police
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:45amI expect they will join the OWS band as rep’s for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Report Post »SLEUTH
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:31amcuriosity got the best of them, now the authorities have them. innocent or not is besides the point…they were there. you go overseas, you take your chances. i hope the American tax payers arent paying for it.
Report Post »warning to all Americans oversea’s….watch your back or come home before its too late and suffer the consequences. you deserve the choices you make.
itsmyfirstday
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:23amI see three future Darwin award winners…
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:58amLet‘s hope they don’t breed.
Report Post »freedom4ever
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:22amthree more joining occupy wall street! how dumb of them and their parents in not telling them to come home during this time in egypt!
Report Post »itsmyfirstday
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:21amI see 3 future Darwin award winners…
Report Post »flyoverbob
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:18amDon’t these people bare some responsibilty for their situation.How much did the state dept pay for their release.When did they go over,why were they there ?
Report Post »I’m sick of people being cool and then crying for help when . the world gives them a spanking
Southernsoul
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:16amI’m glad that they are safe and coming home, but… Egypt has been on fire for how long now, and the parents of the boys didn’t demand that their kids come home long ago? The real story here is, How Stupid are the Parents?
Report Post »oldsoldier10
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 9:04amBe easy with these young … whatever’s, it’s not like they were out for a nice hiking vacation in the Iraqi desert, and were mistaken and captured by the Iranians as spies. Useful idiots for the left and radical social agenda attempting to topple the interim Egyptian leadership through riots and mob rule, these boys can not be? so go easy and Happy Thanksgiving to all, go and spend some money at the Walmart on useless Chinese toxic products that are killing Americans without ever firing a shot. Maybe we will get lucky and these boys will make it home and get to the OWS protests before X-mas, God help us all if we say “Christmas” aka Christ!
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