PAKISTAN ARRESTS MISSING D.C. AMERICANS
ASIA NEWS
DECEMBER 10, 2009
Pakistan Arrests Five Missing Americans
By EVAN PEREZ
Pakistani antiterrorism authorities have arrested five Americans who U.S. officials believe are the men recently reported missing by their Washington-area families.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, contacted by family members, have been investigating the whereabouts of the missing college-age men who lived in Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs. Family members and law-enforcement officials were concerned the young men had left the U.S., possibly to join an Islamic extremist group.
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One of the missing men left behind a video that appeared to be a farewell to his family, and showed verses from the Quran and images of armed conflict, according to an official from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which helped the families reach out to the FBI.
Following another recent case involving young U.S. men of Somali descent who traveled to join an Islamist group in that country, the Pakistani case drew renewed concerns about homegrown radicalization in the U.S. Last month, federal prosecutors announced charges against recruiters alleged to have helped enlist Somali teens in Minnesota to fight in the war in Somalia.
“The FBI is working with families and local law enforcement to investigate the missing students and is aware of the individuals arrested in Pakistan,” a Justice Department spokesman said.
Nihad Awad, Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director, said the men’s families came to the group Dec. 1 and asked for help to find them. They knew each other because their children were friends. “Who radicalized them or led them to be there we don’t know,” Mr. Awad said.
Authorities said the five men were arrested in the town of Sarghoda, in eastern Pakistan, and had been tracked by Pakistani intelligence agents and police as they traveled to several major cities in the country.
Howard University in Washington confirmed that one of the missing young men, Ramy Zamzam, was enrolled as a student during the fall term but declined to provide additional information, citing student privacy laws. The names of the remaining four arrested couldn’t be immediately learned.
—T.W. Farnam and Siobhan Gorman contributed to this article.
Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com
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