Webloggin » 2 UK Terror Doctors Applied to US

Two of the UK terror doctors applied for medical programs in the United States. One of those doctors is “Mohammed Jamil Asha, 26, a neurologist from Jordan who was arrested in a car on the M6 Highway near Manchester, England, with his wife and 1 1/2-year-old son after the failed attacks.” The Philadelphia Inquirer said the two doctors “took preliminary steps to apply for graduate medical programs in the U.S.”

After the Glasgow airport bombing attempt, FBI agents visited the Philadelphia headquarters of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. The nonprofit organization is a national clearinghouse that certifies the qualifications of foreign-trained doctors to work as medical residents in the United States.

Agents found records there on two of the British suspects. One of them, sources said, is neurologist Mohammed Jamil Asha, 26, a Jordanian who was born in Saudi Arabia and is of Palestinian descent. [snip]

It could not be determined when Asha expressed an interest in coming to the United States, but, according to British news accounts, he graduated from medical school in Jordan in 2004. [snip]

It could not be learned yesterday how far Asha and the second doctor had proceeded in the certification process, nor where in the United States they hoped to study.

Seeking certification from the educational commission, a nonprofit, private organization, is the first step in a multilayered process for graduates of foreign medical schools who seek a medical residency in the United States. Graduates of Canadian medical schools are exempt. (more)

Maybe we are doing something right, or perhaps the two doctors changed their minds and chose the UK for other reasons. As I understand it, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates does not check visas, backgrounds of the students or anything other than medical training documents and degrees.

Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post asks, “Why, then, is Britain under siege — and the rest of Europe threatened — while the United States, aka the Great Satan, hasn’t been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001?”

It’s quite possible that al Qaeda has decided not to waste time and assets on small-scale actions, and instead is determined to make its next assault on the United States even bigger and deadlier than the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

ABCNews.com, quoting an unidentified source, reported Sunday that U.S. officials fear a “spectacular” al Qaeda attack here this summer.

He could be right since, “Radioactive devices — some of which have the potential to be used in terrorist attacks — have gone missing in alarming numbers in Canada over the past five years.”

[Discuss this article with Debbie Hamilton over at the Right Truth...]