With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff  
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   Monday, Jan. 14, 2002
Feds Paid 9-11 Suspect to Be in U.S.

Remember that Egyptian student charged with lying about an aviation radio found in his hotel room near the World Trade Center on Sept. 11? This will warm your heart: Your tax dollars were paying for him to be here.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, one of countless federal agencies that shouldn't even exist and in fact often do more harm than good, admitted today that Abdallah Higazy was here on a student visa through a program it arranged.

The program uses your money to train Egyptians "in business, health, English and education, often by placing them at American universities," the Associated Press reported today.

You have to wonder why Higazy was freeloading on the taxpayers' dole. After all, he is the son of an Egyptian diplomat, AP reported. He was staying at the Millennium Hilton Hotel, not exactly your standard student slum, for a whole month. USAID mouthpiece Susan Phalen claims it isn't clear why Higazy was put up at the Hilton or who got stuck with the tab.

"This may not be ultimately a terrorism case," Magistrate Judge Frank Maas said at Higazy's hearing Friday. And maybe it isn't. But why is the government squandering our money on tuition and possibly even hotel rooms for any foreign students?

Give 'em enough rope ...