Via FreeInternetPress.com -
Egyptian authorities said Monday that they had arrested an American and nearly a dozen Europeans after breaking up an international terrorist cell that was recruiting operatives to go to Iraq.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry said the cell was "related to some terrorist organizations abroad" but did not name the network or those arrested. The official Egyptian news agency MENA reported that the suspects included nine French citizens and two Belgians, as well as two Syrians, a Tunisian woman and an undisclosed number of Egyptians.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials knew the identity of the American and are "seeking consular access to this individual". He said the U.S. suspect was arrested Nov. 26 but declined to name the person, citing federal privacy laws.
A U.S. law enforcement official said the U.S. citizen "was not on our radar at all" before his arrest in Egypt and is not named on the government's voluminous terrorism watch list.
"He was not a known figure to the U.S.," said the official. "There's no record of him in the sense that he would have been a person of concern."
A handful of U.S. citizens have faced charges of engaging in terrorism overseas since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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