Terror suspect doctors inquired about going to US
Two suspects in last week’s terror attacks in London and Glasgow contacted a US agency that certifies foreign doctors coming to the United States, the FBI said today.
One of the men contacted the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates in Philadelphia, said FBI spokeswoman Nancy O’Dowd, confirming a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The man, a Jordanian physician of Palestinian heritage, contacted the agency within the last year, but apparently did not end up taking the test for foreign medical school graduates, O’Dowd said.
“He was applying, (but) we don’t believe he took the test,” she said.
O’Dowd could not immediately confirm the name of the second suspect.
The Jordanian man, his wife (a medical technician) and six other doctors were arrested in Britain after last week’s failed bomb attacks.
The FBI this week visited the ECFMG’s office in West Philadelphia, O’Dowd said.
Stephen Seeling, the group’s vice president of operations, told the Inquirer that FBI agents had visited him, but that privacy rules prevented him from disclosing details of the visit.
The commission is a non-profit, private organisation that verifies a foreign medical school graduate's credentials and administers exams. It represents just one step in a process foreigners must go through to get a medical residency in the United States.
