Three American Students Arrested in Cairo

By Ben Forer | ABC News – Nov. 22, 2011

Three American students were arrested in Cairo today after allegedly
participating in the violent protests that have rocked the city since
Saturday.

According to an Egyptian Interior Ministry official, the three men were
apprehended on the roof of an American University in Cairo building, where
they’d been throwing firebombs at security forces clashing with protesters
in Tahrir Square.

The students, Luke Gates, from Indiana University, Gregory Porter from
Drexel University and Derrik Sweeney, from Georgetwon University, were
shown on Egyptian state television with their student IDs.

On Saturday Gates tweeted that he hoped to die in Egypt, and on Sunday he
described one of his trips to Tahrir Square.

“[E]arlier tonight rubber bullets, a charge and then a retreat, my knee
and elbow are f**ked up,” he wrote.

ABC News Affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., learned that Sweeney had
been an intern in the office of Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., last
spring, and that according to Luetkemeyer’s press secretary, the
congressman had contacted the State Department to try to assist Sweeney.

The U.S. Embassy has been in touch with Egyptian authorities regarding the
students, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

She said that the U.S. had requested, and expected to soon get “consular
access” to the three students and that the State Department had no reason
to believe the students were not safe at the moment.

The Associated Press, WJLA-TV and ABC News’ Kirit Radia contributed to
this report.