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.
The name of the second doctor who expressed an interest in coming to the United States could not be learned.
Stephen S. Seeling, vice president of operations for the educational commission, confirmed that FBI agents visited him at his Market Street office this week.
Citing privacy rules, Seeling said he could not discuss the circumstances of the visit, or confirm any information about any foreign doctor who may have contacted the commission about coming to this country.
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.
Asha and his wife, Marwa, 27, a medical technician, were arrested by British authorities on a highway near their Manchester home Saturday, hours after the car-bomb attempt at the Glasgow airport.
Also in the car was their 11/2-year-old son, who was placed with British social services.
Asha and his wife are among eight foreign medical professionals arrested by British authorities in the plot, which began when two bomb-laden Mercedes-Benzes were discovered last week near a London nightclub.
British news reports have linked Asha with one of the Glasgow suspects, Bilal Abdulla. Asha worked eight weeks at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, where Abdulla lived in 2001.
