Something is fishy re Marine supposedly held Hostage

I also wouldn't be surpirsed if the guy was never held hostage at all but went on a weeklong drunken bender. Or he met some babe and shacked up with her for a week. Or...

Could be he and the "captors" Have been playing a shell game.

Kidnapped marine 'safe after defecting' to Islamists
Kidnapped marine 'safe after defecting' to Islamists
Gary Younge in New York
Tuesday July 6, 2004
The Guardian

Kidnapped US marine Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken to "a place of safety" after he pledged not to return to the US military, his captors told al-Jazeera television in a statement yesterday. The Islamic Response Movement, the same group that last week admitted to kidnapping Corporal Hassoun and threatening to behead him, would not say where he was being kept.

It is the latest in a series of conflicting claims about the whereabouts, wellbeing and motivations of Cpl Hassoun, a 24-year-old Arabic translator who has been missing since he failed to report for duty at his base in Iraq.

On June 27, al-Jazeera broadcast a video tape by Islamic Response showing Cpl Hassoun blindfolded along with a statement from militants threatening to kill him unless the United States released all Iraqis in "occupation jails". Militants held a curved sword over his head.

A few days later the New York Times reported that Cpl Hassoun, who was born in Lebanon and emigrated to the US four years ago, may have deserted the military in Iraq because he was emotionally traumatised and was abducted by his captors while trying to make his way to Lebanon.

The New York Times quoted a marine officer in Iraq as saying he believed the captive was betrayed by Iraqis he befriended on his base and ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists.

The officer said Cpl Hassoun was shaken up by seeing one of his sergeants blown apart by a mortar bomb.

Then, last Saturday, another militant group calling itself Ansar al-Sunna Army posted a note on an Islamic website saying it had killed him, only to post a denial of the killing on Sunday followed yesterday's statement from Islamic Response.

"The denial gave us a big relief," Cpl Hassoun's brother, Sami, said by telephone from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where he, his father and several other relatives live.

The Islamic Response Movement describes itself as the security wing of the National Islamic Resistance - 1920 Revolution Brigades, which takes its name from the uprising against British rule that followed the first world war.

Lessee here ... dereliction of duty, desertion, aid-and-comfort-to-the-enemy, defecting to the enemy, treason, ... the kid mightta been luckier if they had killed him. Whatever ... he sure as hell ain't likely to be comin' home anytime soon.

We should probably wait for all the details before we string him up...

BBB
I would not be surprised to learn that the Marine's Lebanese brother stagged the fake hostage film to help his brother get out of the Marines and get out of Iraq. The film is not consistent with those made by real terrorists, nor is the outcome. Real terrorists would not have released him as claimed by the brother.

BBB

I think we've only heard a tiny fraction of what this is really about.

The story I first heard, was that the Marine defected from the US military and tried to get to Lebanon, his home country. On his way to Lebanon, he was captured by the terrorists. He's a Muslim, and based on what I'm now hearing, his captors have let him return to Lebanon.

Point of story: His family in the US prayed to Allah, who then answered their prayers and the Marine is now safe in Lebanon.

Missing U.S. Marine at Embassy in Beirut
Missing U.S. Marine at Embassy in Beirut
Jul 8, 1:28 PM (ET)
By SAM F. GHATTAS

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A U.S. Marine who was reported missing in Iraq more than two weeks ago is alive and at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, where American officials are meeting with him, authorities said Thursday.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun is safe and appears to be in good health, said a Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In making the announcement about Hassoun, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington: "We were able to go get him."

Boucher said Hassoun arrived at the embassy around 6 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT,) but he had no other details and no information on Hassoun's immediate plans. As for his military status, Boucher said that would be up to the Defense Department.

When reached at his West Jordan, Utah, home Thursday morning, Hassoun's brother, Mohamad, said he had no comment.

Contradictory reports have surrounded the fate of the 24-year-old Lebanese native since his disappearance June 20.

On Saturday, a statement posted on a Web site known for extremist Muslim comment said Hassoun had been beheaded. A day later, another Web statement declared he had not been killed.

An Iraqi militant group said Monday it was holding him in a safe place but hadn't killed him. Al-Jazeera television broadcast the statement from "Islamic Response," which claimed responsibility June 27 for Hassoun's kidnapping.

NBC reported the Navy was investigating whether his disappearance may be part of a kidnapping hoax. A Marine spokesman confirmed the Navy investigation remains open.

"I don't think they're ruling that out. It would be fair to say they're not ruling that out," Maj. Nat Fahy said earlier Thursday.

A spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet said the "matter is under investigation by Naval Criminal Investigative Service" and referred further questions to the service in Washington. A call to the service seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Reports emerged he might have been freed after his family in Utah said Tuesday they had word that he had been released and was safe, but they didn't know where.

Earlier, a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hassoun "is with his parents" in northern Lebanon. But journalists gathered outside the family's Tripoli home saw no sign of Hassoun.

Hassoun's brother, Sami, refused to confirm or deny the information when reached by the AP for comment.

On Tuesday, he said someone had visited the family in northern Lebanon and told them his brother was free and well. A Lebanese government official said Wednesday the kidnappers released Hassoun after he pledged he would not return to the U.S. military.

Two FBI agents met with the Hassoun family in Utah for about 20 minutes Wednesday. The agents were not there to deliver any news to the family, but instead were sent to determine where the family was getting its information about Hassoun's whereabouts, agent Kelly Kleinvachter said.

The Marines said Hassoun disappeared on "unauthorized leave," but changed his status to "captured" after he turned up June 27 on television blindfolded with a sword hanging over his head.

Some of those claiming to be the captors have said he was romantically involved with an Arab woman and was lured away from his Marine base and captured. There also were reports that Hassoun, who was educated at American schools in Lebanon before moving to Utah and joining the Marines, might have been trying to get to Lebanon when he was captured.

Some reports also have said Hassoun fled his camp near the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah after seeing one of his colleagues killed by a mortar shell; others indicated he was lured out and captured.

Earlier Thursday, no overt signs of joy or preparations to welcome Hassoun could be seen at the family residence in Tripoli, an apartment on the second floor of a six-story building in the low-income Abu Samra district of Lebanon's second-largest city.

For Hassoun to make his way to Lebanon from Iraq, about 500 miles away, he would have to travel through Syria, which borders Iraq's western Anbar province, where his unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is based. Hassoun worked as a translator.

The United States has accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent militants from infiltrating its border to Iraq to fight U.S. and allied forces.

Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon, where it keeps thousands of troops. There are no direct flights from Iraq, and another possible route, through U.S.-allied Jordan, is unlikely because he could end up with the Americans.

Is he now in US custody?

Yeah, he's in US custody ... and from what I understand, that's exactly the right word - "Custody" - as opposed to "care". That's not to say the folks he's with don't care; they care very much.



I doubt very much the boy's in line for a joyous homecoming gala and an appearance on The Larry King Show.

If the guy went AWOL I wouldn't blame him one bit. As Patton said, "nobody ever won a war by dying for their country. They won it by making some other poor SOB die for his country".

I don't see Hassoun as either a traitor or a hero. He simply did what he needed to do to save his life.

Who knows if we will ever really know the truth about his alledged capture.

There's significant difference between making the other poor SOB die for his country and abandoning your fellows who remain at risk of dieing for yours.

I suspect we'll know all about Hassoun's little adventure in rather short order. Should he be vindicated, so be it, but I will be most surprised should such prove to be the case. I suspect strongly, however, much remains to be learned of the circumstances surrounding Nick Berg's demise. I am less confident those answers will be available in quite so timely a manner.

If he defected, he's a total disgrace to his American family.

You're right, timber. It's much worse, psychologically, to kill than to desert. The U.S. army is beginning to come to terms with the effect of this. There is some concern that there is not enough money to support the young people who have killed, or realize they are expected to kill people. Fascinating article in the New Yorker on this matter right now. The suicide rate in the U.S. army is approximately 3x the normal level in the U.S. army. There's trouble in Baghdad City, and it's on its way back to the U.S. Not enough money for vet services to deal with these particularly troubled young kids - killing in person (as is required in this invasion, and its aftermath) is a different matter from dropping bombs on targets.

I think when it comes to a real showdown, American women might be better at killing the enemy. Look back, for example , at all the brave American women, who took up arms against both the British and Indians, who were threatening their homes/farms/family.

I agree Miller. Finally...something we agree on.

BBB
I don't agree. Women will fight to the death to protect their families as well as men. But the situation in Iraq is different. Our families outside of Iraq are not threatened and that family protective instinct is not present.

With bin Laden, that may be a different story as al Qaeda has indeed threatened families around the world. But Bush has not focused on the real al Qaeda terror threat and so we are not called on to test people's protective instincts.

BBB

Re: BBB


Let me clarify BBB. I was referring to fighting in Afghanastan, not Iraq. I picked up on Miller's reference to a real showdown which Iraq is not. Iraq is Bush's war.