Posted on 06/27/2004 4:27:57 PM PDT by wagglebee
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. Marine has been missing from his unit in Iraq for nearly a week but it is unclear whether the man has been taken hostage, the U.S. command said Monday.
The announcement was made after Al-Jazeera television broadcast a videotape purportedly of a Marine taken hostage by a militant group which threatened to kill him if the U.S. military did not release all prisoners in Iraq.
The tape showed a blindfolded, mustached man wearing a blindfold and displayed a Marine identification card in the name of Wassef Ali Hassoun. Al-Jazeera said he was of Pakistani origin.
In the statement, the military said a corporal by that name had been missing from his unit in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force since June 21. The statement said Hassoun was of Lebanese descent.
"Contrary to press reports, however, Naval Criminal Investigative Services cannot confirm that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken hostage," the statement said. Various press reports the morning of June 28 stated that Hassoun, who is of Lebanese decent, had been taken hostage.
No, the whole sequence of events seems strange, thats all.
So, was this guy in Ramadi at the same time? Enquiring minds need to know.
"BAGHDAD: Four US marines were killed in action on Monday in Al-Anbar province, the US military said. Four US marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed on June 21 in the Al-Anbar province conducting security and stability operations, a spokesman said, reading a statement."
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_22-6-2004_pg1_2
Was this Marine somehow connected to this incident? It's the same date he went missing.
This is not looking good for this guy. Why wasn't he murdered like the other four Marines? It almost seemed like a set up from the get go. These were four Marine snipers that were murdered.
a scary thought, but certainly possible. it would be quite bad if we had even a hint of arabic soldiers doing this.
The guy is muslim and could be a sympathizer or defector and he may have been AWOL.
I'd trust our military over the terrorists or their symapthizers, any day of the week, obviously you don't, IMO.
The kidnappers said they had someone on the inside at the Marine base and lured this guy out where they took him. Sounds to me like they found an attractive woman who could get him to sneak out of camp, then....
bummer bump
if he did go over to their side (i'm not saying he did, just talking it through) - and fingered this Marine sniper team, how in the world could he have hoped to get away? was he just going to blend into the terrorist infrastructure, or get to another country? He had to know that the guys he was selling out to would kill him once he no longer became of any use to them.
Maybe he was a legal alien volunteer who wanted to become a citizen by serving in the Marines.
Maybe the military didn't want to announce he was missing in case the bad guys hadn't found him yet, while they were looking for him. Because as soon as they acknowledged that he was being held as a prisoner/hostage, then the clock starts ticking...
Whatever he is, he is a Marine...and he has my thanks and prayers.
No, I trust our military; its more the "cryptic" wording of the Navy spokesman that interests me. It seems as if this kidnapping is somewhat different from the previous ones, that's all.
I can't speak for Imperialist, but they were Muslim (not AlQada) sympathisers.
I thought I read somewhere that we was a driver.... who would then need good ID from the Marines.
Yes, I am saying that, questioningly. Berg knew Zak Moussoui and shared an email address with him and Johnson had a muslim friend that came out and asked AQ not to kill him because he had converted to islam recently and was therefore protected from such barboury, but AQ did not listen.
Yes, I am saying that, questioningly. Berg knew Zak Moussoui and shared an email address with him and Johnson had a muslim friend that came out and asked AQ not to kill him because he had converted to islam recently and was therefore protected from such barboury, but AQ did not listen.
I still don't understand what happened to that sniper team. At first, the news was reporting they were in what looked like a walled compound. Later reports said they were a sniper team on a rooftop, which seems clear now when you look at the pics (Iraqi roofs have walls around them).
I still don't get how their killers were able to sneak up to a roof on a 4-man sniper team, kill them all with shots to the head, and get away unscathed. Something fishy about that from the beginning.
What in the world are you talking about??
ping
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