Posted on 02/28/2006 11:00:10 AM PST by La Enchiladita
SALT LAKE CITY During her visit to Lebanon last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought extradition of five men–one of them missing Utah Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun, a Lebanese newspaper reported.
The Daily Star said in a story posted on its Web site Monday that the Lebanese government has refused persistent U.S. requests to hand over the five Lebanese citizens.
However, it quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the refusal was not final, and the request was currently under study by officials.
"We have no official final comment at this point,'' the spokesman told the newspaper.
A State Department spokeswoman was unable to confirm the report, The Salt Lake Tribune said.
Cpl. Hassoun was facing desertion charges from an earlier disappearance when he failed to arrive at his base in Camp Lejeune, N.C., by Jan. 5, 2005, and was declared a deserter for a second time.
Hassoun, an Arabic translator, first disappeared from Camp Fallujah in June 2004. Al-Jazeera Television showed video of Hassoun blindfolded, with a sword above his head. He surfaced a month later in Lebanon, claiming he had been kidnapped.
A five-month investigation by the Navy concluded that Hassoun had stolen a Humvee and fled his camp near Fallujah.
After his second disappearance, family members in both Utah and Lebanon called on Hassoun, a Muslim with citizenship in both the United States and Lebanon, to surrender.
A Naval Criminal Investigative Service official told The Tribune that the agency has reason to believe Hassoun, who was sought for alleged desertion from his unit in Iraq, has been in Lebanon since he disappeared.
...The Star said the others sought for extradition were Imad Mugniyah, Hassan Izzeddine, Ali Atwa and Mohammad Ali Hammadi.
(Excerpt) Read more at kutv.com ...
Hassoun has been a deserter for more than one year now.
Hammadi has been free since being paroled from a German prison this past December.
Kinda wish I hadn't defended this guy in the beginning.
Because he's a Lebanese citizen. It usually comes up in death penalty cases, which wouldn't be an issue for Lebanon as they have one, even for crimes such as selling land to a Jew. Or in cases of a specious law, which desertion isn't. This should be covered by extradition treaties, I presume we have one with Lebanon.
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Any word on if they'll give up Jill Carroll? I mean, when she makes her way over there, eventually.
Owl_Eagle(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Ping to fugitives at large in Lebanon.
That would be an incorrect presumption.
Thanks. In that case we could be out of luck.
The old saying ,something is rotten in Denmark.My take is she was a willing tool.She must realize her value now.Otherwise,I believe she would have been dealt with by now,live and in color!
This should be an outrage everyone and I can only hope they will bring this man home to face charges and if indeed guilty that his punishment is swift and severe. There was a lot of news covering his "disappearance" frankly there should be equal or more news coverage of his location, capture, return and court proceedings.
Heck, everyone forgot about him already.
of interest
On the same day Hassuon left the base without permission in the military vehicle, (he was armed IIRC,) in the near vicinity, a number of US defence personnel were killed in ambush, their bullet proof vests removed, their weapons taken. A photograph of their bodies was shown on Yahoo images (can't find it now) and it was so very obvious they never had a chance to defend themselves or trusted their attacker.
That's why I want to see him brough back to stand trial. He must be made to account for his movements before he escaped to Lebanon the first time. His story stinks to high heaven. I cannot get those four or five dead soldiers out of my mind.
I say shoot him and bury him in a Lebanese turd heap. Wouldn't be hard to find in that part of the world.
Thanks for remembering that. If you search on keyword 'hassoun' here, you can find previously posted articles in this case, along with comments.
I signed up for google alerts on hassoun and this is the first article that came through in a few months. So far, only Lebanese press and a Salt Lake City TV station have covered this latest development.
Notice how NCIS has dropped the case and turned it back to the Marines.
Right. That was pointed out earlier, and as I suspected. So, any extraditions would have to be negotiated.
I went through Yahoo Iraq image archives, 900 or more images and still cannot find the picture of the soldiers, but I will keep looking. The picture bothered me so much because the soldiers looked as if they fell where they were standing, never had any warning, never attempted to defend themselves.
"We have no official final comment at this point" a spokesman told the newspaper.
Translation:We're waiting for you to sweeten the offer before we act on this.
Your post made me physically ill.
I had not connected those dots.
Let us know if you find out more.
The old saying ,something is rotten in Denmark
But their cheeses, cookies, hams, baby-back-ribs, beers, etc. are NOT rotten! Keep on buying them !!
Bless you. I wonder if a search or request at military.com would help...
That pic disappeared from Yahoo images quite some time ago. It was only after reading about Hassoun again today I decided to go through the archives. Nothing there that I can find.
I know I might be a little obsessional about this, but it's a hunch I've had ever since the very beginning, Hassoun was lying from the moment he opened his mouth, I recall laughing at the staged scene where he was blindfolded so tenderly that his hair wasn't mussed up. He was almost smiling from behind the 'blindfold'.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that he had been allowed out (to some family function?) and naturally, he simply disappeared. Canada was where he used a credit card, and now he's in Lebanon.
At that time I discovered there were some 15,000 muslim personnel in the defence forces. One would be too many IMO.
He looks positively tewified!
That pic I can't find, although I have the broken link and I have run it through The Wayback Machine without success, was dated June 21.
Hassoun deserted (left the base with a weapon and a military vehicle) on June 20.
Thanks for the background information.This smelled from the very start.
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