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What Happened to Marine Deserter Wassef Ali Hassoun?
Townhall.com ^ | June 6, 2014 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 06/06/2014 4:24:57 AM PDT by Kaslin

Ten years ago this month, U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun disappeared from Camp Fallujah in Iraq. After a five-month military investigation, he was charged with desertion and theft, brought back to Virginia's Quantico Marine base and then transferred to North Carolina's Camp Lejeune for trial.

Yet, a full decade later, Hassoun is as free as a bird.

The accused deserter's whereabouts are unknown. No trial ever began. No punishment ensued. And our leaders in Washington don't seem to be doing a thing about this.

Hassoun was born in Lebanon and immigrated with his family to Utah in 1999. A few years later, he joined the Marines as an Arabic translator. On June 20, 2004, Hassoun bailed on guard duty at his base in Fallujah. He took his military-issued gun and his Muslim prayer rug. Military records obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune showed that he was "torn between military loyalty and his Muslim beliefs."

According to the internal probe, he undermined intelligence-gathering operations by refusing to translate questions about Islam. He balked at raising his voice to suspected jihadi imams and sheiks. He openly threatened to "walk out the front gate and leave."

The Muslim Marine told his colleagues he supported Hezbollah terrorist attacks on Israel. Members of his unit told investigators he was "anti-American" and listened to jihad sermons on propaganda CDs. Hassoun had received spiritual counseling from Navy Lt. Cmdr. Abuhena Saifulislam, a Muslim military chaplain tied to a radical Wahhabist outfit under federal investigation, according to Hoover Institution fellow and journalist Paul Sperry.

A bizarre video by Hassoun's Islamist "kidnappers" showed him blindfolded with a sword above his head. But his fellow Marines suspected it was all staged and the "abduction" a collaborative fake. What did the purported hostage-takers want in return for the shady, disgruntled American serviceman? The release of jihadists in "U.S.-led occupation prisons." Translation: Gitmo detainees. (Americans would never negotiate such a reckless trade, right? Oh, wait.)

In an even weirder twist, Hassoun somehow resurfaced at the U.S. embassy in Lebanon a few weeks after he walked away from his base. His family was rumored to have enlisted the aid of an Islamist group associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hassoun denied desertion charges, came back to the U.S. for trial and then deserted a second time after failing to return to Camp Lejeune after visiting family in Utah. In 2011, Hassoun's family sought a $1 million book and movie deal in Hollywood. One of his brothers said the fugitive Marine was with family in Lebanon.

Ten summers after he abandoned his post, double-deserting Hassoun is still on the run and has yet to be held accountable.

It's worth reminding Americans about Hassoun's story in light of President Obama's exploding Bowe Bergdahl scandal. By all appearances, this administration has no intention of taking action on longstanding allegations that Bergdahl, like Hassoun before him, deliberately abandoned his post in 2009. Defiant Obama said he makes "no apologies" for the treacherous deal, even as reports of Bergdahl's renunciation of U.S. citizenship and conversion to Islam have surfaced in the past 48 hours.

Soldiers on the ground have described how Bergdahl's disappearance catalyzed deadly coordinated attacks by the Taliban on numerous U.S. outposts in Afghanistan. The response has been breathtaking. One of Obama's minions, former Veterans Affairs bureaucrat and now Housing and Urban Development flack Brandon Friedman defended his boss by suggesting that Bergdahl's colleagues were "psychopaths."

Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra, sneered that Bergdahl's critics inside the military are "dysfunctional." Harry Reid invoked Hillary Clinton's "What difference does it make?" retort. The president himself sniffed that swelling anger among the families of the fallen was "whipped up."

Islamist sympathizers inside our military walk away, and the Obama White House turns a blind eye. The Fort Hood jihad attack by Nidal Hasan, who invoked Hassoun in PowerPoint presentations to his military supervisors, is "workplace violence." Gitmo recidivist Abu Sufian bin Qumu, lead suspect in the Benghazi attack, roams free despite the president's promise to make "justice" his "biggest priority."

Our commander in chief empties Gitmo of the worst of the worst jihadists and shrugs at the recidivists targeting American soldiers and civilians. And in a desperate attempt to deflect from the rising death toll of the Veterans Affairs book-cooking scandal, Obama gave Bob Bergdahl a Rose Garden stage to invoke Allah in Arabic.

If you're not "whipped up" into Category 5 disgust, you're not paying attention.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bergdahl; bowebergdahl; guantanamobay; hassoun; jihaist

1 posted on 06/06/2014 4:24:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The US Gov't EAGERLY wants more 911 Atrocities
and more Boston Atrocities while they
attack non-Moslems and conservatives.


2 posted on 06/06/2014 4:27:25 AM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Kaslin

What will it take to make Americans see whose side Obama is on???

I hate him more every day if that is possible.


3 posted on 06/06/2014 4:38:44 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: Kaslin

BTT


4 posted on 06/06/2014 4:41:13 AM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war,and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: ilovesarah2012

When a ruler gets to the point where they think they’re invincible they may not realize it but their descent has just begun. I hope that this I where we are right now.


5 posted on 06/06/2014 4:54:56 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: ilovesarah2012

I have despised that arrogant pos from day one


6 posted on 06/06/2014 5:06:49 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: ilovesarah2012

What will it take for Congress to see it?


7 posted on 06/06/2014 5:37:39 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Kaslin

People are so whipped up right now they are not looking at the bigger overall picture and how each piece they are getting whipped up over fits in the big picture.

That boys and girls is how a defense attorney fools a jury into believing what they want them to believe.

Whip up the jury over each point.

Right now Benghazi is the trial being held in the court of public opinion.

The American people are the jury in that trial and they are being played for fools by the defense attorney.

The defense attorney for Benghazi is Hillary.

Stevens wasn’t supposed to be killed.

A deal had been made with the terrorist and Stevens and the others were supposed to be taken hostage.

Stevens and the others were the ones that were supposed to be traded for the terrorist.

You, the members of the jury, are being whipped up by the defense attorney so you will be fooled into believing some numb nuts deserter was always the bargaining chip for the hostage swap.

If it sounds too ridiculous to be true then most of the time it isn’t.

Which sound more likely to be true?

Numb nuts know nothing deserter being traded for the Fab 5 of terrorists.

Ambassador Stevens and other CIA operatives being traded for the Fab 5 (or more) terrorists.

Let’s not forget just a few days before all this someone that claimed to know one of the people at Benghazi “just by coincidence” sat next to Allen West on a flight and told him everything that happened at Benghazi and there wasn’t supposed to be any hostages taken.

No hostage no hostage swap.

If Stevens was supposed to be taken hostage, someone had to make sure he was there on that particular day so he could be taken hostage.

That someone is Hillary, the defense attorney for Benghazi.


8 posted on 06/06/2014 5:43:37 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: ilovesarah2012

Look carefully at the date of his disappearance.

Ten years ago.

Smack in the middle of Dubya’s term of office.

The course of action then was to treat the desertion as an actionable offense. When he walked into the US Embassy, he was returned to custody of the military authorities. But before he was brought to trial under the UCMJ, he again slipped beyond the control of the military authorities, and has been on the run ever since.

It would not be as if the Current Regime were blissfully unaware of the history and progress of this case. There were enough loopholes and existing precedent to perhaps recover another “prisoner” of the militant Islamic jihadists, by arranging a swap of an “American” soldier for several terrorists, to be named later. The scheme was VERY carefully studied, and the entire scope of the operation was laid out even before Bowe Bergdahl was assigned overseas.

It is not known if Bowe Bergdahl is the only such ringer sent in, as a sort of “sleeper” agent, to engage this scheme, but it ALMOST played out according to plan.

Except not all the military personnel supposedly sworn to silence on the particulars of the case (i.e., never revealing the questionable texts, e-mails and written communications sent by Bergdahl, or the circumstances of his disappearance from base), felt bound by that order once they had separated from service. One who was supposed to be hailed as a returning hero held years in captivity by a nebulous and crafty enemy was sprung from his seizure and confinement, turned out to be a convert to the enemy’s agenda, becoming an apostle of Islam, and even shifting his allegiance to the Muslim faith.

More pointedly, Susan Rice hailed this person as having served with “honor and distinction”. Honor and distinction in representing WHOM, one might ask. Certainly not to that set of ideals ascribed to the nation once known as “the United States of America”.

I want my country back. One suspects, however, that the Current Regime will not give it up easily or willingly.

The words of the Declaration of Independence still stand.


9 posted on 06/06/2014 5:49:44 AM PDT by alloysteel (Selective and willful ignorance spells doom, to both victim and perpetrator - mostly the perp.)
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To: Kaslin

What is awful is that there are loyal Muslims in the Military. A radio show in St. Louis would feature a very loyal Muslim Marine serving in Iraq. Could not stand the radicals. What sucks for him is the US Governments (Bush and 0bama) unwillingness to weed out and prosecute radicals harms the loyal servicemen by creating a cloud of suspicion.


10 posted on 06/06/2014 9:47:17 AM PDT by 11th Commandment ("THOSE WHO TIRE LOSE")
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To: onedoug

What gives you the impression that there is a single Congressman or woman who gives a damn about the situation? Do you actually expect they will do anything about it?


11 posted on 06/06/2014 11:45:11 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: Kaslin

Well when you have traitors in government, then really nothing is going to be done about traitors in the military.


12 posted on 06/07/2014 8:14:47 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: Diogenesis

My brother was down there when that went on, said when people hit the ground it made a loud bang, they literally exploded like water balloons which is why you never see any photos of bodies. A friend of mine worked as an elevator repairman, was standing on the roof of a building right next to the WTC and said people fell right by him without making a sound. What was weird is 11 years later right on Sept. 11th he died falling down an elevator shaft. I always wondered if it was an accident or if he committed suicide.


13 posted on 06/07/2014 8:21:36 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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To: ilovesarah2012
You know what's interesting is I remember listening to Mark Levin one day and he was talking about 911 and the buildings coming down, and this was well before Obama was President or was even known to the public. Maybe around 2006. And he said something to the effect "When it comes to terrorists, Republicans want to fight them. Liberals want to elect them into office"

How right he was......


14 posted on 06/07/2014 8:28:15 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hitlery: Incarnation of evil.)
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