Posted on 07/05/2004 9:04:08 PM PDT by Nachum
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.
I don't know, this whole story sounds fishy to me - like the kidnappers could get more mileage out of this if they said he was still alive and had defected.
I do feel sorry for the family. They'll likely never see him again.
Let's see a videotape with him holding up a newspaper from a date after the original claim that they killed him.
Has anyone heard if there is any truth to his AWOL status prior to his "kidnapping"?
The story that has been spread (including Fox News) has been that he was in route to Lebanon where his father still lives - and has been missing for a couple of days - and suspected of AWOL status.....
I don't know. God willing he is still alive. He'll be in my prayers.
If he turns traitor, any info he gives them about our military capabilities will probably just demoralize them.
Well I sure hope he doesn't show up standing over one of his former Marine brethren holding the sword himself.
Is it me or does the US have much troubles in keeping the loyalty of its arab islamic and just islamic soldiers? I wonder when they wake up and realize the enemy within kills too?
Hubby wants to see this guy take out about 300 Islamofacists and escape on his own. I agree that would be the best possible ending to this story.
I'm afraid that will not happen. I believe the story. He has been turned.
My understanding, the Marines did
list his status as AWOL for about
a week, then reassessed after the
video of him held hostage. They
authenticated it & changed status
to "captured".
He disappeared from base, that's
a fact. Those close to him guessed
he could be heading to family in
Lebanon, b/c he wanted out of the
violence that "shocked" him when
his NCO got blown apart by a
mortar round.
Weird that he's grabbed by the
most violent of terrorists and
threatened w/beheading.
Now they say he "defected".
Who knows?
I guess he missed the beheading videos.
I hope not too. If he has defected and joined the enemy. that would be as bad as if he had been killed. I hope that is not the case.
Either way he ain't gonna see his family , if he deserted his post he's gonna die.
They got bad press after saying they killed him (the reaction in the Arab world was not so positive) so now they're claiming he's joined them. How can they dig their way out of this? Only if they can claim that US forces killed him in order to silence him, or something like that. In the meantime, they can't offer evidence he's alive.
Photoshop is too easy. How about a video of him READING ALOUD from the newspaper.
Very interesting. At the moment I don't know what to make of this, considering the Arab penchant for deception.
Who knows?
Stockholm syndrome?
Maybe they made him an either/or offer...defection or beheading. It's easy for us to shout "Liberty or Death" from behind our keyboards....quite another to have to face it in real life.
Or maybe they psychologically broke him. One thing that's come out of the Korea and Vietnam experiences is that almost anyone can be broken.
Maybe he's playing a double game. During the Vietnam war a POW pretended to cooperate, was released on "humanitarian" grounds, and came home with valuable information on his fellow prisoners--including the names of every single POW comitted to memory, some of whom the US didn't know were being held...sombody here will know his name. He was career Navy, and after he retired as a CPO, stayed on as a civilian consultant at the SERE school.
Or maybe this guy really did go over to the other side. We just don't know at this point.
A senior military official said in an interview that the military did not believe Corporal Hassoun was being held under great duress. He pointed out that he was clean-shaven in the video released June 27 and did not look like a man about to be killed."
I don't know quite what to make of this statement and why a senior military official would say it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.