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Closing arguments heard at Arab American Marine's court-martial Disillusioned with the Marine Corps and fearing he would die in combat, an Arab American Marine deserted his unit in Iraq in 2004 and fled to his native Lebanon, a Marine prosecutor told a court-martial Friday. Hassoun's lawyer told a military judge Friday that Hassoun was captured by insurgents and held for 17 days before a tribal sheik negotiated his release. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared from a military camp in Iraq a decade ago and eventually turned up with family in Lebanon was charged Friday with desertion and other charges....

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...

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.

Defense: Seeing his commander in chief turn a Muslim convert deserter into a national hero, another Muslim soldier — a double deserter — has finally turned himself in. He deserves no leniency. Following in the footsteps of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, Marine deserter Wassef Ali Hassoun has resurfaced in Virginia after years of faking his own kidnapping in Iraq. Like Bergdahl, Hassoun appears to have collaborated with the enemy. An Arabic translator, he refused to translate questions about Islam and showed jihadist clerics undue respect during interrogations. Later he abandoned his guard post at his base in Fallujah during the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Marine who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. claiming he had been kidnapped, only to disappear again, is back in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 34, turned himself in and was being flown Sunday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East to Norfolk, Va. He is to be moved Monday to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to a spokesman, Capt. Eric Flanagan. Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Lejeune, will determine whether...

A 22-year-old Chicago man was arrested over the weekend for plotting to carry out a bombing outside a strip of crowded Wrigleyville night spots, according to the FBI. They also alleged that Sami Samir Hassoun, of the 4700 block of North Kedzie Avenue, had previously discussed a number of violent plots in Chicago, including a biological attack on the city, poisoning Lake Michigan, attacking police officers, bombing the Willis Tower and assassinating Mayor Richard Daley. But he is only charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device in connection with the...

A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his alleged treatment, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's decision marks the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees. "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct," White said in refusing to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit against Yoo. If Padilla, now serving...

Damascus, Aug. 1, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A top Islamic leader has issued an invitation for Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) to visit Syria during the current Pauline year, the Italian Apcom news agency reports. Sheik Ahmad Badereddine Hassoun, the grand mufti of Syria, told reporters that he hoped the Pope would visit "in the footsteps of St. Paul." He volunteered to travel to Rome to help the Pontiff prepare for such a trip. The Vatican acknowledged the invitation without making any commitment. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, observed that the invitation was a sign...

MIAMI (AFP) - Jose Padilla, the US citizen arrested in 2002 for an alleged dirty bomb plot only to see those charges disappear three years later, was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison Tuesday for supporting the Al-Qaeda terror network. ADVERTISEMENT Two other men accused of plotting with Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, also received lengthy prison terms: 15 years and eight months for Hassoun and 12 years and eight months for Jayyousi. Miami federal judge Marcia Cook said there was not enough support for the charges to give Padilla the maximum life sentence requested...

A verdict was reached Thursday in the trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants charged with supporting al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist groups overseas. The jury verdict was scheduled to be read at 2 p.m. EDT before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami's downtown federal courthouse, according to an announcement from her chambers. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about a day and a half following a three-month trial. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible life in prison if convicted of all three charges in the case

Official state news report quotes 'Purpose-Driven' author criticizing U.S. Syria's Grand Mufti Sheik Badr al-Din Hassoun and Rick Warren California mega-church pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling "Purpose-Driven Life," reportedly told a Syrian-controlled news agency the U.S. should have been holding dialogues with Damascus; Syrian Muslims and Christians co-exist peacefully; and the Syrian leadership is responsible for the nation's tolerance and stability. That's according to the news agency SANA, which has issued a number of reports this week as Warren visits Syria and meets various leaders and officials, much to the dismay of many in the U.S. "We at...

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...

MIAMI -- Attorneys for two terrorism suspects tied to an alleged al-Qaida dirty bomb suspect are asking for the dismissal of a federal indictment against them based on a jailer's mishandling of a Quran and intimidating jail cell searches that removed handwritten papers in Arabic. The defense claims the seizures from the cells of Adhan Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi in May and June amount to government misconduct and an unconstitutional intrusion on trial preparation.

The brother of the AWOL Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun says there is nothing in a 3-inch-thick desertion case file that proves the Utah Marine wasn't captured by militants in Iraq last summer. "The entire report is all hearsay," Mohamad Hassoun told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday. "No one has any proof or any evidence." Mohamad Hassoun, who said he kept the copy of the file his brother brought home in December, also can't reconcile how the Marines could levy a desertion charge after their "terrific support" during his two-month repatriation. "The way they treated him was like they believed...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Anti-Muslim bias prompted military officials to treat an AWOL Marine charged with desertion more harshly than others, the man's brother said in an interview with The Associated Press. The pressure of the charge filed against Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, coupled with an argument with his newlywed wife the day he was to return to his base, drove Hassoun to flee, said his brother, Mohamad. Neither Mohamad Hassoun nor military officials know where to find the younger Hassoun, a Lebanese-born, naturalized American citizen. He failed to return to Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Jan. 5 - the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants' statements, included a photo of what appeared to be an American soldier in desert fatigues seated with his hands tied behind his back. A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and he is seated in front of a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is...

The brother of a Utah Marine twice accused of desertion said he and his brother were in the middle of negotiating a $1 million book deal and movie rights up until Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun disappeared over the holidays. Wassef Ali Hassoun Mohamad Hassoun told the Deseret Morning News that his brother's second disappearance in the face of pending desertion and theft charges has soured any interest in selling the missing Marine's personal story. "There are no current negotiations right now," Mohamad Hassoun said Thursday from his home in West Jordan. Facing charges stemming from his disappearance from a Marine...

WEST JORDAN, Utah — A Marine who was declared a deserter days before military court proceedings stemming from an earlier disappearance from Iraq has been placed on a list of "most wanted" fugitives. A mug shot of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun appeared this week on a Navy criminal justice Web site, which claims the missing corporal now uses the alias "Jafar." His placement on the Navy list puts him among a select group of fugitives, some of whom are being hunted on allegations of terrorism, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, indecent assault and rape.

Alleged US deserter Hassoun may be in Lebanon US Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, charged with desertion in a mysterious case in which he left his unit in Iraq and turned up in Lebanon, has again gone absent and appears to have returned to Lebanon.The US military has tracked records from bank machines indicating that Hassoun made his way to Canada and then back to Lebanon, the country of his birth, said a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.The Marine Corps formally declared him a deserter on Wednesday.Major Matt Morgan, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Lejeune, said Hassoun...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun (search), the Marine who was once thought kidnapped in Iraq only to be charged later with desertion, has disappeared, Marine officials announced Wednesday. Hassoun had been on leave with his family in West Jordan, Utah, when he was scheduled to return to Camp Lejeune (search), N.C., on Tuesday, military officials told FOX News. As of 3 p.m. EST, Hassoun's command "officially declared him a deserter and issued authorization for civil authorities to apprehend Hassoun and return him to military control," a military statement said. Sources told FOX News Hassoun had been allowed to...