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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....

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...

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.

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...

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...

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS WASSEF ALI HASSOUN?  By Michelle Malkin   ·   January 05, 2005 08:23 PM Surprise, surprise. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Lebanon-born Muslim Marine who claimed to have been kidnapped and then was charged with desertion, has disappeared again. From FOX News: 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...

U.S. Marine in Mysterious Case Declared Deserter   Jan 5, 5:05 PM (ET) By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, charged a month ago with desertion in a mysterious case in which he left his unit in Iraq only to turn up in Lebanon, has failed to return to his base in North Carolina, the Marine Corps said on Wednesday. In a statement, the Marines said that Hassoun "has been declared a deserter" after not returning on Tuesday to Camp Lejeune from authorized leave. The statement said Hassoun had been required to return to the...

QUANTICO, Va. - The U.S. Marine who was once feared beheaded by Iraqi insurgents after disappearing from his unit has stepped forward to deny he was ever a deserter, insisting that "Once a Marine, always a Marine." Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun has been under a cloud of suspicion since failing to report for duty June 20. Videotaped images later surfaced showing him apparently kidnapped; he emerged unharmed in Lebanon on July 8 and was brought back to the United States last week. "I did not desert my post," Hassoun told reporters outside Quantico Marine Corps Base on Monday. "I was...

QUANTICO, Va. - Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Marine who disappeared under mysterious circumstances while on duty in Iraq, insisted on Monday that he was captured "I did not desert my post," he told reporters outside Quantico Marine Corps Base. "I was captured and held against my will by anti-coalition forces for 19 days. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me." He did not answer any questions during his brief appearance. He was joined by his brother, who had recently arrived at Quantico from Utah. Hassoun is in the midst of what the Marines call a "repatriation...

BERLIN - A U.S. Marine who disappeared in Iraq and turned up in Lebanon nearly three weeks later said he was excited to be going home, but his return trip was unexpectedly delayed at the last minute, military officials said Wednesday. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun left the U.S. military hospital at Landstuhl on Wednesday and had been expected to be flown home the same day from Ramstein Air Base. Instead, his departure was postponed until Thursday, without explanation. But Ramstein spokeswoman Darlene Cowsert later said his departure was postponed and she had no explanation. "Missions change," she said. Earlier, Hassoun...

The strange disappearance of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, reportedly kidnapped in Iraq nearly three weeks ago, grows even more mysterious. Senior Pentagon officials tell NBC News, a man claiming to be Hassoun, called his family in Lebanon and the U.S. embassy in Beirut, saying he was — "released by his kidnappers somewhere in Lebanon" and that he was "waiting to be picked up."

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - A Lebanese-born U.S. marine is alive and free after having been thought to have been decapitated by his captors in Iraq, the hostage's brother said on Tuesday. Wassef Ali Hassoun's brother Sami, speaking from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, said his family had received word Hassoun was alive and had been released in the early hours of Tuesday, but declined to specify the source of the information. "We got solid assurances that my brother is alive and was released today," he told reporters. There has been confusion in the last several days about Hassoun's fate,...

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....

From a Marine officer on the Iraqi warfront with Jihadistan... (This is an open letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "Islamic Response," and the rest of the so-called al-Qa'ida "insurgents" in Iraq and elsewhere. We don't have an e-mail address for these swine -- though we are closing in on their snail-mail address, but we are forwarding this letter to Federalist Patriots around the world in the hope you good people will forward it to as many other Patriots as possible to rally prayer and support for our fellow Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Should these al-Qa'ida pigs spill his blood,...