Savages. Destroy them all. Pray for this brave young man and all the other hostages.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 06/28/2004 6:07:54 AM PDT by MadIvan
The family of a US marine held hostage in Iraq today begged for the world to pray his captors will drop their threat to behead him.
Militants who abducted Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun - a fluent Arabic speaker of Lebanese descent - have said they will decapitate him unless all Iraqi prisoners are released by coalition forces.
No deadline was given, but there is little prospect their demands will be met as a symbolically important Nato conference in Turkey draws to its close tomorrow.
It is the first time a coalition soldier has been put under threat of decapitation after being held in this way.
Cpl Hassoun, from Utah, was captured after being lured from his base and a video of the blindfolded soldier and his ID card has been aired on al-Jazeera television.
The US army said the marine, on his second tour of duty in Iraq, had been missing from his base west of Fallujah since last Monday.
Speaking from the Hassoun home in West Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City, family spokesman Tarek Nosseir said: "We pray and plead for his safe release, and we ask all people of the world to join us in our prayers."
Cpl Hassoun's former sister-inlaw Judy Hassoun described him as "very peaceful, very brave, very loving".
In the video, Cpl Hassoun - a member of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force - is shown dressed in army fatigues and holding an active duty ID card. A hand is seen holding a sword above his head.
The captors identified themselves as part of "Islamic Response", the security wing of the "National Islamic Resistance - 1920 Revolution Brigades". The name refers to an uprising against the British occupation after the First World War. The threat to kill Cpl Hassoun comes as death threats against other hostages, and attacks on coalition targets, accelerate in the run- up to today's handover of sovereignty in Iraq.
Three Turkish hostages face beheading tomorrow after their government rejected terrorist demands to stop co-operating with US forces. Last Tuesday militants decapitated South Korean contractor-Kim Sun-il after his government rejected demands to drop plans to send more troops.
Mr Kim's murder followed the beheading of US hostage Nicholas Berg in Iraq last month.
Shortly before footage of Cpl Hassoun was aired, al-Arabiya TV broadcast a video from unidentified militants claiming to have taken a Pakistani driver hostage 50 miles north of Baghdad. He is also threatened with decapitation.
The tape showed a man holding an ID card from US contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root, which provides support to the US military.
The hostage, a Muslim who gave his name as Amjad, said: "They are going to cut the head of any person regardless of whether he is a Muslim or not."
Savages. Destroy them all. Pray for this brave young man and all the other hostages.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
I just heard some news presenter say he had been missing for a week. What is up?
Heard this morning that his wife and children live in Lebanon.
Prayers sent.
According to Fox news, there's some confusion as to whether
Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun went AWOL. He's been missing since last Monday.
Prayers up for our Marine, and his family
With the handover already ocurring, it gives the "we want the U.S. occupation to stop" crowd, nothing to hang their hats on, if this marine is killed. They'll have to come up with another excuse why it's okay for terrorists to kill him.
I'm praying for him. His captors may be in more trouble than he is, they've got an angry US Marine cooped up with them all day!
Heard that too. This looks like a different group that has him. Maybe they kidnapped him a week ago and have been trying to negotiate a ransom behind the scenes. There's been speculation that there are different groups kidnapping people, who then sell them to alQaeda-type group if they don't enough money. There was an article posted a day or 2 ago on this regarding S. Korean man.
Fits the pattern. Osama killed several times more Muslims in the embassy bombings than he did "infidels," but I guess he figures they deserve to die for drawing a paycheck from us or he figures they'll go to Paradise because they're dying in a jihad action.
It reminds me of a letter to the editor some sick old biddy here in Freeport wrote, saying we pro-lifers shouldn't get all worked up about abortion because the dead babies end up in Heaven. Blech!
The question he was asked is if this man had gone AWOL or some other mysterious reason.
It was a strange response from Bevalaqua (probably spelling the guy's name wrong)
Prayers.
Continued prayer for this young man and the other hostages ...
Heavenly Father, Please be with Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun and his family in their hour of need. Bring comfort to them with your presence and stay the hand of his captors. In this battle between good and evil, we express our faith that you will be with us.
"Ye tho I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
In the name of your Son, we ask you to protect this good man and all the others over there who are risking their lives to rid the world of evil.
Please be with Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, our other troops and servicemen around the world, our President.
Amen.
Yes, prayers from us for his safe return.
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
I know something but I'm not telling.........sheesh.......
Praying.
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.