Homecoming Delay for Marine Who Vanished

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 made his first public comments since vanishing June 20 from his base near the troubled city of Fallujah. He reappeared July 8 at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and it remains unclear how he made the 500-mile journey.

Hassoun said he was happy to have completed his debriefing by specialists, according to a statement read to The Associated Press by hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw.

"The people here at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center have treated me very well, but I am excited to be going home," Hassoun said.

Hassoun, who has dual Lebanese and U.S. citizenship and worked as a translator in Iraq, has relatives in Utah.

"All thanks and praises are due to God for my safety," he said. "I am also very thankful for all the kind wishes, support and praise for me and my family from my fellow Marines, all the people in the United States, Lebanon and around the world.

"I am in good health and spirits. I look forward to my return home to friends and family."

He signed the statement "Semper Fidelis," the Marine Corps motto meaning "always faithful."

During the three weeks he was missing, various conflicting reports emerged about him — first that he was kidnapped and beheaded, then that he was alive.

Hassoun's so-called "survival, evasion, resistance and escape" debriefing at Landstuhl was tailored to help U.S. military specialists learn any lessons about his ordeal that could help others who find themselves in similar situations.

Hassoun was originally scheduled to be brought to the Marine base at Quantico, Va., where his repatriation would continue to be handled by officials of the Pentagon's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, said Marine Corps spokesman Dan McSweeney at the Pentagon.

The U.S. Navy has said it is investigating whether the entire kidnapping might have been a hoax, but the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is not expected to question Hassoun until his repatriation is complete, McSweeney said.

Marine corporal faces hard questions on return to the United States

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun returns to the United States to hard questions about his unexplained disappearance in Iraq last month and apparent capture by Islamic militants who threatened to behead him.

Awaiting him are investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigation Services who are probing every aspect of his disappearance June 21 from a base near Fallujah, a center of resistance by both Baathists and Islamic militants to the US-led occupation.

"What a missing persons investigation does is simply looks at everything that occurred or might have occurred that resulted in an individual becoming missing," Major Jason Johnston, a US Marine Corps spokesman said.

"It takes everything into account, whether he left on his own, whether he was captured, whether he was lured. All those things will be looked at," he said.

A US defense official, who asked not to be identified, told AFP that Hassoun maintains he was abducted.

The official, however, said suspicions have not been put to rest that the Lebanese-born Hassoun deserted to return to relatives in Lebanon, and that the saga of his capture and a videotaped threat to behead him were a ruse to aid in his escape.

NBC News, citing US officials, reported Tuesday that Hassoun left behind a cellphone which revealed he made a series of phone calls to relatives in Lebanon shortly before he disappeared. A Marine spokesman would not comment.

Hassoun was supposed to have flown from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to the United States Wednesday, but the flight was delayed for a day because of mechanical problems with his aircraft, Johnston said.

He will go to the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, near Washington, rather than to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where his unit, the 2nd battalion of the 2nd Marine Division, is based, he said.

"It allows access for various agencies that need access to him," including the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said Johnston.

"The repatriation process is a phased approach to returning the service member to society. The length of this process can vary from weeks to months, depending on the circumstances of the individual case," the Marine Corps said in a statement.

Accompanying Hassoun is a repatriation team of psychologists and other officials responsible for his debriefing.

"I'm in good health and spirits," Hassoun said Wednesday as he left Landstuhl, the largest US military hospital outside the United States.

"All thanks and praise are due to God for my safety," he added.

When he was admitted on July 9, Hassoun had no bruises on his body but was exhausted and had lost about 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) in weight.

Hassoun's disappearance first came to public attention on June 27 when the Dubai-based Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing Hassoun facing the camera, blindfolded and head bowed beneath the blade of a sword.

A group calling itself "Islamic Retaliation Movement - Armed Resistance Wing," claimed to have abducted Hassoun after "infiltrating a US military base in Iraq" and warned it would execute him unless all detainees were freed from coalition prisons in Iraq.

The claim followed the gruesome televised beheading of US businessman Nicholas Berg the previous month and came amid a rash of other hostage takings.

But the New York Times on June 30 quoted a Marine official as saying that Hassoun, an Arabic speaker who was working as a translator at the base, had deserted his post in shock after seeing one of his sergeants blown apart and was heading to his native Lebanon when he was kidnapped.

The Marine official said Iraqis Hassoun had befriend on base promised to help him but turned him over to his kidnappers.

The same day, however, Hassoun's status was changed from "missing- whereabouts unknown" to "captured."

Four days, later a message posted on an Islamic website claimed he had been beheaded.

The statement from the "emir of the army of Ansar al-Sunna, Abdallah Al-Hassan ben Mahmoud" to US President George W. Bush said Hassoun had "romantic relations with a young Arab girl and was lured away from his base."

But the US military said on July 4 there was no credible evidence that a marine had been beheaded, and then the Ansar al Sunna group denied making the statement that appeared on the Islamic website.

Al Jazeera reported the following day that Hassoun had been freed and "taken to a safe place" after he promised not to go back to the US military.

One of Hassoun's brothers in Lebanon on July 6 said he had received a call assuring him that Hassoun was alive and had been freed. The Lebanese foreign ministry said its embassy in Iraq had informed it that Hassoun was in a safe place.

Hassoun then turned up in Beirut where he turned himself over to the US embassy on July 8.

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