Baghdad boy met with Hezbollah

New York Daily News ^ | January 9, 2006 | JANE H. FURSE

[Scribbz]

The Florida teen who sneaked off to Iraq over winter break also finagled a sitdown in Lebanon with a big shot from Hezbollah, one of the Mideast's top terrorist organizations. "I had to travel through alleyways and I finally walked - this was in the southern Shiite section of Beirut, the poorest section. So walking through alleyways, going up crooked staircases with bullet holes in the walls. And there was no sign saying, this is the Hezbollah office, of course not," Farris Hassan tells MSNBC's Rita Cosby in an interview airing tonight.

A sheepish Farris, 16, also tells Cosby he's been racked with guilt about the worry he caused his parents, and he worries about "copycats."

"I will feel so guilty if some copycats go to Iraq and cause the military all kinds of trouble. And God forbid one of them gets their head cut off," he said.

But the passionate student whose Iraqi parents immigrated to the U.S. decades ago also boasts that he "nailed" the Hezbollah official during an interview.

[Scribbz]

Does anyone believe this?

[boomop1]

Throw it back only the best tuna become Starkist.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

"I actually sort of nailed him on one point. He told me that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians because they've been there for centuries and all the Jews there should go back to Europe. "And I told him, well, the Christians have been in Lebanon long before the Muslims, and 50 years ago, they were indisputably the majority. Under your same premise, shouldn't the Shiite newcomers return to their homelands?" Farris claimed they shared a hearty laugh after the man realized "he, in fact, was stumped" by the kid's logic.

If this is true, you've got to give him credit for nerve.

[pointsal]

This numbskull is going to have HLS shadow forever....

[Kay Syrah]

Or a job interview......

[DustyMoment]

Farris' week off began in December after he sold $5,000 worth of stocks he'd been trading on the Internet to buy a ticket to Kuwait.

His mother claims that she gave him $10,000. Something smells fishy.

[Iscool]

I'm curious how he went from Kuwait to Lebanon...

[Cowboy Bob]

Does anyone believe this?

No, which means the NYT will probably make him a job offer.

[DustyMoment]

I'm curious how he went from Kuwait to Lebanon...

According to his original story, he called his parents when he got to Kuwait City (presumably AFTER he got turned away at the Iraq border). His father told to to go to Lebanon and stay with family that they have in Lebanon.

So, after spending about 10 days with family in Lebanon, he snuck away from them on Christmas day and flew to Baghdad (questioning this part of the story, too).

[Proud_USA_Republican]

magic carpet no doubt.

[Veto!]

Whether or not anyone believes him, Farris Hassan will forever have the CIA keeping track of him.

[Iscool]

I hadn't thought of that but,,,,,

[OldFriend]

NO

[Galveston Grl]

I hope so. Because, I don't beleive his supposed black and white views of the war where he so loves the US military given he is Arab and educated in liberal schools for a liberal profession that overwhelmingly hates Israel and the US. Too fishy.

I think he did a lot more in those two hours with the terrorists than just "stump" them on who belongs in Israel... Also I can't see the terrorists laughing about an American teen getting uppity in thier faces like that.

This story could all be after the fact spin from the family trying to extract him from trouble when the CIA caught him in his travels to the homeland, messing with terrorists.

[Veto!]

This story could all be after the fact spin from the family trying to extract him from trouble

Yeah, someone's working overtime to keep the kid from opening his mouth and sticking still another foot in it--surely the feds were telling them what to say and do. And threatening, in the nicest possible way, of course.

[HereInTheHeartland]

"So walking through alleyways, going up crooked staircases with bullet holes in the walls. And there was no sign saying, this is the Hezbollah office,"

Let's hope that he had a tracking device on him courtesy of govt tax dollars spent by the CIA.

[Scribbz]

Neither do I.

He would be a DEAD Florida teen.

Reminds me of the College kid with Little Red Book recently.

[Mila]

"Does anyone believe this?"

Well, I'm skeptical to say the least. It sounds a bit too far fetched and convenient.