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 did not return to the base and report for duty as required on Tuesday from an authorised leave over the New Year's holiday to visit his family in Utah.
A Marine Corps statement said that "his command officially declared him a deserter and issued authorisation for civil authorities to apprehend Hassoun and return him to military control".
"The Marine Corps did contact his family when he initially failed to show up yesterday (Tuesday)," Maj Morgan said. "They were not able to provide any information that was helpful."
Hassoun disappeared last June from his unit in Iraq where he had worked as an Arabic interpreter and later turned up in Lebanon, stating he had been kidnapped by militants.
The Marines announced on December 9 that he had been charged with desertion, rejecting his account that he had been kidnapped. Hassoun also was charged with loss of government property and theft of a 9mm military pistol.
Officials said additional criminal charges were now possible.
Although desertion from the US military in a time of war could be punishable by death, the Marines said they had no intention of seeking the death penalty.
Hassoun disappeared from his Marine base near Fallujah and turned up safe at the US Embassy in Beirut on July 8. He was seen during his absence in a videotape, seemingly being held by militants, blindfolded with a sword poised over his head. An Islamic militant Internet site said later he had been beheaded, but he later showed up unharmed at the embassy in Beirut. Hassoun told reporters on July 19 after he returned to the United States that he was captured and held against his will for 19 days and did not desert his post.
"Once a Marine always a Marine," he told reporters, and finished up by saying, "Semper Fi," shorthand for Semper Fidelis, the Marine motto meaning "always faithful."
Hassoun's name has now been placed on the FBI's National Crime Information Centre database, Maj Morgan said.
Maj Morgan said Hassoun's original passport was lost in Iraq. Hassoun had been issued a temporary replacement, but was forced to surrender it, Maj Morgan said. "To the best of our knowledge, he did not have a passport," Major Morgan said.
Hassoun returned to the United States on July 15, and had been given two previous authorised leaves to visit his family. "Both times he went to Utah and both times he returned," Maj Morgan said. The latest authorised leave was the first one he was granted after being formally charged, Maj Morgan said.
-Reuters
HE GETS OUR VOTE!
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