The U.S. Marine accused of deserting his post in Iraq for nearly three weeks last summer was declared a deserter again yesterday -- this time for allegedly going absent without leave in the United States.
Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, failed to report for duty by noon Tuesday at Camp Lejeune, N.C., following authorized leave to see his family in West Jordan, Utah, over the holidays. That prompted the Marine Corps to notify civilian law enforcement agencies around the country yesterday to detain Hassoun and turn him over to the military.
Last month, Camp Lejeune officials postponed until Jan. 13 a military hearing to examine the earlier desertion charges against Hassoun after he asked to add a civilian lawyer to his defense team. A Marine spokesman said then that Hassoun would not be confined and would continue his duties as a truck driver at the base, and would remain free to go away on leave.
Maj. Matthew W. Morgan, a spokesman for the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Camp Lejeune, said information about Hassoun had been entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center, a national database used by law enforcement agencies to track fugitives or wanted or missing persons.
"That offers us the advantage that if he for some reason is discovered -- you know, he's pulled over in a rental car for speeding -- then he will pop as being wanted by the military authorities," Morgan said in an interview.
Hassoun's brother Mazen Hassoun, reached in Utah by the Associated Press, said he was surprised by the latest accusation. He told the AP he had not heard from his brother since Dec. 28, when family members took him to the Salt Lake City airport for a flight to North Carolina.
The Lebanese-born Wassef Ali Hassoun, who served as an Arabic interpreter in Iraq, has denied deserting his post at a U.S. military camp near Fallujah in June, saying he was abducted by enemy fighters and held against his will for 19 days. He was initially thought to have deserted, but Pentagon officials later classified him as captured after a videotape on a Web site showed Hassoun blindfolded with a large knife positioned over his head.
Statements on two Islamic Web sites said Hassoun had been beheaded. But an extremist group later said that it had released him after securing his promise that he would not rejoin U.S. military forces to fight. On July 8, Hassoun surfaced unhurt in his family's home town of Tripoli, Lebanon, about 50 miles north of Beirut.
After a five-month investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Marine Corps last month charged Hassoun with desertion. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of deserting during wartime, officials said. Non-wartime charges of desertion carry a five-year maximum sentence.
At the brief hearing last month, Marine Corps officials revealed that Hassoun had assisted in undercover intelligence operations in Iraq because of his ability to speak Arabic, although his main job was to drive trucks.
Morgan said that Hassoun worked as a translator for a human intelligence exploitation team, special Marine units who often don civilian clothing and hairstyles in an attempt to develop sources among ordinary Iraqis and detect potential threats to U.S. forces. Hassoun helped with such duties as interrogations of prisoners and interviews of civilians, Morgan said.
Morgan said the hearing cannot resume next week if Hassoun is not there. "Obviously, he has to be present," he said. "We can't do this without him."