Marine who vanished from Iraq in 2004 charged with desertion

A Marine who disappeared from a military camp in Iraq a decade ago and eventually turned up with family in Lebanon was charged Friday with desertion and other charges, a U.S. Marines official said.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, an Arabic interpreter from Utah who disappeared in Fallouja in June 2004, was charged under a general court-martial with desertion, destruction of government property, larceny and wrongful appropriation, said Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore.

The 34-year-old has deserted twice, officials say -- the first time in Fallouja and again in 2005 when he was scheduled to appear in court on desertion charges. Hassoun turned himself in to authorities this summer and was transferred to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to face court-martial.

A week after Hassoun disappeared from Fallouja, he appeared in a hostage video. A group identifying itself as Islamic Response claimed to be holding him and threatened to behead him unless detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq were released.

A month later Hassoun was found in Lebanon.

Upon returning to the United States that year, Hassoun said he had been kidnapped and held against his will by insurgents. But some suspected it had been a hoax. After a five-month investigation, he was charged with theft, loss of government property and wrongful appropriation of a government vehicle, and he was accused of leaving the Marine camp with his service pistol.

Hassoun then failed to return from leave in January 2005, days before military court proceedings were scheduled to take place.

A date for Hassoun’s first appearance on the new charges has not been set, officials said.

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