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snipowsky
06-28-04, 09:26 AM
WEST JORDAN, Utah - The family of a Marine taken hostage in Iraq and threatened with beheading has asked people around the world to pray for his safe return.

The family of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun issued a brief statement late Sunday confirming that a hostage held in Iraq was the missing U.S. soldier, who is a Muslim of Middle Eastern origin.

"In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate, we accept destiny with its good and its bad," Hassoun family friend and spokesman Tarek Nosseir said outside the family's home. "We pray and we plead for his safe release and we ask all people of the world to join us in our prayers. May God bless us all."

In the video, the hostage had a white blindfold covering his eyes. He wore military fatigues, and his mustache was trimmed. The U.S. military said Hassoun was of Lebanese descent.

Arab satellite television network Al-Jazeera broadcast the videotape of Hassoun by a militant group threatening to behead him if the U.S. military did not release all prisoners in Iraq.

The tape displayed a Marine identification card in the name of Wassef Ali Hassoun. The U.S. military said a corporal by that name had been missing from his unit in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force since June 21.

Throughout Sunday, Hassoun's West Jordan relatives radiated an intense sense of privacy and refused comment. After reporters began gathering around their home, they called West Jordan police to deflect inquiries.

Judy Hassoun, Wassef's former sister-in-law, said by telephone from Bacliff, Texas, that Hassoun is serving his second stint in Iraq. She did not know he was missing and has not seen Wassef in about five years.

"He is a great student. He went to American school in Lebanon," she said. She said he speaks fluent French and is "very peaceful, but very brave, very loving."

Judy Hassoun said Wassef studied hard and "always wanted to get good grades. He helped everybody. He helped his mother a lot."

She said Wassef moved to the Salt Lake City area and joined the Marines after moving there. Hassoun's relatives live in a multi-story home in an upscale West Jordan subdivision.

Utah residents late Sunday extended their prayers and best wishes.

"We are very sorry for what happened," said Ali Mohammed, 46, while taking a break from tidying up after evening prayers at Al-Noor Mosque in Salt Lake City, where Hassoun worships when he is home.

West Jordan Mayor Bryan Holladay said the thoughts of all citizens are with the Hassoun family. "He's one of our Marines," Holladay said. "We're proud of the work he's doing, but we're hoping he comes home safely."

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton in California's San Diego County, was ordered to Iraq in February to relieve the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in the Al Anbar Province in western Iraq.

The 25,000-man force, includes about 19,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Troops from Camp Lejuene, N.C. and Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, La., round out the force - one of three division-sized Marine units.

A Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton could not be reached Sunday.

Source: http://www.ap.org

thedrifter
06-28-04, 09:30 AM
Prayers and Thoughts Go Out to This Marine, Family and Friends....

Too All Our Troops...God Bless


Ellie

SemperFiGirl79
06-28-04, 09:37 AM
Amen!
May God be w/ him & his family...
Prayer changes things.

cjwright90
06-28-04, 10:07 AM
God Bless you Cpl Hassoun and your family.

DSchmitke
06-28-04, 10:09 AM
Amen and god be with them all.

paul g fleming
06-28-04, 10:15 AM
god be with him

snipowsky
06-28-04, 11:41 AM
This is really sad. This Marine is a Muslim. I guarantee a good Muslim at that. And they are going to behead him? Their very own? I wonder if there will be an outcry from the Middle East over this...or what a majority of Iraqis will think when and if they behead him. What do you think?

Just goes to show that these terrorists and insurgents will stop at nothing to meet their own goals. Including killing their very own. What a shame!

In my book this Marine will forever be alive no matter what they do to him. If they kill him they are just giving him a free ticket to heaven. Unlike the place they will be going...hopefully burning in hell for eternity!

cjwright90
06-28-04, 01:04 PM
Has anyone heard the real deal on how they got him? I am hearing way too many different stories on it. I seriously doubt they snuck in to a base and got him. No way in hell could they have gotten in in teh first place, let alone back out.

mrbsox
06-28-04, 05:28 PM
Sincerest prayers and hopeful thoughts are out bound from this Marine, and all I'm sure.

'May the will and all powerful justice of my Lord and savior be evident in this time of pain, and may his love be bestowed on the loved ones that mourn his captivity. May my brother stand proud in the face of adversity, and triumph in the face of fear, as only a Marine can do.
I pray for strength and resolve to be presented to all captives in these times of tribulation, steadfastness of spirit, the confidence of truth, and faith in the greater good of him that watches over his flock.
His will, be done.'
Amen.

For OUR service men and women to believe in and follow the 'Code of Conduct', they HAVE to know, beyond all doubt, that THEIR COUNTRY will not let them down.

Gods speed.

Terry

tophor
06-28-04, 09:37 PM
Mine and my families prayers are with Cpl Hassoun and his family. With a heavy heart I say this, the middle eastern people will probably NOT get upset over this fine Marines beheading, if it happens, I have heard talk from some of the middle eastern types down here, that he should not have gone to fight for the U.S.A. against his own people and he deserves what he gets, which got me so pi$#ed off, I told the 4 or 5 of them that were talking that should leave my country and go back to their own country and see if they are men enough to fight against the U.S. military, especially the Marine Corps, which I informed them I am one and that I was in the gulf the first time. They just looked surprised and hurried away mumbling. After word I thought maybe I should have been more tactful but then I thought they were talking about one of my brothers and that he was only doing what he was supposed to be doing, serving his country. I hope and pray that this Marine is found and freed from his captors. SEMPER FI!!!