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Marine's kin ask Arabs for sympathy
BEIRUT -- Relatives of a U.S. Marine who surfaced in Beirut nearly three weeks after an apparent kidnapping in Iraq appealed for understanding from fellow Arabs on Saturday, saying the Lebanese-born man emigrated and joined the Marines for financial reasons.
Sympathy...anyone...anyone...going once...going twice...
In Hassoun's native city of Tripoli,
Are you Lebanse or Libyan? Make up your mind?
his family issued a statement saying he was forced to go to the United States and join the Marines because of the deteriorating economic situation caused by Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.
Yep, held a gun to his head did those recruiters. I didn't realize the Marines had brought back the Royal Navy practice of pressing people into service from the streets of third world countries. Those sneaky leathernecks.
The statement appeared aimed at countering criticism by some fundamentalist Sunni Muslims in Tripoli, who accused Hassoun's family of being "American agents and collaborators."
No that would make him CIA.
It stressed the family's Arab and Islamic ties and its loyalty to Lebanon. "We are a family of Lebanese Arab Muslims. We are not seeking to defend ourselves," the Hassoun family's statement said. "But we would like to thank the Lebanese for sympathizing with one of their sons [Hassoun] who was pushed by the difficult living conditions in their home country to emigrate and forced to work in a position that they may not like." The statement said Hassoun, 24, was "driven by the lure of a good life to emigrate, [but he] might have made a mistake by choosing to sign a four-year contract with the U.S. Navy, which expires by the end of 2005."
Yep, shoulda opted for three. "I gotta support and defend what?"
The Marines are part of the Navy.
Uh-oh, those are fightin' words.
On Thursday, two people were killed and three others wounded in a Tripoli gun battle between members of the Hassoun clan and business rivals who called them American collaborators.
Well at least some of the Hassouns can fight.
Posted by: Zpaz 2004-07-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=37751