16 YO Iraqi-American: your thoughts?

[Guest]

Have you guys heard about the 16 year-old high school student of Iraqi parentage who went to Iraq over Winter break, apparently without his parents' knowledge? What I'm curious about is--where did he get the money (and the visa, for that matter)??

[+ Hoover42]

According to the Washington Post, he used money that his parents had given him previously, for what, the article didn't say.

 

The article mentioned that he was able to get a visa because of his family connections (his parents are originally from Iraq).

 

...Hoover

[+ deej]

One has to marvel at the complete detachment of the parents.

 

Sure, the mother was interviewed on TV today and that kid is SO grounded when he gets home.

 

But how does a kid push back from the dinner table and leave for Iraq without someone in the family knowing what's up?

[willatwork37]

I feel this is partly a stunt. Our news said he flew to Kuwait, then he flew to Lebanon and then on to Bagdad. It would seem to me that all of these plane tickets would cost more than the $900 he supposedly had. Also, his parents just didn't appear that concerned. I think this was a way for this kid to realize his secret dream of appearing on OPRAH. :-)

[Guest zipperzone]

Well the kid sure had balls!

[Guest]

I guess you must be right. I mean, wouldn't the parents have filed a missing child report with the police?

[BearDad58]

Not bad looking either:-)

[Samai139]

The older brother, or at least one of them, was on tv this morning--he is really something to look at ))

Farris, the wannabe journalist, was in an exclusive prep school--not sure if that means he lived there or at home. He had access to funds and family friends in Beirut, Lebanon.

Question: Where's the father? I've only seen the mother, brother, sister on tv?

Final thought: Too much ado about a very dangerous stunt. I think the media would better serve everyone if they had down-played this, rather than hyped it.

[jawjateck]

He needs a good ass whupping. But modern day parents are too sophisticated and enlightened to discipline their younguns with such old-fashioned methods.

 

My folks busted my butt often, and I didn't turn out too warped, except for this one little lust I have of hiring hot gay male escorts to satisfy previously repressed urges. }(

[Barry]

>I guess you must be right. I mean, wouldn't the parents have

>filed a missing child report with the police?

 

Well they apparently weren't in the dark for long. According to a report I just watched (including an interview with his father), the boy flew to Kuwait via Amsterdam. He tried to cross the border into Iraq by taxi but the border was closed.

 

At that point he called his parents and told them. They arranged for him to fly to Lebanon where he stayed with family friends for a week. Then with the help of the family he flew to Baghdad, checked into a hotel and presented himself at the AP office the next day.

 

The family was involved and helped from the second day.

 

Barry

[OneFinger]

Here's a picture of the kid.

 

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/12/29/teen.iraq.ap.ap/story.teen.iraq.ap.jpg

 

Also found an interesting explaination of what happened from the father.

 

"...After Farris Hassan landed in Kuwait City, the teen then attempted to get into Iraq by taking a taxi across the border. He couldn't cross because of the security surrounding Iraq's elections, and called his father.

 

"I said, `You go to the (American) Embassy right now! The border is closed," the father recalled. "He said, Yes Sir! Yes, Dad!"

 

Then something even more extraordinary happened. Instead of ordering his son home, Redha Hassan said he gave him the choice to go to Beirut for a week to stay with family friends, and then go to Baghdad once the border opened and private security could be arranged.

 

"I felt it would leave a scar, disappointing him in his young life," Redha Hassan said of sending his son home. "I learned long ago that if you say no, they stick to the point and insist on doing it. Nothing fazed him."

 

The teen chose to stay, he said, going to Beirut, where he interviewed Israeli and Lebanese border guards and spent Christmas night in a church interviewing Christians. Soon after, Redha Hassan said he flew his son to the Baghdad International Airport, where he said private security personnel took him to a safe hotel. Redha Hassan said he was able to arrange security through political connections he had as a result of being active in a resistance movement against Saddam Hussein during his youth.

 

But if there was security, it didn't work too well. According to the Associated Press, Farris Hassan was alone when he marched into a war zone office where Associated Press staffers were based. He told them he was in Iraq to do humanitarian and research work as an extension of a school project in immersion journalism.

 

The AP quickly called the U.S. Embassy. According to the Associated Press, who interviewed the boy, his parents were not sure of his exact whereabouts. The news agency also reported that the 101st Airborne will escort the teen out of Iraq. Citing security concerns, neither Navy Commander Mulac nor the boy's family would discuss details of his return..."

 

Read the full story at:

 

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/13511355.htm

 

-------------

"We need to have more respect for each other. Things have just gone really crazy, out of control. ... We're on a very weird kind of cycle." Stevie Wonder

[Guest showme43]

2 words: Dumb Ass!

[Guest zipperzone]

>2 words: Dumb Ass!

 

Myabe the two words should be "Great Ass"

 

By the way - could someone please post a pic of the brother?

[Bearman]

The Kids ADORABLE!:9

[BobbyB]

He needs a good ass whupping.

 

 

I agree and volunteer for the job. And it won't be one of those pants on jobs, either. No sir! It will be one of them bent-over-my-knee, buck ass nekkid kind of whuppins that leaves his firm, pink, upturned, young buttock writhing with so much pain he cries out, "Please - I'll do whatever you want!"

 

Uh oh...I think I've said too much.

 

-BobbyB