FreddiesGhettoTrench 30.12.2005 15:44 |
Fla. Boy Coming Home After Iraq Adventure By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 14 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 16-year-old from Florida who traveled to Iraq on his own without telling his parents was put on a flight home Friday, the U.S. Embassy said, while warning Americans of the dangers of undertaking similar journeys. Farris Hassan, of Fort Lauderdale, had been under the care of the U.S. Embassy after being on his own in Iraq for several days. ADVERTISEMENT "I'm going to hug him. He's my little angel," his mother, Shatha Atiya, said Friday after learning he was on his way home. "I'm exhausted, I'm very anxious. I'm grateful he's out of Iraq." The U.S. Embassy had no immediate information about Hassan's flight. Consul General Richard B. Hermann reiterated warnings by the State Department and embassy against traveling to Iraq and said Americans in Iraq should register their presence. Forty American citizens have been kidnapped since the war started in March 2003, of which 10 have been killed, a U.S. official said. About 15 remain missing. He said Hassan had left Baghdad safely. "This young American is now on his way back home to his family in the United States," Hermann said. Hassan spoke to The Associated Press by phone early Friday, several hours before the embassy announcement, and he was still under the impression that he was leaving Baghad on Sunday. He was unaware that his story had been published around the world. "I don't have any Internet access here in the Green Zone, so I have no idea what's going on," he said. A military officer accompanying him, who did not identify himself, said it was his task to get Hassan "safe and sound to the United States." Hassan, a junior at Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, recently studied immersion journalism — a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it. The teenager, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, says he wanted to travel to Baghdad to better understand what Iraqis are living through. "I thought I'd go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles," he told AP in an interview earlier this week. Skipping a week of school, he left the country on Dec. 11, telling only two high school friends of his plans. His travels took him to Kuwait and Lebanon before he arrived in Iraq on Christmas Day. He left without telling his family and sent an e-mail after his departure, Atiya said. "He is very idealistic. He has many convictions. He is very pro-democracy, very compassionate, always helping out others, he's very driven," Atiya said. "Those are more characteristics of Farris than adventurous. This is the first adventure he's been on." The teen traveled to Kuwait, where a taxi dropped him in the desert at the Iraq border, but he could not cross there because of tightened security ahead of the Iraqi parliamentary elections on Dec. 15. He went to Beirut, Lebanon, to stay with family friends, and flew from there to Baghdad. After his second night in Baghdad, he contacted the AP and said he had come to do research and humanitarian work. The AP called the U.S. Embassy, which sent U.S. soldiers to pick him up. State Department officials then notified his parents. Atiya said she has a 60-year-old brother in Iraq, but that she had refused when her son recently pestered her for his number. She said she offered to take her son to Iraq later, when tensions eased. "I thought that would be sufficient for him, but he took it upon himself to do this adventure. He has a lot of confidence, but I never thought he would be able to pull this together," she said. Hassan does not speak Arabic and has no experience in war zones, but he wanted to find out what life was like there. Atiya said her son is stu |
Freya is quietly judging you. 30.12.2005 15:48 |
You post such odd things.. |
That guy who digs energy domes 30.12.2005 16:31 |
How did he get his plane? |
Serry... 30.12.2005 16:31 |
30.12.2005, Moscow 14:45:14.The Finance Ministry has repaid around USD4.4bn of foreign debt ahead of schedule on loans the Central Bank received in 1998-1999, a source in the ministry said. ------------------------------------------- 30.12.2005, St. Petersburg 11:44:26.Pulkovo and Air One-Aliadriatica have signed a document providing for flights with each airline to be conveniently arranged. Under the terms of the agreement, Aliadriatica tickets will be available in Pulkovo ticket offices throughout Russia, and Pulkovo tickets throughout the Italian airline corporate network. By now Pulkovo airline has concluded more than 60 interline agreements, 35 of them with foreign airlines, including Air France, British Airways, Finnair, Delta and China Eastern Airlines. ------------------------------------------- 30.12.2005, Astana 09:04:49.Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed a decree approving the state program to fight corruption in 2006-2010, the republic leader's press service reported. The country's government has been commissioned to develop an implementation plan within a month. The program is aimed at improving the scope of measures to ensure national security through fighting corruption. |
FreddiesGhettoTrench 30.12.2005 19:19 |
Thank you, Serry, for the exciting news. |
FreddiesGhettoTrench 30.12.2005 20:35 |
<marquee>Queen Of Wrestling</marquee> wrote: How did he get his plane?No clue. I guess he just paid for the ticket and flew to Kuwait. |
iron eagle 30.12.2005 20:36 |
its actually a quite interesting story if anyone takes the damn time to read it... immersion journalism.... hmmm no thanks |
deleted user 31.12.2005 09:33 |
totally agree thomas. its easy enough to find on google for fucks sakes, stop wasting space on here with useless shit. its all its been lately. |
Saint Jiub 31.12.2005 11:09 |
I vote for the all-wise and tolerant Caspar as queenzone moderator - yee-haw Before banning FGT, please ban the handcuff and ah yeah threads first ... nah ... Perhaps you could force Richard into a merger with QOL |
Haystacks Calhoun 31.12.2005 11:14 |
<b><font color = "crimson">ThomasQuinn wrote:Pot, meet Kettle.FreddiesGhettoTrench wrote: Thank you, Serry, for the exciting news.In case you are too daft to notice, that was to put your useless bit of info into perspective. If we want to read this kind of shit, we'll visit CNN, Reuters, etc. We don't need you to put it up here. If you want to whine about this kind of stuff, find yourself a pro-Bush, far-right forum and have a ball. Kettle, meet Pot. |
Lisser 31.12.2005 11:25 |
I enjoyed reading the story. |
Music Man 31.12.2005 14:30 |
Rip Van Winkle wrote: I vote for the all-wise and tolerant Caspar as queenzone moderator - yee-haw Before banning FGT, please ban the handcuff and ah yeah threads first ... nah ... Perhaps you could force Richard into a merger with QOLI would prefer FGT's threads a thousand-fold more than the aforementioned threads. It's fun to see the diverse reactions on these threads. Anyway, I find it much more efficient for someone to browse through CNN, etc. for interesting stories rather then looking myself. It's like trying to find a diamond in a heap of shit. I'd rather have someone else do it for me. |
Mr.Jingles 01.01.2006 14:05 |
<b><font color = "crimson">ThomasQuinn wrote:Personally I didn't find anything political about this thread, Caspar. You need to chill out a bit dude.FreddiesGhettoTrench wrote: Thank you, Serry, for the exciting news.In case you are too daft to notice, that was to put your useless bit of info into perspective. If we want to read this kind of shit, we'll visit CNN, Reuters, etc. We don't need you to put it up here. If you want to whine about this kind of stuff, find yourself a pro-Bush, far-right forum and have a ball. I know most of Sarajane's threads and posts are either annoying politically correct nonsense, but this one had nothing to be with the political support of neither side of the political spectrum. I found the story to be a very interesting one. However, I really find it quite depressing that we get so outraged when we find that there's an American kid living in Iraq, and meanwhile there's millions of Iraqi children exposed to the dangers of living in a war zone, but no one seems to care. |
Music Man 01.01.2006 17:50 |
<font color=FF0099>Linda Of The Valley wrote: maybe if the username wasn't FGT a lot of you would'nt be saying this is useless crap... I thought it was an interesting read but then again so is a lot of stuff and I agree that she doesn't have to post every story off CNN or whatever site it is..If you've ever been to CNN, you'd realize they provide a little more coverage than is reposted by FGT. Well, a LOT more. If she finds it interesting, there is a good chance somebody else would. Thus, by not posting, she disbenefits those who would have been better off to hear the story. By posting it, however, she disbenefits no one. Understand? |
M a t i a s M a y 01.01.2006 18:24 |
COOL! |