Two Time Deserter Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun who Disappeared in Iraq in 2004 Return to the U.S. to Face Charges

Two time deserter Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun who disappeared in Iraq in 2004 is finally turning himself in to face charges. What are the odds that Cpl. Hassoun saw the favorable treatment provided to Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by the Obama administration and figured that this was his best chance to face the music of double desertion?

What, you mean Barack Obama did not empty GITMO to get Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun to return to the United States?

Pic: NBC – Twitter

A Marine who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. claiming he had been kidnapped, only to disappear again, is back in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 34, turned himself in and was being flown Sunday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East to Norfolk, Va. He is to be moved Monday to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to a spokesman, Capt. Eric Flanagan.

Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Lejeune, will determine whether to court martial Hassoun.

In a written statement from its headquarters at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service “worked with” Hassoun to turn himself in and return to the U.S. to face charges.

Hassoun disappeared from his unit in Iraq’s western desert in June 2004. The following month he turned up unharmed in Beirut, Lebanon and blamed his disappearance on Islamic extremist kidnappers. He was returned to Lejeune and was about to face the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing when he disappeared again.

Background on the double deserter:

Ten years ago, in June 2004, Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun disappeared from his base in Fallujah, Iraq.

Within days he appeared in a poorly-staged hostage video, and within a month he mysteriously showed up unharmed at the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

After a five month investigation back in the United States, military prosecutors accused Hassoun of faking his kidnapping and charged him with desertion and theft of a Humvee, which he allegedly used to drive off his base in Fallujah.

In Jan. 2005, Hassoun fled the U.S. through Canada, returned to Lebanon where he was born, and the Marines charged him with a second count of desertion.