Wassef Hassoun; guilty
Chip sends us a link to ABC News which reports that judge, Marine Major Nicholas Martz, has determined that Wassef Hassoun is guity of desertion. You might remember that he left his unit in Iraq, turned up in Lebanon a few months later, then went AWOL from the Marines again when he was returned to the states for an investigation into the first incident;
Martz found that Hassoun was guilty of deserting in Iraq in 2004 and then deserting again in 2005 by fleeing to Lebanon after a brief return to the U.S.
Hassoun was also found guilty of causing the loss of his service pistol.
Sentencing is expected later this week.
Prosecutors argued during trial that Hassoun made preparations to flee his base in Fallujah in 2004 and foreshadowed his actions by threatening to leave for Lebanon.
Still no word on Bergdahl, though.
Category: Shitbags
Any word on when the White House/Rose Garden “Welcome Home” ceremony will be?
Ha! Awesome, Sgt. K!
Never Happen. He’s too “guilty” looking and not white enough.
That’s why Ole Bowie is going to slide.
If Obama had a white son.
Bergdahl is going to slide because his case is a can of worms. This one was fairly straight-forward.
So is Bergdahl’s (desertion for 5 years). But. . . ..
It’s even simpler than that, B Woodman. Both Hassoun and Berghdal split under circumstances that do not require the military to prove intent to remain away permanently – e.g., they intentionally left their place of duty to avoid performing duty of great importance/responsibility. That’s the only one of the 3 specific types of desertion defined under the UCMJ that does not require proof of intent to remain away permanently.
What remains to be seen is if the Army has the integrity (and the guts) to court-martial Berghdal after the POTUS made such a premature show of welcoming him back before he knew the score.
Bergdahl was held by the enemy as a hostage and threatened with murder, and possibly abused on top of that. That wasn’t the case with Hassoun. So Bergdahl’s case has circumstances that may make it more difficult to prosecute than Hassoun’s.
That may carry some mitigation of sentencing weight if they try to say he wanted to come back but couldn’t, but his initial desertion was already determined.
Bingo. His later capture and possible maltreatment by hostile forces may be a matter for mitigation and/or extenuation, but it has no bearing on his guilt or innocence. That capture and/or possible maltreatment occurred after he’d already willfully left his post in order to avoid a duty of substantial importance or responsibility. Willfully leaving his post under such circumstances is all that need be proven.
Being held by the enemy is only a defense if Bergdahl were to be charged with paragraph (a)(1) of Article 85 (a) Any member of the armed forces who
(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;
An argument could be made that it is impossible to prove that he intended to stay away permanently because he was held captive and unable to return.
However; the circumstances of his absence probably mean he could be charged with the offense under section (a)(2)
(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service;
There is no requirement that the government show he intended to stay away – just that he deserted in order to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service.
The question is not necessarily will he be charged, but if convicted what will happen to him. Probably the most famous case of awol-desertion was Garwood who actually carried a weapon while with the NVA. He returned after Vietnam – was court martialed, convicted and received no confinement
Depends on the availability of Hassoun’s parents to serve as props for the photo op.
Oh, and by the way, good job Marine Corps on sticking to it and bringing this deserter to justice. Took awhile, but he got what he deserved. Now lets put Hassoun in a cell next to Bradley and get him a sex change too.
I’ve heard the new motto of the US Disciplinary Barracks is “Making new friends and learning to share.”
I had heard they changed it to:
“Fort Leavenworth, where our Privates are now your Privates”
Shouldn’t that be the other way around, “. . . . where YOUR privates are now OUR privates”?
Or Taxpayers getting ride of Privates Privates.
FWIW, they tore down the old USDB at Ft Leavenworth and built a nice shiny new one further north and west on the Post. They also tore down the old CGS College building and bell tower and build a nice shiny new building facing out onto the river. I visited a few years back and found my old duty station but it took a little driving around.
Uh-Oh, that Report of Survey Property Adjustment Document for the lost pistol will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Wonder if the USMC allowed 10% depreciation on the pistol for financial responsibility purposes (common negligence) or socked him for full cost due to gross negligence?
I’m thinking they’re going to put the Marine Corps at double arm intervals on line and do a police call from Fallujah to Beirut until they find that pistol.
Yeah, good luck on that ever happening, Jonn.
But maybe at the same time they can look for a lost set of POTUS testicles.
In this case those would be BBs in the desert sand, virtually indistinguishable from actual grains of sand…tiny, BB sized no testosterone testicles..
Sorry, one cannot find that which never existed.
WITH or without the use of PT Belts?
10% depreciation is normally straight forward for Class II items.
The pistol will more than likely be a Class VII End Item and dependent upon other codes in the Master Data file to determine depreciation based on when the pistol was brought into service (its age).
However being a Class VII “Sensitive Item” it will make him subject to punitive discipline.
I do not know what the Marines system entails. I did process many DD 362’s in my time.
So with a piece of shit like this you throw as many charges as possible and hope to make as many stick as possible or use them as chips in a bargaining session. Even military justice is full of lawyers.
I also processed lots of Statements of Charge/Cash Collection Vouchers/Reports of Survey.
I was a 76Y40 at retirement.
However, I don’t think he would have just said “OK, I’m guilty, I’ll sign a DD362” I’m sure it had to go the investigation route.
For Army purposes, if gross negligence is proved and found legally sufficient, the guilty party could be charged the full cost of the item(s) at the time of loss, no depreciation allowed.
CLAW131: I’m thinking a court-martial conviction for causing the loss of assigned weapon qualifies as “legally sufficient”, amigo. (smile)
Yep, I’m sure it does. That’s why I tried to make a chuckle out of it in my original comment.(smile)
Simple (common) negligence is when Joe Snuffy leaves some of his TA-50 lying on his bunk and then goes to the latrine for a 10 minute chicken choking session, and upon return finds his stuff gone.
Gross negligence is when the same Joe Snuffy is assigned to hump the M60 for a road march. Halfway through the march, he says “Screw this pig” and throws it under the tracks of a passing APC. That’s when he can be charged the full cost of the M60, no depreciation allowed, regardless of the age/date it was brought into service. That may suck big time, especially if the M60 was 10-15 years older than the soldier humping it, but that is why it’s called GROSS negligence.
Great side benefit of being in an Airborne unit. Supply Warrants and NCO’s dance with glee when a heavy drop streamers in. Recall on a Swift Strike when several streamered into SC swamps AND burned. Survey Officer commented that it was no wonder they streamered but he was amazed the plane got off the ground given how much shit was supposedly on the pallets. He also questioned why sheets and PCS (Post, Camp and Station) etc were jumped in 🙂
SJ, apparently that Survey Officer had not yet been taken aside by his NCO and received his briefing on “Proper Supply Accounting Procedures in case of Parachute Related Accidents”.
That’s why God created REFORGER exercises. For in-country participating units, we always returned to home station fatter than when we left.
We did the double arm interval thing on an airfield in Alaska when a medic lost a 1911 in 3 feet of snow during a jump. We found it, believe it or not.
Lucky,man,Lucky!!
I’m sure after that Doc probably had no less than five or six dummy cords strapped to the old pistola.
On a battalion air assault exercise at Campbell between 1980-81, one of the snuffies (not in our company, thank God!) dropped his M-16 out of the Huey or Blackhawk (we fielded the UH60s in 1980 or so) while we were over a vast forested area — allegedly “moonshine” country. We never had to search for the weapon, but every swinging Richard was required henceforth to have a dummy-cord attached to his weapon.
Actually, I think the company that lost the weapon had to search the area. But it wasn’t us and we were happy about that.
I love hearing “Snuffy” and “Swinging Richard” on TAH. I wonder if those expressions have carried on to today’s Army?
The other nomenclature we had in the white name tape Army was have “self-help” folks. In the 82nd (1960’s) these were really motivated Troopers that were lacking, but not so much to dump them. So, the BN CO had them do repairs etc. that needed to be done and contributed to the mission. One such was Sgt Harris. He fell out of a 130 pulling static lines. That sucks, right? He fell out over the ranges near Pope and screamed all the way down “cease fire”. He also had a streamer and survived…bent the shit out of his rifle. We all loved Sgt Harris.
Claw……I’ve got a procured colt 45. I will tell you the total story when I see you!
Again thanks for your support!
It involves combat loss report
So, a soon-to-be former Marine willfully left his post in a combat zone, later returned to military control, and was thereafter convicted at court-martial of desertion.
Are you watching/listening, Big Army? Are you taking notes?
(And yes: in this context, the use of the term “former Marine” was intentional.)
“Ex” Marine would have been a better term in my opinion.
Noted. Will try to remember to use that variant in the future should appropriate circumstances require.
Interesting but probably smart that he went for a judge-alone trial. At court-martial, if you’re tried by a panel (i.e., a jury), you get sentenced by that same panel. Going judge-alone improves your odds of conviction but has a moderating influence on the sentence…
Also, it says he pleaded guilty to the AWOL, but it doesn’t say whether he had a mixed-plea deal with the general (i.e., an agreement to cap the sentence in exchange for the partial plea). Those do sometimes happen. Looking forward to hearing about the sentence.
Desertion from a post in time of war = execution. So do they shoot him, or hang him?
Maybe they will beat him to death in jail.
No sympathy here!
Almost certainly doesn’t count as “time of war” the way it’s defined by regulation.
Also, the Supreme Court has decided that you can’t get the death penalty for any crime…not even raping little girls…unless somebody dies. Given what a royal pain in the butt a death penalty prosecution is, with that kind of case law against them, there is no command anywhere that will seek the death penalty for desertion.
(And don’t bank on them trying creative theories…”people died looking for him”…”people in his unit died that he might’ve saved”…etc.)
It would be lethal injection if anyone ever did get executed by the military anymore.
Had this been the past, the panel would’ve decided the method of execution as well as the sentence of death. Typically shooting was a “soldier’s death” and hanging was a “criminal’s death” so figure it from that angle. (The tradition was, I believe, very strong in Europe…Goering and some of the other Nuremberg Nazis most earnestly asked for death by shooting instead of hanging; and Goering’s suicide was partly prompted by their decision to hang him like a common murderer.)
Its unfortunate that we have come to a point where something like desertion receives less punishment than driving drunk a few times.
And I knew that this traitor was not going to be punished severely by any means. Just venting my frustration, with the softer touch that seems to prevail in cases like this. Good people die trying to save a rat, that will be free in a few years. No Justice!
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/23/u-s-marine-gets-two-years-in-prison-for-disappearing-in-iraq-lebanon/
Two years in the slam, reduction in rate, loss of pay and allowances, and a Big Chicken Dinner. AMF, Wassef. We hardly even knew ya.
He’s going to do the intimate relation thing with Bubba. Nice… Mabye they will still beat him to death.
I’m impressed by the two years…6 months is the most I had seen in the past. Every desertion case I saw was tried by judge alone, as this one was; no defense attorney wanted to let a panel of angry Soldiers loose on a deserter. And usually a judge sentencing alone tones down the sentence. But this was an aggravated case for sure.
Summary execution!
His traitor carcass better be deported too.