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US teen on way home from Baghdad
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-31 08:55 The teenager was able to secure an entry visa because both of his parents
were born in Iraq, though they've been in the United States for more than three
decades.
Skipping a week of school, he only told two of his school friends he planned
to leave the country. He didn't tell his parents until he arrived in Kuwait.
"He is very idealistic. He has many convictions. He is very pro-democracy,
very compassionate, always helping out others, he's very driven," his mother
said. "Those are more characteristics of Farris than adventurous. This is the
first adventure he's been on."
He took his U.S. passport along with $1,800 in cash. He said the money came
from a sum of $10,000 his mother had given him after he gave her some stock tips
that earned a 25 percent return.
From Kuwait, a taxi dropped him in the desert at the Iraq border, but he
could not cross there because of tightened security ahead of the elections. He
went to Beirut, Lebanon, to stay with family friends, and flew from there to
Baghdad on Christmas Day.
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.
The mother, 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.
Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old-teen from Fort
Lauderdale. Fla., poses for a portrait at a hotel, backdropped by the
Ramadan 14th mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Dec. 28, 2005.
[AP] | 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 studious, works on the school newspaper and is on the
debate team. He is a member of a Republican Party club at school and spends his
time reading rather than socializing, his mother said.
When school officials learned of Hassan's trip, they threatened to expel him,
but Atiya and Hassan's father, Redha Hassan, a physician, persuaded officials to
allow him to remain, she said. It was not immediately clear why they wanted to
expel him.
Julie Schiedegger, who teaches English at Pine Crest, said Friday that she
learned Hassan was headed to Iraq about two weeks ago when she overheard some
students talking about it.
"He is very bright, friendly, respectful, just a good kid," she said.
Michael Buckwald, a 17-year-old classmate, said Hassan immerses himself in
subjects that he likes and was opinionated in class.
"He always struck me as a very intellectual person. He's very outspoken at
the same time," Buckwald said.
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