Aryan

July 10, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun is believed to have made phone calls during the period he went missing in Iraq — raising serious doubts among investigators about whether he was kidnapped by terrorists, military officials said yesterday.
In the latest twist to an increasingly bizarre story, U.S. intelligence agencies, which have extensive listening posts in Iraq, picked up a handful of cellphone conversations involving a man investigators believe was Hassoun. The calls were made before and shortly after he went missing, military officials familiar with the investigation said.

The Lebanese-born translator, who was later thought to have been beheaded by terrorists, was originally listed as a deserter after he disappeared June 21 from a Marine base in Fallujah.

"After initially being listed as missing, a preliminary inquiry into his absence indicated he had deserted and, as a result, he was subsequently characterized as a deserter," U.S. Central Command said in a statement yesterday.

Investigators with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are now looking into the possibility that the June 27 videotape in which Hassoun was blindfolded with a sword over his head was actually a hoax. It may have been designed to cover his flight from Iraq, possibly to his family home in Lebanon, sources said.