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Not quite a magic carpet ride

The Florida teen will get hugs and rules on his return from Iraq. His parents say he used gifts to launch his journey.

Sixteen-year-old Farris Hassan of Fort Lauderdale is flying home from Iraq, the end of a remarkable three-week journey in which he slipped into one of the world's most dangerous places.

His mother, Shatha Atiya, says she has not decided how she will punish her son for running off to Iraq without telling anyone.

"When he first gets off the plane, I'm going to hug him," says Atiya. "Then I'm going to collapse for a few hours, and then we're going to sit down for a long discussion about the consequences."

Atiya told CNN her son paid for the $900 plane ticket that took him initially to Kuwait with money he had been given to invest in the stock market. She said she plans to freeze his credit cards and his stock assets when he returns, and confiscate his passport.

"Once he's back and safe in my arms, then, yes, he's going to be without privileges, as you can imagine," she said.

Questions remain about the high school student's sojourn, most notably: How was a teenager able to wander unchecked into Baghdad?

"The whole point is that Americans shouldn't be coming here," said Elizabeth Colton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

Hassan's parents were born in Iraq but came to the United States about 35 years ago. His mother is a psychologist; his father is an anesthesiologist. They live in an oceanfront home. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that for Hassan's 16th birthday, he got a new car, a $50,000 Infiniti.

Farris Hassan said he went to Baghdad to better understand what Iraqis are living through. Skipping a week of school, he left America on Dec. 11. He sent his family an e-mail after his departure.

"He is very idealistic," his mother said.

"We didn't know where he was," said his 23-year-old brother Hayder Hassan. "He was missing for a couple of hours. We thought he was at a movie."

Hassan's father, Redha Hassan, told the Sun-Sentinel his son contacted him after he couldn't cross into Iraq from Kuwait because of increased security surrounding Iraq's election.

"I said, "You go to the (American) Embassy right now! The border is closed,' " the father recalled. "He said, "Yes, sir! Yes, Dad!' "

But instead of ordering his son home, Redha Hassan said he gave him the choice to go to Beirut for a week to stay with family friends, and then go to Baghdad once the border reopened and private security could be arranged.

"I felt it would leave a scar, disappointing him in his young life," Redha Hassan said. "I learned long ago that if you say no, they stick to the point and insist on doing it. Nothing fazed him."

The 6-foot-2 teen went to Beirut, where he says he interviewed Israeli and Lebanese border guards and spent Christmas night in a church interviewing Christians. Redha Hassan said he then arranged for his son to fly to Baghdad and for a security detail to accompany him to a safe hotel.

Redha Hassan told the Sun-Sentinel he was able to arrange security through political connections he had as a result of being active in a resistance movement against Saddam Hussein during his youth.

But Farris Hassan never mentioned any security in the tale he told the Associated Press after he sought out editors at their Baghdad office.

He described the earlier event of being dumped in the middle of the desert at the Iraq-Kuwait border by a taxi. Another taxi driver threatened to punch him when he balked at paying an expensive fare. He drew a crowd at a food stand in Iraq when he consulted an Arabic phrase book. Hassan does not speak Arabic.

U.S. officials put Hassan on a plane leaving Baghdad Friday. His family said they were waiting to hear when he will arrive in Fort Lauderdale.

Janelle Hironimus, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said while Americans are discouraged from visiting Iraq, they are not prohibited from traveling to the country. It is up to the Iraqi government to determine who is allowed to enter.

Richard B. Hermann, the U.S. consul general in Baghdad, reiterated warnings by the State Department 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, 10 of whom have been killed, a U.S. official said. About 15 remain missing.

The State Department issued a new travel advisory for Iraq, warning of kidnappings and murders, as well as missile attacks against planes landing at Baghdad International Airport.

Farris Hassan is the youngest of the Hassans' four children. The others are enrolled at universities.

While Hassan's parents say they were caught unaware, their son's escapade was a fast-spreading rumor among Hassan's classmates at Pine Crest School. Almost everyone heard the story as soon as Hassan left, junior Anjali Sharma told the Sun-Sentinel. But no one believed it was true.

"We all thought it was a huge rumor," Sharma said, "and everyone was like, "Oh, my God, Farris is in Iraq,' and I'm like, "You guys are ridiculous. You guys can't make up this kind of stuff.' "

School president Lourdes Cowgill said Hassan will face some form of discipline for his absence, but he will not be expelled.

"The school is going to have to play a very delicate situation because you can't make a folk hero out of him because he broke the school rules but at the same time you don't want to kill him," Cowgill said.

Information from Times staff writer Carrie Johnson, the Associated Press and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel was used in this report.

[Last modified January 1, 2006, 00:28:15]