Farris Hassan's big adventure in the Mideast apparently included a sit-down chat with members of Hezbollah, the political/terrorist group, in Beirut...
"I had to travel through alleyways and I finally walked - this was in the southern Shiite section of Beirut, the poorest section. So walking through alleyways, going up crooked staircases with bullet holes in the walls. And there was no sign saying, this is the Hezbollah office, of course not," Farris Hassan tells MSNBC's Rita Cosby in an interview airing tonight. ...
... For the two-hour meeting with the militant group's head of media relations - arranged by family friends Farris stayed with in Beirut - the teen says he posed as an American student writing a sympathetic article about Hezbollah, a group known to support Palestinian suicide bombers.
"I actually sort of nailed him on one point. He told me that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians because they've been there for centuries and all the Jews there should go back to Europe.
"And I told him, well, the Christians have been in Lebanon long before the Muslims, and 50 years ago, they were indisputably the majority. Under your same premise, shouldn't the Shiite newcomers return to their homelands?"
Farris claimed they shared a hearty laugh after the man realized "he, in fact, was stumped" by the kid's logic. Cue the NSA wiretaps on Farris and his "family friends..."
Anyway, at least he's sorry:
A sheepish Farris, 16, also tells Cosby he's been racked with guilt about the worry he caused his parents, and he worries about "copycats."
"I will feel so guilty if some copycats go to Iraq and cause the military all kinds of trouble. And God forbid one of them gets their head cut off," he said. ...or their phones tapped by the Bushies...
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