Florida teen on way home from Baghdad
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-31 18:44

The mother of a 16-year-old prep school student who journeyed to Iraq on a journalistic whim hasn't decided how her son will be punished. She's just relieved he's on his way home.

Farris Hassan left Baghdad Friday to begin traveling home, drawing to a close an adventure that could have cost him his life. The high school junior took the trip without telling his parents.

"When he first gets off the plane, I'm going to hug him," said his mother, Shatha 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."

Consul General Richard B. Hermann said that Hassan had "safely departed Baghdad," but his family said they still do not know when he will return to his Fort Lauderdale home. Hassan spoke to The Associated Press early Friday, and he was still under the impression that he would be following his personal travel itinerary, which had him leaving the country on Sunday.

The embassy refused to release any details about his travel.

The teen, who attends Pine Crest School, an academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, left the United States on Dec. 11 and traveled to Kuwait, where he thought he could take a taxi into Baghdad and witness the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

A strong history student, Hassan had recently studied immersion journalism �� a writer who lives the life of his subject �� and wanted to understand better what Iraqis are living through.

"I thought I'd go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles," he told AP in an interview earlier this week.

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.

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.

Skipping a week of school, he only told two of his school friends he planned to leave the country. He didn't tell his family about the trip until he arrived in Kuwait, when he sent them an e-mail.

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

His mother 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.

The State Department and embassy have warned against traveling to Iraq. Forty American citizens have been kidnapped since the war started in March 2003, of whom 10 have been killed, a U.S. official said. About 15 remain missing.

When Hassan returns home, his parents' consequences may not be the only ones he has to face. When school officials learned of his 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.

School officials have asked to have a meeting with both parents before he's allowed to come back, Atiya said.

Hayder Hassan, his older brother, said the trip was "mind-boggling."

"Who thinks your little brother will run off to Iraq, when no one is looking?" he said.