US Boy's Answer to a School Essay on Iraq: Take a Trip to Baghdad

Most teenagers would have settled for a visit to the local museum. But Farris Hassan had greater plans for his latest school trip - running away to Baghdad for a first-hand look at one of the world’s most dangerous cities.

The 16-year-old from Florida secretly flew to the Middle East to help research a school project about the conflict in Iraq. With only an Arabic phrasebook to guide him, he spent two days alone in Baghdad.

He said he wanted "to go the extra mile, or rather a few thousand miles" to be able to write his essay with authority.

Today, however, the sheepish schoolboy was flying home to Fort Lauderdale to face the wrath of his angry but relieved family, who say they feared for his safety when they learned he was in a country where insurgents have kidnapped more than 400 foreigners, 40 of them American, since the conflict began.

"I’m furious with him," said his brother Hayder Hassan, 23. "He knows the ass-whuppin’ he’s going to get."

Farris’s remarkable adventure came to a sudden end on Tuesday, when, apparently realizing the danger he was in, he walked into the Baghdad bureau of the Associated Press news agency to ask for help. "I would have been less surprised if little green men had walked in," said AP editor Patrick Quinn. He was collected by soldiers and delivered to officials at the US embassy, who had been looking for him, and arranged a flight home.

Farris said he became scared when he tried to buy food at a Baghdad market using the phrasebook while suspicious strangers jostled around him, making fun of his white Nike trainers and jeans.

"I’m like, ‘Well, I should probably be going’," he said. "It was not a safe place. The way they were looking at me kind of freaked me out."

A military official said that Farris’s looks saved him from harm. His parents, who are divorced, were born in Iraq and moved to the US 35 years ago. AP reporter Jason Straziuso said Farris would have been in trouble as soon as he opened his mouth. "He hadn’t picked up any mannerisms or customs. Any close inspection was going to reveal that he was American," he said.

Dr Redha Hassan said he had promised his son a trip to Iraq in the summer but Farris decided he could not wait. On December 11, he left an email telling his parents not to worry and bought a plane ticket from Miami to Kuwait City.

From there, Farris said he had traveled to the Kuwait-Iraq border in a taxi but was refused entry to Iraq because of extra security surrounding the elections and, after calling his father, traveled to Beirut to stay with family friends. He flew to Baghdad on Christmas Day.

Farris, who hopes to become a journalist, said he wanted to see for himself the suffering of Iraqi citizens struggling towards democracy, and spoke of his guilt at being able to enjoy the life of an American teenager while those in his father’s homeland suffered.

"There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil," he wrote. "I know I can’t do much. I know I can’t stop all the carnage and save the innocent but I also know I can’t sit here. I feel guilty living in a big house, driving a nice car and going to a great school. I feel guilty hanging out with my friends in a cafe without the fear of a suicide bomber present. I feel guilty enjoying the multitude of blessings, which I did nothing to deserve, while the people in Iraq, many of them much better than me, are in terrible anguish."

Shatha Atiya, Farris’s mother, said her son would have plenty of time to write up his experiences when he returned home. "He’s going to lose his autonomy for a while, and his passport for sure," she said.