U.S. Looking Into Disappearance of Mission Viejo Man in Mideast

A State Department spokeswoman said Friday that United States embassies in Syria and Lebanon are inquiring into the June 29 disappearance of a Mission Viejo businessman who was traveling from Beirut to Damascus, but so far there is no clue to his whereabouts.

Faik Z. Wareh, 62, owner of a Garden Grove janitorial supply firm, had just completed a visit with his new wife’s family in Beirut and was driving through Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley to Damascus, Syria, to see his two sons when he apparently disappeared, according to his family.

Wareh, a Syrian native who is an American citizen, never arrived in Damascus, and no one has heard from him, said his daughter, Denise Markum, 31. Her father’s Syrian ex-wife called Friday to report that she still had not heard from him, Markum said.

“That’s confirmation that he never made it to Syria,” she said.

Ruth Van Heuven, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s bureau of counselor affairs, said the American embassies in both countries have been asked “to inquire about his whereabouts” by checking with the local authorities. So far, no information has turned up, she said.

She added that the State Department has “long-standing advisories” warning Americans that travel in the two countries is “extremely hazardous,” and that the Bekaa Valley is “particularly dangerous for Americans.”

Markum said she and her family in Orange County--two brothers and four sisters from Wareh’s first marriage--”were very concerned” when he left on the trip. “We warned him. We pleaded with him. But because of his Arabic background, he figured he would not be in any danger,” she said.

If he has been kidnaped, there has been no ransom demand, she said.

Wareh was expected back July 4, and when he did not arrive his family in Orange County began trying to call Lebanon. Another daughter, Debbie Hunt, 25, said that the search for Wareh did not get under way sooner because “communications are so bad. It takes 10 or 15 days to get a call through. We didn’t know what to do. We had to wait to hear anything, and when they (Wareh’s relatives in Syria) called and said, ‘Where is he?,’ we were stunned and shocked.”

The family is writing letters and calling the offices of congressmen and senators attempting to get more information, she said.

The drive from Beirut to Damascus takes about one hour, but the road is “very dangerous” and Wareh could have been stopped by people along the way, Hunt said.

“Any number of things could have happened,” she said. “It’s a bad area, that’s all I can tell you.”