Rising UCLA senior Chris Jeon, 21, is currently in Libya for his summer vacation because he just “thought it would be cool to join the rebels” during one of the world’s “only real revolutions,” despite having no particular political motivations, The National reports today. A flight took him from Los Angeles to Cairo, and after some trains and buses, he ended up in Benghazi, Libya, where rebels supplied him with a shotgun and later an AK-47. He also got a nickname, Ahmed El Maghrabi Saidi Barga, a nonsense combination of tribe names, and when his inability to speak Arabic becomes a problem, “he merely repeats his name and the rebels erupt in raucous cheers.” Although it sounds like a hoax, his Facebook and LinkedIn pages look like they check out. Jeon only bought a one-way ticket in case he gets “captured or something,” but seems to have only one other worry: “Whatever you do, don’t tell my parents,” he begged the reporter. “They don’t know I’m here.” Dude, you are so busted.
Road trip! American student joins rebels in fight for Qaddafi stronghold [National via WP]
