Posted on 04/12/2003 9:15:05 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Four days ago Warblogging reported on the story of Maher (Mike) Hawash. Mr. Hawash's problems have now been the subject of an article in the New York Times. Mr. Hawash is a programmer, working at Intel, who was detained by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force as a material witness. He has so far spent just about two weeks in jail without being charged with a crime and without being questioned or told why he is detained. He is being kept in solitary confinement.
Mr. Hawash was detained by FBI agents wearing helments, body armor and carrying assault rifles in an Intel Corporation parking lot as he arrived to work on Thursday, March 20. FBI agents and police officers carrying assault rifles and wearing body armor simultaneously raided his home, waking his wife and their three young children. The search warrant used to search the home and the material witness warrant used to detain Mr. Hawash are both sealed — no one knows what evidence was used to attain them, and they have yet to be challenged in court.
Mr. Hawash was born in the Palestinian Territories but gained his American citizenship more than fifteen years ago. He married an American woman and has three American children. He himself is an American.
"Our friend has fallen into some kind of `Alice in Wonderland' meets Franz Kafka," Steven McGeady, a former Intel VP and webmaster of Free Mike Hawash told the New York Times.
The fact is that the government is abusing the material witness statute to hold Mike. The material witness statute is intended to compel people to testify in court and prevent them from fleeing to avoid testimony.
An Associated Press story on Mr. Hawash said this:
Material witness laws were intended only to ensure testimony, not to hold people indefinitely, said Phil Heymann, a Harvard law professor. "It was not meant to be used this way," Heymann said, noting that the number of material witness detentions has increased since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Mike hasn't even been told what he'll be asked to testify about, and there is no indication whatsoever that he would seek to avoid testifying. The New York Times article says:
Civil liberties groups say material witness statutes are being abused by the Bush administration to hold people like Mr. Hawash indefinitely. "The government doesn't have and should not have the power to arrest and detain someone without charging them," said Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants Rights Project. "If this kind of thing is permitted, then any United States citizen can be swept off the street and locked up without being charged."
This is precisely what happened to Mike Hawash. He was literally swept up off the street and locked up without charge. He has been accused of no crime. He has not been told why he is being detained in solitary confinement. His friends, family and coworkers have been left bewildered. The Justice Department refuses to comment on his detention in any way, shape, or form except to say that there is an "ongoing investigation".
He has been in jail for two weeks without charge. He has not been questioned. Every time he leaves his cell for any reason he is strip searched when he returns.
This, my friends, is not American. This is not supposed to happen in this great country of ours. Charge this man with a crime or release him, Mr. Ashcroft.
I urge you to write letters to the editors of your local newspapers. Call your senators, call your congressmen. Call into your local radio talk shows. Make a fuss. Tell everyone who will listen about Mike Hawash. He deserves it, and so does the next one who will be dragged into this Kafka-esque nightmare.
I am a single parent, with no local family; so my kid and bills would be SOL because the feds decide that it's OK to move me out of existance. No, it's just not reasonable nor legal, no matter what the 'law' says.
I've served on three juries, one for three weeks and got sequestered for four days (and we found him guilty); but everyone knew where I was, and why.
Citizens have Rights; the government has Privileges. Don't get them confused, as Privileges should never overide Rights, absent a valid, constitutional restriction to those Rights.
Thanks for the cite; validates what some of us seem to agree is an unconstitutional holding by the Feds and the Court in this case.
Got to leave; work calls. Be back later.
This particular individual, Hawash, has made substantial donations to the terrorist charity Global Relief Foundation, which he says is a legit organization. (At least he may have thought so.) According to an early report "FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force Search Home in Hillsboro" in The Oregonian, documents were found attached to Global Relief Foundation's federal tax return for the year 2000 listing about 120 donations of $5,000 or more, including two from Hawash. The first was a $5,165 donation from "Mike & Lisa Hawash" listing their Hillsboro address. The second was a $5,050 donation by "Maher Hawash" listing the same address. The dates of the donations weren't listed. The paper says these donations are unrelated to the case but does not say why it came to that conclusion.
(See also this snippet : )
Initially, speculation among Hawash's friends was that his detention was related to two donations totaling about $10,000 that he made to the Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity whose assets were frozen last year after federal authorities alleged it was connected to terrorism. - "Engineer Held as Part of Portland Probe, " by Elaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, April 5, 2003
Given his occupation there is likely much more of interest than just his donations, but the FBI does seem to have focused on his computer and his financial records. He also sends money to relatives in the West Bank, including his mother, according to friends, who insist the family there "is not involved in politics." (Well, that's nice. I'm glad to know they never participate in those parades for suicide bombers or celebrate the collapse of the WTC.)
As a sidenote, Hawash is a member of the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton, Oregon, which is the same mosque also attended by the Saudi brothers Mohammed Ibrahim Bilal and Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, both charged with providing material support to al Qaeda. He has also attended the Islamic Center of/in Portland. This latter Center was once headed up by a gentleman who is charged with social security fraud. The Center is considered extremist. I don't have any reason to believe the Bilal Mosque is extremist at his time; its leader seems to be cooperative.
Prosecutors have until April 25, 2003 to take testimony from Hawash as a material witness or present him to a grand jury. A closed hearing is scheduled for April 29. More information on the case will be provided in May by officials. Hawash does have access to attorneys and can be visited by his wife and children. He hasn't been held very long.
That's hardly "incommunicado."
Wha's wrong wi' that? :-)
I also found this- he was interviewed by The Oregonian back in November 2002:
NOVEMBER 2002 : (PORTLAND CELL : HAWASH : OREGONIAN INTERVIEWS HAWASH ABOUT GLOBAL RELIEF FOUNDATION) The Oregonian interviewed Hawash by phone last November about his donations to the Global Relief Foundation. He said he made the donations after someone from Global Relief came to town to make a presentation at either the Bilal Mosque or Islamic Center of Portland. He said he couldn't recall the name of the GRF speaker. "The organization is legit," he said. "We believed that they are doing good work. It's a well-known organization." He said at the time that no investigators had questioned him about the foundation. - "FBI, Joint Terrorism agents search home in Hillsboro," by MARK LARABEE and LES ZAITZ, The Oregonian, 03/21/03
? (PORTLAND CELL : HAWASH VISITS NABLUS, HAS TROUBLE GETTING BACK INTO THE US UNTIL INTEL INTERVENES ON HIS BEHALF) Mr. McGeady, [Maher Mofeid Hawash's] boss there [at Intel], said Mr. Hawash went back to Nablus to visit his family several years ago and had trouble returning to the United States until Intel officials intervened.- "Terrorism Task Force Detains an American Without Charges" NY Times, Posted by Gary on April 05, 2003 at 09:40:54: . http://www.ecolivingcenter.com/board/main/messages/1074.html
see http://www.auphr.org/Letters.php
April 14, 2002
The Oregonian
Journalism of mad dogs
In his April 11 column, "Welcome to the state of ... Israel," David Reinhard declares that "we in the media are supposed to be evenhanded about this conflict. We're supposed to practice moral equivalence. Hogwash." He gives the imaginary scenario of bombs going off in Portland.
I suggest that he take it a bit closer and imagine his neighbor barging into his house, killing his child, raping his wife and daughter and declaring Reinhard's home as his. What would he do?
My mother, brother, sisters and their children have witnessed the work of the Israeli Defense Forces for the past two weeks, with a tank outside their house in Nablus pounding shells nonstop. They are terrified; the kids are terrorized. How would you feel?
This kind of journalism only justifies the means of mad dogs such as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Maher Hawash
Status: Published
Nah, couldn't possibly happen.
Probably thought he might like to be re-patriated to the custody of his dad in Cuba....
The fact that his family has visited him several times a week makes it pretty darn obvious he's not being held in secret.
Sorry; no abuse given or intended, my comment at 26 did not include you at the time.
piasa -- thanks for the 'attitude adjustment'! LOL
Based on what I saw at both the "Warblog' and the referenced 'FreeMikeHawash' sites, they are not giving the whole story, as you provided with the findlaw doc.
Warblog said:
He has so far spent just about two weeks in jailAs I also said, the FreeMike page gave that same impression, vouched for by his colleagues from Intel.
without being charged with a crime and without
being questioned or told why he is detained.
He is being kept in solitary confinement.
His request for 'solitary confinement' at a federal prison also makes sense; he is in "Administrative Detention" and not in criminal or pre-trial, and by law cannot be placed with those so held.
At the same time, why did it take from March 20 to April 7 to get a valid hearing and detention order from a judge? They may call it 'Administrative Detention', but it is still an arrest -- he is not free to leave, and as ISawIt posted the cite from the Supreme Court, habeas corpus applies. A criminal arrest requires presentment to a court within 48-72 hours; AD should not be any longer, as they already have the requisite info to effect the arrest/detention; two plus weeks to put this in front of a judge is - IMHO - unconscionable, and violates his rights as a citizen.
If it's proven that he indeed is a 'sleeper', or assisted in some way beyond giving funds to what was an IRS-determined charity that will come out at the Grand Jury presentment. If his testimony, or the cases against those the feds wish to use him against fall through and a "No Bill" comes out of the Grand Jury, will he be compensated for the turmoil the feds put him and his family through?
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