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Revision as of 20:43, 18 June 2006 by Anomicene (talk | contribs) (rv - see talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash is a Palestinian-born American engineer now serving a 7-year prison sentence for conspiring to aid the Taliban in fighting against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Six weeks after 9/11, Hawash had secretly traveled to China with six other Portland-area Muslims with the intent of entering Afghanistan to aid the Taliban there, although Hawash and his co-conspirators were unable to reach Afghanistan due to visa problems, according to federal authorities.,
Over a year later, after continuing to live and work near Portland, Hawash was arrested outside his office at Intel, setting off a heated debate about the USA Patriot Act and a movement to free Hawash. Hawash eventually plead guilty to conspiring to aid the Taliban and received a seven-year sentence.
Background
Mike Hawash was born in Nablus on December 12, 1964. Hawash attended the University of Texas at Arlington where he obtained degrees in computer science and engineering. In 1992, Hawash was hired by Intel and moved to Portland, Oregon.
In 1995, he married Lisa Ryan, a Christian and an Oregon native. Together, they had two children (Ryan having had a child from a previous marriage).
Hawash becomes an increasingly devout Muslim
Around 2000, Hawash began to drift towards a more fundamentalist Islam, in part as a reaction to the death of his father.
He grew a beard and covered his head with a prayer cap. He asked those who had known him for years as Mike to, please, call him Maher. He paid off the mortgage on his house, because Islam forbids paying interest on loans. And he became a regular at Masjed as-Saber, the Islamic Center of Portland, a more fundamentalist place of worship than the Bilal Mosque, which he previously attended and which was closer to his home.
Masjed as-Saber was a major donor to the Global Relief Fund, a Muslim charity "shut down in late 2001 over allegations of fund-raising and money-laundering for terrorist groups," and a charity to which Hawash had contributed $10,000.
After the 9/11 attacks, according to neighbors, Hawash became increasingly withdrawn and unfriendly. Hawash believed that Muslims could not have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and that "retaliation against the Taliban for harboring al Qaeda in Afghanistan was wrong."
Responding to a column by conservative columnist Dave Reinhard in the Oregonian, Hawash wrote a letter to the paper:
I suggest that … 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? (Oregonian, April 14, 2002)
Hawash and the co-conspirators
According to federal authorities, Hawash met his co-conspirators at his new mosque. These included Habis al Saoub, a Jordanian; Muhammad Bilal and his brother, Ahmed Bilal, Americans of Saudi heritage; as well as Jeffrey Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford, two African-American Muslims.
"The men began calling themselves muhajid and referring to Saoub as their emir. They adopted the name Katibat al Mawt -- The Squad of Death."
Hawash traveled alone to China, meeting up with the other five men. After numerous unsuccessful attempts by the group to obtain visas to get into Afghanistan, Hawash returned to the United States.
Arrest and detention
On March 20, 2003, federal authorities arrested Hawash in the parking lot of Intel. He is reported to have said, “I’ve been expecting you.”
There was a simultaneous search of his house by armed FBI agents. Hawash's wife, Lisa Ryan, and their three children were present. Ryan told authorities that Hawash had been in China on business.
Hawash was first held only as a material witness. He refused to testify before a grand jury, invoking his Fifth Amendment right. He was eventually charged with traveling to China to aid the Taliban.
Hawash as cause célèbre
Hawash became a cause célèbre due to the nature of his arrest: he was held in solitary confinement and with limited access to attorneys for over five weeks under a material witness warrant and evidence against him was sealed and presented in closed court. This sparked some elements of the controversy surrounding Hawash's arrest and detention.
Hawash's former boss, Intel Vice-President Steven McGeady, led a group of former Intel employees, including Rohan Coehlo and Debbie Burke, who protested Hawash detention without charge and demanded his release. They staged protests and set up a defense fund and (now defunct) website at "freemikehawash.org." The New York Times quoted McGeady describing Hawash's pre-trial detention as "Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka" .
After Hawash was formally charged, McGeady, acting as spokesman for Hawash's family, said "People who know Mike believe the idea that Mike would have fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan is completely absurd and that he ultimately will be cleared" and “We hope that once a jury hears what happened, they’ll realize that a mistake was made.”
Hawash's attorney, Stephen Houze said “It’s our intention to shed the light of day on what has been a dark cloud of secrecy,” stating that he would use his pre-trial discovery powers to compel the United States to declassify any evidence it plans to use in the case. “This is America,” he added. “We have an open court system.”
Hawash garnered wide support from former Intel colleagues and civil libertarians, culminating in a large protest outside Portland's Federal Courthouse. Hawash's supporters were criticized by conservative opinion columnist Reinhard for misrepresenting Hawash by posting an older photo of a clean-shaven photo and by referring the him a "Mike" Hawash, when he had been using his Arab name "for about three years". McGeady replied, commenting that Reinhards view "judge people by the way they look, rather than by the content of their character."
Evidence against Hawash
Some of the evidence against and the Portland Seven was gathered by Khalid Mustafa, a "small-time criminal" who infiltrated Hawash's mosque and recorded conversations with Battle.
Mustafa's wire picked up details of the group's trip to China, as well as some of the most chilling detail in the indictment -- Battle talking about retaliating against Jews in Portland. "So if every time they hurt or harm a Muslim over there, you go into that synagogue and hurt one over here," Battle said on tape.
The most significant evidence against Hawash and the Portland Seven was gathered (under provisions from the Patriot Act) from emails the men had sent each other.
Sentencing
In August 2003, Hawash surprised his supporters by pleading guilty to one charge in exchange for a reduced sentence.
According to Fox News:
Hawash pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiring to levy war against the United States and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism.
"You and the others in the group were prepared to take up arms, and die as martyrs if necessary, to defend the Taliban. Is this true?" U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones asked Hawash during the hearing.
In his allocution at sentencing he noted he had misgivings on the way and come home shortly afterward. Hawash received a seven-year sentence (as opposed to a potential twenty-year sentence) in exchange for testifying against some of his co-conspirators. Sentencing Judge Jones commented to Hawash at his sentencing that "I'm convinced that you will never again commit a criminal act."
The other living members of the Portland Seven were also sentenced in separate trials: Habis al Saoub was never captured and has been confirmed dead by authorities in Afghanistan. Ford and Battle are each serving eighteen-year sentences. Lewis. who did not travel with the group, was sentenced to three years in a work camp. Muhammad Bilal received an eight-year sentence, while Ahmed Bilal got ten years.
Aftermath
According to Charles Gorder, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, "This was an important case in the battle against terrorism. It's one example of a number of cases around the country where a small group of people are enamored of the concept of violent jihad. These people are dangerous. They need to be stopped."
Reactions among Hawash's supporters were mixed. His supporters offered to return contributions to Hawash's defense fund, though no one took them up on the offer. Hawash's supporters were criticized by Dave Reinhard in the Oregonian on August 7, 2003 for refusing to accept responsibility for their mistakes. Steven McGeady denied these criticisms in a letter to Reinhard, defending Hawash's supporters, saying they protested only his five-week "material witness" detention and asked "for nothing other for him than the same justice that any American would receive".