Mike Hawash is still in jail
Jul. 5th, 2005 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusOn March 10th, 2003, Mike Hawash, a U.S. citizen and programmer at Intel was arrested by the FBI in the Intel parking lot. He was held for almost two months without being charged with anything. In solitary confinement, to keep him from talking to the press.
Due to persistent efforts by his family, friends, and, most importantly, lawyer, a judge finally signed an order giving the justice department until April 30 2003 to either formally charge him, allow him a trial, or set him free.
So, on April 29th, they finally did charge him. With conspiracy to commit terrorism and acts against the United States.
There were three crucial pieces of "evidence" against him:
1. A neighbor found a copy of "The Martyrs Will" in the trash bin in his apartment complex. As this was Hillsboro, Oregon, it wasn't hard to find the only person who could read Arabic in the complex.
2. He traveled to China in 2002 with several other people, carrying camping gear purchased from G.I. Joes (a local camping/hunting/fishing chain).
3. Two of the people he had traveled with had been caught firing collectors firearms in a rock quarry in Oregon. The FBI claims that these people were, therefore, training to fight for Al-Qaeda. Collecting antique rifles (one was a black-powder rifle!) and firing them in abandoned rock quarries is perfectly legal in Oregon, by the way.
The federal "justice" system told him that the charges would carry a 20-year jail term, but offered him a choice: he could either try to fight the charges, prove his innocence (since there was no evidence of an actual crime, it might be possible, though not likely in the present climate). If he failed, then he would go to jail for 20 years, and his wife would also be arrested, face up to 20 years herself, and their children would be given into custody of the state (to be placed, no doubt, in a good Christian home away from his evil Muslim influence.)
However, if he pled guilty, they would give him only a five-year sentence. Oh, yeah, and he still wouldn't be allowed to talk to the press.
He took the deal. What would you have done? The fact that, in the end, he cared more about his wife and his children than about five years of his own life is not proof that he is a Terrorist. Yet, despite any compelling evidence that he had any intention of joining Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (which is, according to justice department, near China, therefore, that's where he must have been trying to get to), he pled guilty and remains in jail to this day.
I believed it was wrong at the time. I still believe it's wrong, and I think, on this day after the day we're supposed to be remembering our freedom, it's important to remember those who no longer have any.
By the way, a while before he was arrested, the most high-profile arrest with no charges was a man named Jose Padilla, who has still not been charged with anything, given a trial, or even a lawyer, and was transfered to Guatanamo Bay to keep him away from the press and courtroom. According to the official press releases, he had been overheard talking about the possibility of creating a "dirty bomb". Never made any attempt to actually build one, or even obtain any explosives or radioactive material, but it was enough to be considered conspiracy to commit terrorism, and sent to jail for life with no trial. At the time of his arrest, Bush made a speech bragging about 2400 other people who had been likewise captured. Since their names or locations were never released to the public, who knows how many people have been similarly Disappeared.
Anyway, I just thought it was important to remember Mike, and all the rest, who've had their liberties illegally and suddenly snatched away by a repressive paranoid regime. Despite all the new scandals coming out, it's important to remember the old atrocities, too. Mike Hawash is still in jail. His children still have no father present. This is still an atrocity, depite the events happening two years ago and therefor out of the memory of the american press.
Due to persistent efforts by his family, friends, and, most importantly, lawyer, a judge finally signed an order giving the justice department until April 30 2003 to either formally charge him, allow him a trial, or set him free.
So, on April 29th, they finally did charge him. With conspiracy to commit terrorism and acts against the United States.
There were three crucial pieces of "evidence" against him:
1. A neighbor found a copy of "The Martyrs Will" in the trash bin in his apartment complex. As this was Hillsboro, Oregon, it wasn't hard to find the only person who could read Arabic in the complex.
2. He traveled to China in 2002 with several other people, carrying camping gear purchased from G.I. Joes (a local camping/hunting/fishing chain).
3. Two of the people he had traveled with had been caught firing collectors firearms in a rock quarry in Oregon. The FBI claims that these people were, therefore, training to fight for Al-Qaeda. Collecting antique rifles (one was a black-powder rifle!) and firing them in abandoned rock quarries is perfectly legal in Oregon, by the way.
The federal "justice" system told him that the charges would carry a 20-year jail term, but offered him a choice: he could either try to fight the charges, prove his innocence (since there was no evidence of an actual crime, it might be possible, though not likely in the present climate). If he failed, then he would go to jail for 20 years, and his wife would also be arrested, face up to 20 years herself, and their children would be given into custody of the state (to be placed, no doubt, in a good Christian home away from his evil Muslim influence.)
However, if he pled guilty, they would give him only a five-year sentence. Oh, yeah, and he still wouldn't be allowed to talk to the press.
He took the deal. What would you have done? The fact that, in the end, he cared more about his wife and his children than about five years of his own life is not proof that he is a Terrorist. Yet, despite any compelling evidence that he had any intention of joining Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (which is, according to justice department, near China, therefore, that's where he must have been trying to get to), he pled guilty and remains in jail to this day.
I believed it was wrong at the time. I still believe it's wrong, and I think, on this day after the day we're supposed to be remembering our freedom, it's important to remember those who no longer have any.
By the way, a while before he was arrested, the most high-profile arrest with no charges was a man named Jose Padilla, who has still not been charged with anything, given a trial, or even a lawyer, and was transfered to Guatanamo Bay to keep him away from the press and courtroom. According to the official press releases, he had been overheard talking about the possibility of creating a "dirty bomb". Never made any attempt to actually build one, or even obtain any explosives or radioactive material, but it was enough to be considered conspiracy to commit terrorism, and sent to jail for life with no trial. At the time of his arrest, Bush made a speech bragging about 2400 other people who had been likewise captured. Since their names or locations were never released to the public, who knows how many people have been similarly Disappeared.
Anyway, I just thought it was important to remember Mike, and all the rest, who've had their liberties illegally and suddenly snatched away by a repressive paranoid regime. Despite all the new scandals coming out, it's important to remember the old atrocities, too. Mike Hawash is still in jail. His children still have no father present. This is still an atrocity, depite the events happening two years ago and therefor out of the memory of the american press.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 01:00 am (UTC)But that's just me.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=22979
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 03:25 am (UTC)Sure, he came out with a confession: after being kept in solitary confinement for a couple of months, and as part of a plea-bargain in which the charges against him were sharply reduced and the investigation of his wife dropped.
Back in the 80's when the "material witness" statute was first introduced, many people were against it, pointing out that its open-endedness could potentially be used by a later administration to keep prisoners in jail indefinitely without having enough evidence to charge them for a crime. Guess what?
Who knows, maybe Mike Hawash really is a terrorist. I doubt it, but it's possible. The way to deal with him, then, would be to have a trial, present the evidence, let him try to defend himself, and, if guilty then he, and everyone who knew and helped, should be locked up for as long as possible. If they thought they had anything against his wife, they shouldn't have dropped their investigation into her. If they didn't, they shouldn't have been threatening her if he didn't play along.
Civil rights are important. A speedy, fair, and perhaps most importanly, public, trial by a jury of your peers is important. And this is just one case. Bush bragged about their being 2400 others just like it. But, since the arrests are secret, the evidence is secret, and the trial, if there even is one, is done in secret, we'll never know how many there really are. That we can even had secret arrests and trials with secret evidence is a crime against everything America is supposed to stand for, a violation of our most sacred tenets, and part of the reason we broke away from the British in the first place.