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Asher
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Calgary, Alberta
Nov 1999
time: 22:27
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From the NYT:
quote:
PORTLAND, Ore., April 3 — For the last two weeks, Maher Hawash, a 38-year-old software engineer and American citizen who was from the West Bank and grew up in Kuwait, has been held in a federal prison here, though he has not been charged with a crime or brought before a judge.
Relatives and friends of Mr. Hawash, who works for the Intel Corporation and is married to a native Oregonian, say he has no idea why he was arrested by a federal terrorism task force when he arrived for work at the Intel parking lot in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb. The family home was raided at dawn on the same day by nearly a dozen armed police officers, who woke Mrs. Hawash and the family's three children, friends said.
Mr. Hawash, who is known as Mike, has yet to be interrogated and is being kept in solitary confinement, his supporters say.
Federal officials will not comment on Mr. Hawash, though they have been pressed by Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and by a group of supporters led by a former Intel vice president, for basic information about why he is being detained.
In a statement after his arrest, the F.B.I. said he was being held as a material witness in an "ongoing investigation" by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Federal search warrants in the case are sealed.
The case has drawn the attention of civil liberties groups nationwide, who say Mr. Hawash's case is an example of how the Bush administration is holding a handful of American citizens without offering them normal legal protection.
Although at least two American citizens are being held without normal legal rights as "enemy combatants," Mr. Hawash has not been categorized as such. As a material witness, he is being held to compel testimony. But supporters say he has not been told anything about what the government may want from him.
"Our friend has fallen into some kind of `Alice in Wonderland' meets Franz Kafka," said Steven McGeady, the former Intel executive, who started a legal defense fund and a Web site for Mr. Hawash.
"You hear about this happening in other countries and to immigrants and then to American citizens," Mr. McGeady went on. "And finally you hear about it happening to someone you know. It's scary."
Mr. Hawash's family thought at first that his arrest was connected to two donations he made three years ago to an Islamic charity, Global Relief Foundation, whose assets were frozen last year when federal authorities said it was linked to terrorism. But now relatives say the contributions may not be related to his arrest, and he may be asked to testify about six people charged here last year with aiding terrorism.
Asked about the charitable donations — which totaled a little more than $10,000 — Mr. Hawash told the local newspaper, The Oregonian, in November: "We believed that they are doing good work. It's a well-known organization."
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."
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the courts have made conflicting rulings on the legality of holding material witnesses without charging them. A federal judge in Manhattan, Shira A. Scheindlin, said such detentions were "an illegitimate use of the statute," but another ruling in the same court, by Chief Judge Michael B. Mukasey, said detaining witnesses to compel testimony was a legitimate investigative tool.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has defended the tactic, saying it is "vital to preventing, disrupting or delaying new attacks."
The Justice Department has not said how many Americans have been held without charges in terrorism investigations since Sept. 11. Civil liberties groups say they believe the number is about 20, though most are not American citizens.
Mr. Hawash, who was born in Nablus in the West Bank, first came to the United States in 1984, his family said, and graduated from the University of Texas. He became an American citizen in 1988. He is married to Lisa Hawash, a native of Roseburg, Ore. The Web site set up by supporters, freemikehawash.org, founded by two former Intel executives, shows a picture of Mr. Hawash's wife and three children.
Mr. Hawash has worked at Intel since 1992, though he was laid off in 2001 and rehired as a contract employee. Mr. McGeady, his boss there, 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.
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Booooo. 
Why is this **** legal?
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MichaeltheGreat
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Apolyton Grand Executioner
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mooning the house that Ruth built.
Oct 1999
time: 21:27
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quote:
Originally posted by Oerdin
Most of these panic pieces never pan out. I have a dollar that this is a bit of muck racking and this guy is still with in the legal time period where citizens can be detained for questioning. |
A person can be detained without charges for a very short period of time, depending on the statute used as a basis for detention.
According to recent rulings on the material witness statute, as used by Ashcroft and buds, indefinite detention without trial, access to attorneys, or contact with family members is now "legal" if it can be claimed to be connected with an ongoing investigation.
Previously, material witness warrants were used when the party's testimony would be needed within a reasonable period of time, and when the party affected was shown to be a flight risk. Material witness warrants have not been traditionally used when there is no date, and no basis for even setting a date, for the "testimony" of the party detained.
Meanwhile, what happens? Does this guy continue drawing a paycheck, or does his mortgage company say "hey, that's cool, don't worry about your bills?" Anyone detained under the Ashcroftian interpretation can be utterly and completely ****ed into the ground, as can their family, without ever being charged with a crime. Hell, who needs those pesky details like defense counsel, judges and juries, or even grand juries, for that matter? Let's just let the Department of "Justice" make whatever decisions it wants unilaterally.
Ja wohl!
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Lord Merciless
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Could that recently captured dude in Pakistan have something to do with this case?
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MRT144
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Seattle Washington
Oct 2002
time: 21:27
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i like how UR does it the correct way
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LoneWolf
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And we didn't beat him too? Like would happen in Bagdad, for example. Too bad.
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Guynemer
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quote:
Originally posted by LoneWolf
And we didn't beat him too? Like would happen in Bagdad, for example. Too bad. |
Pathetic.
I'm interested into what prompted you to take that handle, if you'd be so kind.
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