(Is McGready still at intel? I saw a news item that referred to him as "former VP" at Intel.)
This guy is not some random victim- there's a reason he was taken in at this particular time, and in this particular manner, and a reason why they arranged the catch in such a way that if he had been armed, no citizen and no family member would be hurt. And there's a reason he had so much trouble getting into this country that he needed some behind the scenes help, and it may have to do with questions about his real identity.
I will assume he is innocent for the time being, but I do not think anyone associated with those two mosques who dumps that much cash on a charity does not know much about it and doesn't know one of its cofounders headed a mosque he attended. I wonder if he donated to any other charities or if it was just that one? I was burned while trying to stay open minded about Sami Al Arian because of my concerns about the use of secret evidence- and so was Bush, as a matter of fact. So I do not for one moment think the administration is trying to do anything wrong with this guy, or would even want to.
Additional information:
The FBI released a press release on March 20, the very day Hawash was taken into custody. The press release was made regarding FOUR search warrants in the Portland area it specifically said were related to an ongoing terrorism case in Oregon but were not related to the then-ongoing FBI inquiries of Iraqi citizens. See below:
MARCH 20, 2003 : (FBI PRESS RELEASE POSSIBLY ON HAWASH, RELEASED AT THE SAME TIME THE FBI WAS CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS OF IRAQI CITIZENS BUT ACCORDING TO FBI, NOT RELATED TO THEM)
For Immediate Release
Date: March 20, 2003
Contact: Special Agent Jerry Hill
(503) 229-9870 (pager)
Joint Terrorism Task Force Searches
Charles Mathews III, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), of the FBI in Oregon, and Michael Mosman, U.S. Attorney for Oregon, announced today that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), executed four federal search warrants in the Hillsboro, Oregon, area at approximately 7:00AM on Thursday, 03/20/2003. The Hillsboro Police Department also assisted in these activities. These searches were related to an ongoing investigation which is continuing in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.
The searches were not related to the FBI’s interviews of Iraqi citizens which are being conducted due to the outbreak of war with Iraq. Since the search warrants are sealed, the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office will have no further comment.
******************************************************
It's interesting that there were FOUR searches in the Hillsboro area but the press only mentions what, two? Where were the others and who was involved? Are they all of places linked to Hawash? why didn't the press bother to find out? OR did they find out and decide not to mention it?
Also, some interesting information on Global Relief Foundation (It also goes by another name, an Arabic one) since GRF relates to Hawash in some fashion. I DON'T buy the idea that Hawash just heard about Global Relief from some traveling reprisentative. The cofounder is a local, right at the Islamic Center of Portland:
(INFO ON GRF)
Source- "Feds tie Kariye’s charity to al-Qaida : Global Relief Foundation accused of funding terror; lawyer says sheik cut ties to the group years ago ," BY JIM REDDEN , Portland Tribune, October 22 2002
A Muslim charity co-founded by Sheik Muhamed Abdirahman Kariye of Portland officially has been accused by the federal government of funding the al-Qaida terrorist network. Kariye has not been charged with any crime related to the charity, the Global Relief Foundation.
On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department formally declared the Global Relief Foundation to be a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist." The federal government had frozen its assets last December.
Stanley Cohen, Kariye’s New York attorney, said the designation is nothing but politics. Cohen insisted that the government has no new evidence against the charity. "They have only been charged in the court of John Ashcroft and the news media," Cohen said.
But terrorism expert Matthew Levitt said the designation is long overdue. "It’s a terrorist organization through and through," said Levitt, a retired FBI analyst who now serves as a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. Levitt told a congressional subcommittee in August that the foundation was part of a network of Muslim charities that helped finance global terrorism.
Kariye is the religious leader of the Islamic Center of Portland, also known as Masjed As-Saber, in Southwest Portland. The center is being investigated by the Portland FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Kariye was arrested Sept. 13 by the task force on two counts of Social Security fraud. He was released Oct. 11 on $250,000 bail.
Kariye and four other Muslims founded the charity in Chicago Ridge, Ill., in December 1992. Kariye also was listed as a director in the foundation’s first annual report.
Cohen insists that Kariye has not been involved with the Global Relief Foundation for nearly a decade. "He was one of a number of founders and hasn’t been involved in its activities for eight to 10 years," Cohen said.
The $5 million-a-year foundation is one of the largest Muslim charities in the country. It has its headquarters in Bridgeview, Ill., and has satellite offices in Pakistan, Belgium and France. Much of its money has gone to health clinics in Israeli-occupied territories, refugee camps in Kosovo and mosques and Muslim schools in the United States.
The federal government has long suspected that the charity also has helped fund al-Qaida. Among other things, Treasury officials claim that a top al-Qaida financier named Mohammed Zouaydi has given more than $200,000 to the organization.
The government also claims that NATO forces found documents linking the foundation to al-Qaida when it raided the charity’s Kosovo offices in late December 2001.
The raid followed the arrest of a senior foundation official, Rabih Haddad, on charges that he overstayed his visa. Haddad was arrested last December on the same day the Treasury Department raided the organization’s headquarters and froze its assets.
Cohen says the terrorism designation is an attempt by the Bush administration to support Israel. "Israel has been trying to shut it down for years because it supports Palestinian causes," he said.
(end)
'Free Mike' Rallies Help Magnify Abuses in Ashcroft's America
Robyn Blumner
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
April 25, 2003
Sometimes, before an abusive government practice gains widespread attention, bad things have to happen to someone with this bio: American citizen, blond wife, adorable children, good job and high-status friends.That victim would be Maher "Mike" Hawash, a naturalized American of Palestinian descent who has been held in federal custody as a material witness to a terrorism investigation since March 20.
In an early morning raid, Hawash was seized by armed FBI agents in the parking lot of his workplace in Portland, Ore. His home was later searched for hours and four computers were confiscated. Hawash has since been held under maximum security conditions in a federal prison south of Portland.
No one who can talk knows why Hawash has been detained or what the FBI agents are looking into, although there is conjecture it might have something to do with his donations to a Muslim charity. Everyone directly associated with the case, including his lawyers, has been ordered by a judge not to speak about it.
But Hawash is lucky. Unlike other Muslim and Middle Eastern men who have found themselves in this predicament, Hawash has well-situated friends. As a former employee and now a contract software engineer for Intel Corp., Hawash has a wide cadre of associates in the computer industry. And they are not sitting on their hands. An Internet-driven information campaign (www. freemikehawash.org) and organized "free Mike" rallies have increased interest in his case and, as a result, in the way Attorney General John Ashcroft has been misusing the material witness statute.
[snip]
Poor, whitto Mikie. Ashcroft bad, Palestinians good.