'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.
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Poor, whitto Mikie. Ashcroft bad, Palestinians good.