New York Times
April 4, 2003
By TIMOTHY EGAN
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.
