April 4, 2003
Terrorism Task Force Detains an American Without Charges
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 WonderlandŽ 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.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company






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