Mike Hawash Update
The Portland man and Intel software engineer who has been jailed for more than a month as a material witness to something secret, has finally been charged with a crime. Mike Hawash stands accused of aiding the Portland Six's fight against the U.S. government.
It is hard to tell from reading the government's 42-page affidavit on the charges if the government regards Hawash as the seventh member of the terror cell. Most of the document is taken up with describing the amateurish attempts at jihad by the Six.
The case seems to boil down to the claim that Hawash went to China with the Six with the intent of getting into Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. Hawash's supporters, of course, say the case is very weak.
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It is irrelevant if he is guilty or innocent. He is a citizen and is entitled to his rights.
(He would have been in better legal shape if he had been accused of eating babies.)
Having just read the affidavit (which I recommend everyone do), I think the case is pretty weak. 90% of the affidavit has nothing to do with Hawash. If the facts stated in the affidavit are true, then Hawash had some contact with other people who may be guilty of these crimes, but nothing in the affidavit shows that Hawash committed them.
The affidavit's a little weird overall. Numerous anonymous sources and "secret" witnesses are cited, but I put secret in quotes because half the time, you would have to be pretty stupid not to be able to figure out who it was. There are several factual errors and a lot of just plain sloppy writing and thinking: an SKS is not an "assault rifle" (a "7.62 assault rifle", at that), CPU does not stand for "computer processing unit" and what McCartney is talking about isn't a CPU anyway, Dunkin' Donuts is rendered as "Dunkin Doughnuts", one of the witnesses identified some suspects as "black males who looked like ninjas" (?). Some of the sources are paid informants. There are some interesting comments regarding calls made to the FBI, too: people called because they found some paper with Arabic writing in the garbage, or because a Middle Eastern guy had been less friendly lately. Just in case you had any doubt that your neighbors were being encouraged to rat you out on the slightest suspicion...
I can't believe I emailed Craig Barrett (Intel CEO) about this when I read it first in hit & run. Patience and skepticism would have saved me the foot in the mouth. But, a "not guilty" can still salvage me.
Yeah, it's unbelievable what the gubmint's been up to. Government probes allegedly targeted against people on political grounds, willy-nilly conspiracy theories, folks getting sent to Cuba against their will...
What is this, the Clinton years?
The lefty Portlanders are eating shit today as their beloved terror supporter/Jihadist, Maher "Mike" (oh yea, he talks good, he seems like a nice guy, he snagged an American wife) pleads guilty....
Gee, even though Mike was supporting those who want to blow up American civilians, be interesting to see if these lefty self-righteous gullible idiots will still support this fuckin Jihadist...
Free "mike" and watch him blow up a few busses of Portland schoolchildren...for Allah