FBI jails ex-Intel worker
By Matthew Yi for the SF Chronicle.

Hawash was picked up by FBI agents at about 7 a.m. on March 20 as he arrived at the parking lot for his job at Intel’s Hawthorne Farms office in Hillsboro, Ore., said Steven McGeady, Hawash’s former boss and friend, in a telephone interview with The Chronicle on Tuesday.
At about the same time, armed federal agents wearing bullet-proof vests stormed into Hawash’s home and seized his computers and files, said McGeady, who spoke with Lisa Hawash about the incident.
Hawash’s wife and their three young children were asleep when authorities arrived at their home, McGeady said.
“Lisa wasn’t taken into custody, but they seized all their computers, files and left her with a grand jury subpoena,” he said.
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said FBI agents also have searched Hawash’s cubicle and computer system at work.
Although Lisa Hawash has been able to visit her husband a couple of times a week, neither of them has been told by authorities why he is being detained, McGeady said…
Hawash, born in the West Bank city of Nablus, grew up in Kuwait, McGeady said. He arrived in the United States in 1984 to attend the University of Texas at Arlington, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.
Hawash became a U.S. citizen in 1988, a year before he graduated and landed his first job at Compaq Computers in Houston. He was soon transferred to Seattle.
In 1992, he was hired to work at Intel’s Multimedia Software Technology Group, said McGeady, who was Hawash’s boss at the time.
Hawash was laid off in 2001 but has since been working at Intel as a contract software engineer, he said.

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ACLU Criticizes Use Of Material Witness Law To Detain Hillsboro man

The American Civil Liberties Union today criticized the U.S. Justice Department

FBI, Joint Terrorism agents search home in Hillsboro
By Mark Larabee and Les Zaitz for the Oregonian.

A software designer was being held Thursday as a material witness in a terrorism investigation after FBI agents searched his Hillsboro home and his office at Intel.
According to neighbors and co-workers, Maher Mofeid Hawash, 38, was the target of Thursday’s searches by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Hawash was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on Thursday afternoon and put on a “material witness hold” at the request of the U.S. Marshal’s Service, a sheriff’s department spokesman said. A material witness designation allows the government to hold someone in order to compel testimony.
The FBI issued a short statement Thursday morning saying that in an “ongoing investigation,” the Joint Terrorism Task Force had executed four federal search warrants in the Hillsboro area and that the Hillsboro Police Department assisted in the searches.
Prosecutors and investigators refused to say who the target of their search was or what they were looking for. The federal search warrants filed in the case are sealed, meaning the information in them is secret. Asked whether anyone was taken into custody as a result of the searches, officials said they could not answer the question because of a court order.
Hawash’s neighbors on Northeast Aurora Drive said they saw several FBI agents arrive about 7 a.m. Thursday. They said the agents were there about four hours, removed several boxes from Hawash’s house and canvassed surrounding homes asking fairly routine questions about Hawash and his activities.
Two women who asked not to be identified said they’ve known Hawash and his wife, Lisa, for four years and consider them friends. They said the couple have three children and are good neighbors who socialize regularly at neighborhood functions, such as barbecues. The women said they never noticed anything out of the ordinary.
An Intel engineer contacted by The Oregonian said agents came to the company’s Hillsboro offices looking for Hawash on Thursday morning. He said he did not know why the agents were there.

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Oregonians: Show Your Support For Mike Hawash Monday Morning
I just spoke to Steven McGeady, the friend and former employer of Mike Hawash, a long-time US citizen who has been imprisoned under a secret warrant as a material witness by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Portland, Oregon.
So far Mike has been held for over 14 days (since Thu, March 20) in Oregon’s Sheridan Federal Prison.
He has been a U.S. citizen for 15 years, and lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years.
Mike is 38, and is married to a Roseberg, Oregon woman. They raise their three children in Hillsboro, Oregon where Mike worked as a software engineer at Intel Corp up until his arrest.
Mike’s finally getting a hearing this Monday morning at Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland, Oregon.
Mike’s friends and family ask that you show your support by gathering in front of the Federal Courthouse for a peaceful demonstration of support.
Important Note: It is important to not block the entrance to the Courthouse or get in the way of the cars driving in the street — because of anti-war protests, the police are on heightened alert, and we don’t want anyone to get in trouble.
A peaceful rally by well-mannered friends and supporters will show the Justice Department and media the depth of support for Mike, and our outrage over the trampling of his civil rights.
We expect Mike’s wife, Lisa, to come through on her way into the Courthouse.
Day: Monday, April 7, 2003
Time: 8:15-8:30 AM or so until about 9:15.
Mark Hatfield U.S. Courthouse
100 SW 3rd Ave
Corner of SW Salmon/3rd
Portland, OR
Parking is available nearby at 4th and Yamhill.
For those of you that don’t live in the Oregon area (like me), I’ll be posting a letter soon that you can FAX to your Reps and local newspapers over the weekend. Thanks!
For those of you who aren’t sure yet what all of the fuss is about, stay tuned on this blog-channel: much documentation to follow!