Sun 30 Jan 2005
(Dr. Dhafir’s indictment can be viewed from the Homepage)
From: The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Dismantled the Bill of Rights
Elaine Cassel
Lawrence Hill Books 2004
Chapter 2 The War in the Courts
Discussing The Portland Seven
…The case against the Bilal brothers and four other defendants was made possible partly due to the cooperation with the government of Intel software engineer Maher Hawash, a Palestinian-born naturalized American citizen. Hawash was seized from his home in Portland, Oregon, area and held for months in an undisclosed location as a material witness. In exchange for his talking, the charge against him of conspiring to levy war against Americans was dismissed when he also pleaded guilty to conspiring to help al Qaeda and the Taliban. For planning to gain entry into Afghanistan, he is serving a seven-year prison term. Patrice Lamumba Ford and Jeffrey Battle also pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to eighteen years for conspiracy to levy war against the United States. Battle’s former wife, October Martinique Lewis, was convicted of wiring money to her husband and the other defendants.
Hawah’s case gained notoriety when he disappeared from his home and did not report to work for Intel. Friends and co-workers were shocked at the results. They could not imagine Hawash being involved in any terrorism. Nor was there any proof that he was a terrorist. Conspiracy charges are easy for the government to make-and that is why, if appropriate, most indictments contain a conspiracy count. (e.g., conspiring to levy war against the United States) as well as charges of overt criminal acts (in this case, waging war against the United states with the Taliban). Any overt act to try to bring about an arguable unlawful action can be charged as a conspiracy. Still, the result for Hawash and his codefendants were draconian for people who never entered Afghanistan or took up arms against the United States.