Maher Hawash, an Intel software engineer whose detention in Oregon prompted high-profile protests about civil rights abuse, pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of conspiring to help the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In return for his promise to testify against six other Portland-based suspects accused of plotting in 2001 to wage war against the United States, federal prosecutors dropped more serious terrorism charges against Hawash, who worked for Intel for more than a decade before his detention in March.
Hawash, known as "Mike," expects to serve seven to 10 years in prison and will cooperate fully in next January's trial of the other suspects, said his lawyer, Stephen Houze, in a telephone interview. Hawash faced more than 20 years in prison on the charges that have been dropped. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft approved the deal.
The detention of Hawash, 38, who was born on the West Bank and became a U.S. citizen 13 years ago, angered many of his longtime friends at Intel. They demonstrated outside a federal courthouse in Portland and organized a media campaign that garnered considerable national attention.
They said his detention -- the FBI picked him up at an Intel parking lot and detained him without charge for five weeks -- was a violation of his civil rights and an affront to his family. Hawash lives in suburban Portland, and is married with three young children.
"Yes, your honor," Hawash said in federal court in Portland this morning, when U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones asked if Hawash and the others in his group of alleged conspirators had been "prepared to take up arms and die as martyrs if necessary to defend the Taliban government in Afghanistan."
Hawash also acknowledged the truth
of government charges that he traveled with others from Portland to China
in October 2001, in an unsuccessful attempt to enter Pakistan and Afghanistan
to fight against U.S. forces.