Norman Kelley The War at Home
The United States will win the war (and that means, Inshallah, the end of Saddam Hussein), but it'll probably lose the peace if it stays longer than it should or tries to set up a puppet regime. More attention ought to be paid to a new war. No, not in Iran or North Korea (although they may be coming to a tv screen near you). The next war will be a war at home, and it has already begun against one citizen, Maher (Mike) Hawash.
Hawash, a naturalized citizen of 14 years and native of the West Bank as well as a former resident of Kuwait, is being held at federal prison in Portland, Oregon. His crime? Well, actually, he hasn't really committed one. According to the New York Times, he's being held by the FBI as a "material witness" for "an ongoing investigation." Hawash, a 38-year old software engineer, married, and the father of three children, was arrested in the parking lot of his job at Intel and has been held for nearly two weeks. On the morning that he was arrested his home was "raided at dawnŠby nearly a dozen armed police officers, who woke Mrs. Hawash and the family's three children, friends said." Hawash has "not been charged with a crime or brought before a judge."
Now this sounds like the sort of activity that a certain Iraqi regime engages in. Luckily for Hawash he won't experience Saddam's method of torture and humiliation. To a certain degree, however, Hawash is being subjected to an American form of "disappearing," where as a material witness he is being held to compel testimony and can be kept mostly incommunicado from counsel and his wife. It's a form psychological torture.
Hawash "may be asked to testify about six people charged [in Portland] last year with aiding terrorism." But according to his supporters, he has "not been told anything about what the government may want from him." As a material witness he could he held indefinitely, and if the Feds want to get real nasty because he does have rights as an American citizen he could be deemed an "enemy combatant" and still denied due process: counsel, habeas corpus, etc.
So, let's do a recap. A man is arrested but hasn't committed a crime. Under federal law he can been taken into custody to compel testimony for a crime he's not accused of; however, the government won't tell him what they want from him in the way of information. Yet the government raids his home and frightens his family. Federal officials won't even comment on the nature of his incarceration to a US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon.
Hawash's arrest and treatment is part of a disturbing trend under the Bush regime. The basic American right of due process is being perverted by the constant propagandizing of "national security" and the "war on terrorism." Hawash's form of arrest, secret evidence and testimony began in the Clinton administration, a regime that Nat Hentoff doesn't hold in high regard for civil liberties. After 9/11, Bush's minions took advantage of the nation's fear of terrorism to unleash a questionable war that has more to do with America's geopolitical interest and unmitigated power than security at home. Likewise, the fear of terrorism has allowed John Ashcroft to introduce a near carceral regime under the Patriot Act, and if you think that was a jackboot on the Constitution, visit the Center for Public Integrity and see Patriot Act II (Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003).
Finally, if you feel at lost because you can't save the Iraqis, redirect that grief and give a hand to Mike Hawash. The basic premise is this: even if accused of a crime, and according to the Times he hasn't been, the man's due process has been violated. He should be informed of what the government wants of him and allowed legal counsel, and if he hasn't committed a crime, he should not be in jail. There is a stealth war being waged by homegrown American jihadists that has to be acknowledged and confronted. The United States has become the postmodern Roman Empire, and like Rome a republic can lose its virtues and rights if they aren't jealously guarded and defended by an informed citizenry.