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Time:
16:24 EST/21:24 GMT | News Source:
TechWeb |
Posted By: Alex Harris |
A former Intel Corp. employee plead guilty Wednesday (Aug. 6) to one count of collaborating to assist the Taliban during the U.S. war in Afghanistan in October 2001. Maher "Mike" Hawash faces a maximum 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine.
Hawash was arrested by federal authorities in an Intel parking lot in Hillsboro, Ore., on his way to work as a contract employee on the morning of March 20, 2003 and was held as a material witness for several weeks. A group that included many current and former Intel employees came to his assistance, staging rallies in Portland and creating a web site that generated about $20,000 for his legal defense.
As part of a plea bargain now posted on that web site, Hawash admitted he traveled with five other Portland residents to Kashgar and Beijing in October 2001 seeking entry to Pakistan to assist the Taliban in its war with the U.S. When the group could not gain entry to Pakistan, Hawash returned to Portland but later sent one member of the group $2,000.
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#1 By
20 (67.9.179.51)
at
8/10/2003 12:48:09 AM
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There are 10-15 million Muslims in America (estimated, of course). Of those, the CIA estimates that 5-10% practice the fanatic Wahhabist style "Islam" (just like there are whackos that consider themselves "Christian", there are whackos who consider themselves "Islamic", and yes I know that the term Wahhabi is semi-generic and means a lot of things, but you know what I'm talking about).
Now here is where the facts lie mostly unknown. A good estimate is that perhaps <5% of those are militant or supportive of militants and are very sympathetic to Al Q'eda. That's 25,000 people, worst case. Many of these people live near the West Coast in northern California and in Oregon. So far, most of the arrests of suspected terrorists or collaborators have come from Portland and the surrounding area. But, at last count, I heard the total number of suspected terrorists in custody is something like 2000-2500 (that may be old, forgive me).
That means that there are something on the order of 10,000 or more people who are either sympathetic (collaborators, contributors, or terrorists themselves) living within the United States. Many are naturalized citizens and speak perfect English. They probably have a wife and kids and go to work every day just like you and me.
Now, I know ya'll think the DHS is just spreading fear and I get nervous about what they say as well, but we're in a war and every day you know Osama Bin Laden and what top officials he has left are putting out the word and are planning every day.
It makes you wonder just how many attempts to commit a terrorist act within the US are foiled every month or quarter either in the early planning stages or in the late stages. It also makes you wonder what else is coming.
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#2 By
12461 (64.91.108.136)
at
8/10/2003 7:20:07 PM
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#3, you're on the second rinse cycle with no more spins left.
This post was edited by mfaccone on Sunday, August 10, 2003 at 19:20.
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#3 By
8062 (68.107.23.145)
at
8/10/2003 10:17:55 PM
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#6 Did you add softner?
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#4 By
20 (67.9.179.51)
at
8/10/2003 11:35:37 PM
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The black heliocopters are coming!!! RUN!!!
Ok, now that he's gone...
Look, I don't deny that the Bush family may have had some relationship with the Bin Laden family in the past. I mean, from what I hear, they are one of the largest heavy contractors in the middle east and played a large part in rebuilding Kuwait (ironically).
But a reasonable person would also note that Bin Laden has been mostly exiled from his family, so business dealings with his family doesn't necessarily mean business dealings with Bin Laden.
Also, in the 1980s, there were several influential people in Congress (see book Charlie's War, I think it's called) who believed that by Afghanistan would be The Soviet Union's Vietnam and could bring about the fall of the Evil Empire. Liberals would note the irony that Reagan mostly disagreed with this philosophy. From what I understand, he thought that the US might get too involved and lead to escalations between the US and USSR.
These Congresspeople managed to secure funding for the Mujahadeen (sp?) in Afghanistan to keep giving the USSR a bloody nose (note that the USSR funded and provided arms to the Viet Cong and Communist sypmathizers in Cambodia and Laos too).
Bin Laden led several offensives and commanded the defense of several key locations in the war and it made him a huge warrior hero among the Afghanis and Arabs around the world. Using this hero status, he launched his movement, Al Qaeda. He was emboldened and given more credibility when the US ousted Iraq from Kuwait and US soldiers remained behind in Saudi Arabia (nevermind at the invitation of the Saudis).
So technically, the US could be somewhat responsible for Bin Laden, but the question is, would he have become a hero without the US involvement? I think so. I don't think our supplying arms to the Mujahadeen had much affect on the war since their tactics were guerilla and terrorist in nature. Whether we supplied them arms or not wouldn't have affected the outcome much. So the blame-America-first kooks just don't know what the hell they're talking about.
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#5 By
135 (208.186.90.91)
at
8/11/2003 3:58:33 AM
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daz - "The black heliocopters are coming!!! RUN!!! "
Uh huh. This coming from the guy who still promotes the conspiracy stories surrounding the Clinton Presidency.
I chuckle every time I see you try to distance yourself from mhfm, considering you didn't have any problem with his rhetoric back in 2000 when he was calling the Democrats godless communists.
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#6 By
135 (208.186.90.91)
at
8/11/2003 4:16:38 AM
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Oh, and BTW. It's Charlie Wilson's War.
http://www.charliewilsonswar.com/index.html
He was on CNN recently in an interview with Novak...
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0306/21/smn.11.html
The most interesting quote is the one towards the bottom about bin Laden.
"And also, I'd like to lay to rest one other myth, and that is that the Osama bin Ladens of the world were fighting alongside the jihad. There was not a Wahhabi Saudi anywhere where there was gunfire. They were back in the caves, writing checks and giving advice, but there were no Saudis -- there were no Saudis fighting these Russians. "
But I do find it interesting that daz is now admitting that it was the Democrats who caused the USSR to collapse, and not Reagan as he previously espoused before. Charlie Wilson was a Texas Democrat.
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