August 07, 2003
rant of the week
You might not have caught this (in between the Kobe and Arnold news), but Mike Hawash, the Intel Engineer whose detention without charge back in April sparked dozens of protests* (and thousands of mentions on the Internet, including on this very site) has pled guilty to a "federal charge of conspiring to help the Taliban in Afghanistan." I can only imagine how this is going to play. Ashcroft supporters will start screaming "See, See!!" and all the civil libertarians who supported the man will look like fools.
I feel sorry for Hawash's friends, who banded together to create a website and seek funds for his defense, for his wife and children, who are waking up to find a man they probably never knew, for American Muslims, who inherit another liar and terrorist whom they have to dissociate with, and for all those who may be unrightfully detained in the future--few will be inclined to believe them now, even if they are held without having the right to know the charges against them. What a waste.
*I still think it was wrong of the FBI to hold Hawash for so long without charging him and without access to his lawyers. But there you have it.
Update: Tarek has some caveats to that plea, worth reading. Via Tacitus.
Pled? Surely pleaded?
Posted by: Larry Lurex on August 8, 2003 06:33 AMFrom Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913):
Pled \Pled\,
imp. & p. p. of Plead [Colloq.] --Spenser.
I don't feel sorry for his "friend". They will quickly regroup and find some other "injustice"
Posted by: Stan LS on August 9, 2003 10:05 AMPost a comment
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