Former Intel Employee 'Disappeared' by U.S.

pmodern writes "Wired has this story about Maher "Mike" Hawash a former Intel programmer who is being held by the DOJ for suspected terrorism. Anyone familiar with the Kevin Mitnick saga will not be surprised that he hasn't been charged and has been locked away in solitary. 'For nearly two weeks, he has been held as a so-called "material witness" in solitary confinement in a federal lockup in Sheridan, Oregon. The designation allows authorities to hold him indefinitely without charging him with a crime.'" See also a NYT article and the Free Mike Hawash website.

Cheap Joke

[The_Rippa]

I wonder where the goverment got their "Intel" from.

No seriously folks, I'm here all week

There you go again.....

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

Thinking this is a free country. And for posting this we will need you to be a 'material witness' come along quietly and noone has to get hurt, much. :)

Re:Cheap Joke

[Smidge204]

Maybe that the floating point errors in those Pentium chips was really a plot to undermine the government's computer systems!
=Smidge=

Just In Case...

[4of12]

this story breaks the surface of the mainstream media to become a potential source of embarrassment about how the Land of the Free and the Home of Brave is treating detainess, then Plan B will be put into effect.

mumble, mumble, protecting citizens from terrorists, mumble, mumble, Arab descent, mumble, mumble, hacker, mumble, mumble.

and it will be time for a commercial break on CNN.

Re:Speaking as a Canadian

[siliconshock.com]

Lucky for you, you live in Canada or I would have you arrested on making Anti-american (terrorist) statements!!

New bumper sticker

[jvmatthe]

Free Kevin^H^H^H^H^HMike!

This extra long bumper sticker will go well on all those huge SUVs Americans enjoy so much.

We're fighting terrorism, right?

[cperciva]

After 9/11, Bush made two statements:
1. "Terrorists hate America because America is a land of freedom and opportunity."
2. "We intend to attack the root causes of terrorism."

Sounds like everything is going according to plan.

Re:Yay for America

[u-235-sentinel]

Unfortunaltey it's a spreading disease. If it can happen here why couldn't it happen somewhere else?

America is supposed to be the Home of the Free and Land of the Brave. At least it was until the last few years.

Makes you wonder why we are allowing our politicians to destroy what so many have worked to build.

Don't worry... some politician is probably reading this and getting ready to mod me down :-)

Xenophobe

[twitter]

I sincerely believe that the USA will become what it wants to be in it's belly - a xenophobic police state.

You only say that because you hate foreigners.

I'll say...

[mosch]

Helllooooo New Zealand!!

Re:Cheap Joke

[sporty]

I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.

[/kidding]

UPSA

[spoonist]

A sign I recently saw at JFK airport after returning from a trip abroad:

Welcome to the United Police States of Amerika

All fruits, vegetables, meat products, and inalienable rights must be declared to the Customers officer. In order to gain adminttance to the United Police States of Amerika, these products must be surrendered. Failure to comply will result in civil or criminal action.

Re:Speaking as a Canadian

[cybermace5]

Now look here, buddy. Our personal freedoms are nowhere near gone, while we still have a couch to sit on, a TV to watch, and pork rinds.

And we don't have that really annoying Canadumb accent? Where they end each sentence with a question?

And the caps with earflaps are not stylish, I'm sorry, someone just had to say it.

Re:Speaking as a Canadian

[RLiegh]

If you look at the numbers, Americans are statistically undecided about who they want to be president. Just about half of the people voted one way and the other half another.

Don't blame ME, I voted for KODOS.

Re:Yay for America

[hndrcks]

Don't worry - once the Reich has completely suppressed all opposition here, they will come to Canada looking for Lebensraum.

Not original, but worth repeating nevertheless...

[davebooth]

Land of the Free*

*Some restrictions apply. Void where prohibited

Re:Yeah. It's all a trap. 9/11 was faked.

[Thud457]

Let's see, fire up PROMIS [webcom.com] and hack into the camp X-Ray node from the Iraq secret police.
tick tic tickity type tic tick....
Here we go, he's being held in holding cell 44a, sub-level 4 on an "abandoned" oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

He's ok for now, but they're not letting him have any smokes. He hasn't even been given his entry processing interrogation yet.

So quit whining, or you're next!

U FLAMER

[GoodFun!!!!!!!!]

dont u no the economi is not bushs falt its the terrorits they crashed the WTC and recked all tha money bush only helped saddam befor cos he wsa good then now hes evil just like u and ur livberl commy frends u commy only BUSH and GOD can help us now becos BUSH is GODS CHOSEN LEADER when ur bruning in hel ul be sori

Re:Not a suspected terrorist

[buzzdecafe]

This is a problem for me. I have also sent money to an organization that has funded countless terrorist connections, and conducted assassinations and bombings all over the globe:

I paid my federal income taxes.

Re:Just In Case...

[Nightpaw]

and it will be time for a commercial break on CNN.

No, that's when Fox News cuts to the Operation Iraqi Freedom interstitial. Have you seen this thing? A fighter jet zooms towards you and turns into a fucking eagle. And then it screams.

I get so fired up when I see that, I just want to strangle some dirty foreigner with an American flag. USA RULES!!!!!1

Re:Democracy?

[NewWazoo]

Oh my GOD!

The USA is going to be invaded by the Ostogoths? I'd better move to Constantinople quick, then!

(rolls eyes)

Brandon

Re:Cheap Joke

[TopShelf]

According to the article, they grabbed it right from the parking lot outside the building!

And by the way, you can hardly say that this guy was "disappeared." Just look for the non-descript government building with the "Intel Inside" billboard...

Re:NYT article

[pmz]

...and graduated from the University of Texas.

This alone should put him Pres. George's "good guy" list. He'll be just fine.

Re:Mohammad Atta and the other 18 innocents

[Ravenscall]

You mean the DOJ run by the same guy who once said he thinks Dancing should be illegal and cannot win an election against a corpse???

I think I know better ;-)

How slippery of a slope?

[CoolGuySteve]

I believe we should examine each slope before we deem it to be "slippery" or un-"slippery". For example, is a slope inclined at 45 degrees slippery? I myself prefer to consider 30 degrees slippery since many elderly people and children would have problems with it.

And also, what makes it so slippery? Is there some kind of lubricant polluting our slope; is the slope made of some new space age low friction material? I won't even go into the logistics of bearings and wheels slippifying our slopes.

Some say we should abolish slippery slopes. I will go one step further and say we should abolish all slopes, slippery or not. Sure, my opponents might argue for solutions like treadplate or cleets but I say this only attacks the symptoms and not the inherent problem itself, that being a dangerously inclined slope.

This solution may seem infeasible, indeed the Earth is curved so followers of that new age "calculus" thing can say there will always be a slope at any point you chose. This is merely a formality, I say reduce the slope to make it unnoticible.

But what about the slipperyness you ask? This is indeed a grave question: many have been at the mercy of slippery surfaces, especially in northern countries. Humans have been in a battle with slipperyness for eons. We salt our icy roads, treadplate our submarine interiors and use rubber and latex grips on our expensive shoes. Even the Romans used sandles and concrete to protect against slipperyness as they expanded their vast empire to new heights of vastness. Indeed, if even the mighty Romans feared the foe of slipperyness, then we should also as well.

Our only hope is to seek new knowledge on the nature of slipperyness. Sticker and velcroe technology has advanced extraodrinarily in the last century and I can but marvel at where these technologies will take us. My only fear is when will we go too far? Are we doomed to one day be trapped in a quagmire of bland stickiness? Never to experience the dangerous rush of dealing with a slippery surface again? These questions are beyond my ability to answer.

These worries aside, I will reiterate: the inherent problem with slippery slopes are the slopes themselves. The slipperyness is beyond our capabilities to handle and yet our obsession with slipperiness can lead us into an Orwellian or even an AldousHuxleyian, LewisCarollian, or BobCostarific nightmare of sticky non-slip tethered surfaces. Action on this matter should be immediate as my tender rump can tolerate no more!

I have too much time on my hands.

Re:The U.S. government is increasingly corrupt.

[broter]

The U.S. government is becoming increasingly corrupt.

Are you suggesting that it ever had a negative slope?

</joke>

Re:The U.S. government is increasingly corrupt.

[TekPolitik]

Panama, 1989. The U.S. government called it "Operation Just Cause". The link is to a U.S. military web site

I think they misspelled this. Shouldn't it be "Operation Just 'Cause"?

Re:Wow

[kill -9 $$]

Its actually all to help the economy.

1) Make example of guy who donates to charity
2) Scare people into holding onto income
3) Tax people on said income
4) Profit.

Now they disappeared the support website!

[Kevin Burtch]

$ host www.freemikehawash.org
www.freemikehawash.org has address 0.0.0.0

What's next? The articles on Wired and NYT?

Re:Possibly true...

[Cruciform]

I'm starting a pool on how long before you disappear, now that you've said that.

"If, as You Say..."

[Euphonious Coward]

I'm reminded of a brilliant cartoon in the New Yorker some years back. It showed a couple of pandas in a cage, and one says, "If, as you say, it's no crime to be a panda, how do you explain the fact that we were arrested?"

Re:Depressingly, I predict that

[ATMAvatar]

Also, Keven was part of the "Hacker Community." Maher was a suit at Intel.

If only Maher had worked for AMD...

Ding Ding! We have a winner...!

[NoData]

..for understatement of the year!

and I think it's quite appropriate to seriously question such things as secret arrests.

Ya think?!

ATTENTION

[Mikeytsi]

It has come to our attention that you have used "Bush" and "legitimate target" in the same sentence. You are quite obviously a terrorist, and we would appreciate it if you would report to the nearest detention center, so that we don't have to go through the trouble of tracking you down and shooting you to death for "resisting arrest".

Have a nice day,...

Mental Illness Alert!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Anger problem.

Re:ATTENTION

[HeghmoH]

Well shit. I might as well toss some more gas on the fire, then.

President bomb nuclear chemical anthrax assassination gun Iraq Taliban hacker encryption FBI plutonium reactor.

Whee....

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:I know one thing

[t_allardyce]

Me too, im sure me and allot of other people are already criminals in the USA - personally, ive already "threatened" the president and burnt the flag, so im for the chair if i ever set foot there.

Here are the comments that slashdot removed because i suggested that a laser gun could be used to kill bush, (you might have to take the %20's out if it wraps to a new line):

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=28127&thresh ol d=-1&commentsort=1&tid=126&mode=nested&cid=3023341

Re:Fu-turd power had a nice article.

[Paradise Pete]

Violance can prevent things, it is often a deterrant.

Start spelling better or I'll beat the crap out of you.