] A software designer was being held Thursday as a material
] witness in a terrorism investigation after FBI agents
] searched his Hillsboro home and his office at Intel.
]
] According to neighbors and co-workers, Maher Mofeid
] Hawash, 38, was the target of Thursday's searches by the
] FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
]
] Hawash was booked into the Multnomah County Detention
] Center on Thursday afternoon and put on a "material
] witness hold" at the request of the U.S. Marshal's
] Service, a sheriff's department spokesman said. A
] material witness designation allows the government to
] hold someone in order to compel testimony.

On Thursday, March 20, 2003, our friend and colleague Maher (Mike) Hawash was arrested ("detained") as a "material witness" by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the parking lot of Intel Corp's Hawthorne Farms parking lot. Simultaneously, FBI agents in bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles awoke Mike's wife Lisa and their three children in the home, which they proceeded to search. Since then, Mike has been held in the Federal Prison at Sheridan, OR.
http://www.freemikehawash.org/#action

FBI, Joint Terrorism agents search home in Hillsboro