Neil Johnson wrote... "An "source" claims he/she "thought" he saw someone "maybe" fitting hawash's description "maybe" talking with the other guys at the hotel in China." Do you know where in China the hotel was? I'm assuming it was out by Afghanistan, in which case Hawash looked like practically everybody there: Western Xinjiang province is very Muslim (Tajiks, Uzbeks, Uigurs), with not too many Chinese (well, no Han Chinese...there may be some Hui Moslems out that far west). Half of the guys there will look like the Hawash picture they're floating these days (yeah, the one where he's wearing a beard and looking real scary...). FYI...the largest Mosque in the world is actually located in that area (Urumqi, maybe? Tashkent? I can't remember...) In other words, that's exceedingly flimsy evidence. -TD

From: Neil Johnson <njohnsn@njohnsn.com> To: cypherpunks@lne.com Subject: Re: Mike Hawash Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 06:21:50 -0500

I read the compliant. It is only 43 pages.

Here's what I gathered.

It was a quick read, and I fully expect and welcome comments, corrections, and opinions.

Of course mixed between these claims is a bunch of stuff about the activities of the "Portland Six", but other than the few assertions below, there is no direct evidence that Hawash committed any of the acts that the "Portland Six" did.

Hawash - bought a parka and a backpack at REI. (ooooh, ominous).

Hawash filed a quit claim transferring his house into his wife's name.

(My dad, a consulting civil engineer, had the deed of our house put solely in my mother's name to protect against losing the house in a liability suit. Hawash could have done it just because he was leaving the country and didn't want any issues in case of airplane accident, kidnapping, etc.)

Hawash had his wife open a bank account in her name only and transferred $5K to it.

($5K ?, Later they document that Hawash made around $320K in 2001, and $180K in 2002. Yeah, she could start a new life on that.)

Hawash flew to China and returned to the US on exactly the same dates as the other guys.

Hawash appears to have stayed in the same building as the other guys. His and the other guy's lodging was in the same building, but different hotels, and the hotel that Hawash had reservations to stay at doesn't have a record of him being there.

(Okay, even this does look suspicious to me, but it's definitely seems a little less than "beyond a reasonable doubt".)

An "source" claims he/she "thought" he saw someone "maybe" fitting hawash's description "maybe" talking with the other guys at the hotel in China.

In searchs of the other guys houses, they found that one of the other guys had a business card with Hawash's phone number on it. Some of the other guys had Hawash's phone number also.

One guy mowed Hawash's lawn. Hawash wrote a check for $105 to the guy that mowed Hawash's lawn.

The all attended the same Mosque in CA.

"Neighbors" reported to the FBI that Hawash became withdrawn after the September 11th attacks, changed his clothing style (From "Western" to "Eastern"), grew a beard, and starting attending the mosque more regularly.

(Gee, I saw a lot of press reports about an upsurge of people in the US taking their religious convictions more seriously and attending church more regularly after the Sept 11th attacks, are they potential terrorists too ?).

Hawash told others that he was going to China to pursue clients for his software consulting practice. However, his home phone and cell-phone records show he made no phone calls to China in advance of his trip.

(Hmmm, "negative evidence", that's a good one. Hellooooo, ever heard of e-mail, snail-mail, or communication via intermediaries ?)

Therefore, he MUST be guilty of conspiracy.

Even the LE admits that they showed some pictures to one their "sources", and He/She didn't recognize Hawash's picture as being one of the "other guys".

Be afraid. VERY afraid.

-- Neil Johnson http://www.njohnsn.com PGP key available on request.

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