Mike Hawash

Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash is a Palestinian-born American engineer who was convicted and sentenced to a seven-year prison sentence in 2003 for conspiring to aid the Taliban in fighting against U.S. forces and their allies in Afghanistan. Six weeks after 9/11, Hawash secretly traveled to China with a group of Portland-area Muslims, dubbed the Portland Seven, with the intent of entering Afghanistan to aid the Taliban. Hawash and his fellow conspirators were unable to reach Afghanistan due to visa problems, according to federal authorities,

Over a year later, after continuing to live and work near Portland, Hawash was arrested outside his office at Intel, setting off a heated debate about material witness arrest and detention and the USA PATRIOT Act, and galvanizing a movement to free Hawash. Hawash eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid the Taliban in exchange for a reduced, seven-year sentence. He was released from prison in early 2009.

Mike Hawash was born in Nablus in the West Bank on December 12, 1964. A Jordanian citizen, in 1990 Hawash became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Hawash emigrated to the United States in 1984 and attended the University of Texas at Arlington where he obtained degrees in Computer Science and Engineering. He was employed by Compaq as an engineer from 1989 through 1992, when he was hired by Intel and moved to Portland, Oregon. Hawash worked at Intel’s Israel facility from 1994 to 1996 and continued working for Intel until 2001. He was co-author of the 1997 book DirectX, RDX, RSX, and MMX Technology. In 1995, he married a Christian woman from rural Oregon, and together they had two children. Hawash's wife had a child from a previous marriage.

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