Former Intel engineer and would-be jihadi Mike Hawash plead guilty yesterday of conspiring to aid the Taliban. He travelled to Asia in October, 2001 to attempt to enter Afghanistan and fight against US forces, along with other members of the “Portland 5”. On April 9, after Hawash had been detained on a material witness warrant and jailed without charges, I wrote:

Not much to say about this other than free Mike Hawash. Or at least grant him his basic constitutional rights as a citizen of this country.

Charges were ultimately pressed on April 29 (as noted here as well). I’ll stand by my statement. Hawash is a US citizen. The government should have pressed charges against him on April 9 or waited until April 29 to arrest him like any other criminal.