More On Mike Hawash Plea Bargain

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This article’s pretty freaky. More on this as it develops.
If you’ve been following this story on my blog the last few months, you might want to start here.

Portland Man Strikes Plea Deal on Terror Charges
By the Associated Press.

Hawash pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiring to levy war against the United States and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism.
“You and the others in the group were prepared to take up arms, and die as martyrs if necessary, to defend the Taliban. Is this true?” U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones asked Hawash during the hearing.
“Yes, your honor,” Hawash replied.
Hawash’s attorney Steven Houze said his client had decided to cooperate fully with the government, but declined to comment on details of the plea negotiations. Houze said Hawash had faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.

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Free Mike Hawash Update: Hawash Accepts Plea Bargain

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Hawash agrees to plea bargain
By the Associated Press.
Here’s another article with more details.
Wow. I am quite shocked, I must say. But I would like to reiterate that the point of this protest has always been the unfairness of holding Mike for five weeks without charging him — not whether or not he had knowingly or unknowingly taken place in whatever kind of activity he was being charged with, once he was charged.
The point is that holding people for months without charging them isn’t cool, and theoretically we don’t do that in this country, except that it turns out under a certain material witness statute, we do do that in this country — and that’s kinda scary. That’s the point. Just to clarify…
I still get the feeling that he may have taken the deal because he felt it would be the best deal he would get at a jury trial (when it is the best idea to take a plea bargain, because things could also end up even worse at trial). But Steven McGaedy (the “FreeMikeHawash.org” guy), stopped returning my phone calls some time ago (Presumably because things got to heavy with the case.) — so I took the hint and moved on, and don’t really have any kind of inside scoop on this anymore…
Anyway there’s an update on that. Okay gotta go. Lots to do today!

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Stephen Colbert On Habitat For Humanity’s Poverty Theme Park

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This is from the July 29, 2003 program.
Here’s Stephen Colbert On Habitat For Humanity’s Poverty Theme Park.
(Will the new theme park shut down existing crowd pleasers like the local telephone museum?)
Next, Stephen takes you on a journey through the exciting world of substandard housing!

Oh The Humanity (Small – 12 MB)
(Here’s the real Habitat for Humanity)


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Lou Katz, Cindy Cohn, Craig Newmark And A Ton O’ Spam Tech Vendors At The Hillside Club’s CyberSalon On Spam

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Jeff Ubois and Sylvia Paull put together a CyberSalon On Spam June 15, 2003 at Berkeley’s Hillside Club. Craig and Cindy’s presentations and the discussion that follows is of particular interest.

Lou Katz On Spam (Small – 27 MB)

Craig Newmark On Spam (Small – 16 MB)

The EFF’s Cindy Cohn On Spam (Small – 16 MB)

Follow up w/Craig and Cindy (Small – 7 MB)
Spam Filter Vendor Talks:

IronPort On Spam (Small – 24 MB)

Enrique Salem, CEO of Brightmail, On Spam (Small – 20 MB)

Pavri Diwariji from MailFrontier, On Spam (Small – 9 MB)

Jordan Ritter of Cloudmark, On Spam (Small – 10 MB)

Doug McLean of Postini, On Spam (Small – 12 MB)
Lou Katz (below)



Craig Newmark (below)



Cindy Cohn, EFF (below)



Craig Newmark, Cindy Cohn (below)


































ILAW 2003 – Day 3 – July 2, 2003 – PM 1 of 2 – Lessig and Fisher On How Technology, Law and The Market Work Together

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Larry explains this session best in his own words:

“Okay, so. We’ve talked a little bit this morning about the technology affecting content distribution.
Terry gave you, as is typical with Terry, an extrordinary breadth of knowledge about the law affecting content distribution. And what I want to do today in this afternoon’s session is to draw together something about that technology and the story about law and the story about the market to give you some idea of what transformation has occured here. A picture of a change that is hard to see unless you synthesize these three different perspectives of “technology,” “law” and “the market.”

After Larry talks for awhile, he gives the stage back to Terry to elaborate for a bit on a new possible system for paying artists for file sharing distribution of their works.

Larry/Terry On Technology, Law and The Market – Part 1 of 5 (Small – 53 MB)

Larry/Terry On Technology, Law and The Market – Part 2 of 5 (Small – 36 MB)

Larry/Terry On Technology, Law and The Market – Part 3 of 5 (Small – 35 MB)

Larry/Terry On Technology, Law and The Market – Part 4 of 5 (Small – 29 MB)

Larry/Terry On Technology, Law and The Market – Part 5 of 5 (Small – 33 MB)

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RIAA More Powerful Than Police

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Stop or I’ll sue
Here’s why the record industry is now more powerful than police.
By Dave Ralis for phillyBurbs.com

Under the fourth amendment to Constitution, police must show probable cause that a crime has been committed before they can get a judge’s permission to search your home for evidence, or subpoena you to appear in court.
But under the federal Digital Millenium Copyright Act, all the RIAA has to do is file paperwork with a court clerk to get a subpoena if it suspects you of downloading a song from the Internet or sharing music in a peer-to-peer network such as Kazaa, WinMX or Grokster.
Anyone found in violation of the act could faces a lawsuit from the RIAA seeking $750 to $150,000 per song, The Associated Press has reported.

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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Pleads (In Vain) For Wolfowitz To Be Honest

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This is from the July 30, 2003 program.
This sequence has some great footage of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testifying in front of the U.S. Senate Committee On Foreign Relations.
Sen. Joseph Biden (D) plead with Wolfowitz to “give him a break,” asking “when are you guys startin’ to be honest with us? Come on!” — after Wolfowitz tells Congress that the military budget he submitted for next year did not include costs for the continued operation in Iraq.

Congress Pleads With Wolfowitz (Small – 4 MB)



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