Many people jumped at the chance to defend suspected terrorist and former Intel employee, Maher “Mike” Hawash, when he was “detained” as a “material witness” by the feds. Of course, most people believed that the man they “knew” would be incapable of terrorist leanings. Then, in August, all his friends had to eat crow when Hawash was indicted and plead guilty to one of three indictments levied against him. Ahhh, nothing like a steaming pile of crow to make you wish you’d just kept your big yap shut.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the government, nor the almost “gestapo” like powers the Patriot Act bestows on government agents. I just wish people would realize that jumping to conclusions tends to make you look like an ass if you’re wrong. This is a prime example of the quote attributed to Samuel Clemmons (but never proved to be uttered by him) that goes, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt!”
And, then Hawash sent a message to those supporting him. This was before he accepted a plea bargain, before anyone knew that he had in fact participated in the very crimes that the government, our government, accused him of. The message is a a plea in and of itself, a plea to “stop and smell the roses” of freedom for those on “the outside” and you can almost hear Hawash begging to go back in time to avoid the mistakes of concience and religious fervor that lead him to make the decisions he made.