The federal case against Mike Hawash of Hillsboro has yet to be proved in court, but now there's at least a basis for understanding why the FBI picked him up and held him in isolation.

On Monday in federal court in Portland, the software engineer was charged with a number of offenses, all of which add up to the allegation that he along with others tried to join the Taliban in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001, in order to fight U.S. forces there. If proved, that's a crime against the United States.

What brought this case to statewide and even national attention was that the man, 38 years old, with a family, had been picked up and imprisoned without any kind of charges and, for a long time, without any kind of appearance before a judge.

He was being held as a material witness awaiting an appearance before a grand jury, the proceedings of which by law are secret. But the man was arrested March 20. He was not charged until April 28. It is wrong to hold somebody that long without giving some kind of reason in court.

What would have prevented federal attorneys from disclosing the reasons for the arrest right away? It would have made no difference to their investigation. Obviously the agents working the case knew what they were working on and why Hawash was of interest to them.

The federal law allowing people to be held indefinitely as material witnesses - without charge, without appearing before a judge, and without anyone having to justify the detention to family and acquaintances of the person in jail - is too much like the practice in assorted dictatorships around the world. The federal government ought not to employ it. Congress should impose a short limit on the length of time people can be held as material witnesses.

It is important for U.S. citizens to have confidence that the government cannot grab them off the street and put them in jail without having to appear in a court within a day or so and try to justify the need for such a step.

Secret arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial is something that some governments around the world reserve for their opponents and enemies. We can't fight them on the one hand and then appear to do more or less the same thing. (hh)