Intervening plaintiff Ahmed Elshenawy, a worker of Egyptian national origin employed at the Red Bluff plant of Sierra Pacific Industries, claimed that he was harassed by coworkers after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He also claimed that Sierra Pacific, which processes forest products, allowed the harassment to continue up until his retaliatory discharge in April 2004. After an investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it sued Sierra Pacific Industries. It alleged that the defendant’s actions constituted national origin discrimination and retaliation against employees who report discrimination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Elshenawy claimed his coworkers called him derogatory names and that Sierra Pacific allowed this harassment to occur. He also claimed that when he complained, he was then subjected to complaints by his coworkers and that the company retaliated against him by subjecting him to harsher discipline before ultimately terminating him. Sierra Pacific claimed that Elshenawy was terminated for misconduct at work. However, counsel for the EEOC responded that the defense’s contentions were pretextual., Elshenawy claimed that he suffered financial hardships after his termination in April 2004 due to the job economy in Northern California, living in a rural location and his difficulty in finding employment. However, in June 2006, he was recruited by the U.S. Army for deployment to Iraq, as Elshenawy speaks nine dialects of Arabic.