THE MAYFIELD CASE(the stuff that breaks legends)

The Oregonian ^ | January 15, 2006 | David Reinhard

[crazyhorse691]

Once upon a time, in the peaceable, multicultural kingdom of Portland there was a man named Brandon Mayfield. He was arrested and jailed briefly for an awful crime he didn't commit. Why? Because he was a Muslim in George Bush's America, and the president's minions had a really scary new law called the Patriot Act. This law allowed them to arrest and put in jail a totally innocent Muslim for the simple crime of being a Muslim in George Bush's America. And the people in the peaceable, multicultural kingdom of Portland were sore afraid.

So goes the Mayfield legend, but two recent reports from the Justice Department's Inspector General's Office and the Office of Professional Responsibility debunk that fable.

True, Mayfield, who has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, ended up having had nothing to do with the heinous crime -- the March 2004 Madrid bombings -- but his detention wasn't the result of his religion, FBI or federal prosecutorial misconduct or the Patriot Act. It was the result of a "What are the odds?" coincidence and a botched fingerprint identification. Other than all that, the Mayfield legend is rock solid.

First, the Patriot Act. The inspector general's report is clear. The act's search provisions had no impact on the Mayfield case. The law's amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) didn't make it easier for the government to investigate Mayfield; the government had plenty of authority under the pre-Patriot Act FISA to move in a case like this.

Nor did the government use the Patriot Act's delay-notice or sneak-and-peek provisions to search Mayfield's home or business. The Patriot Act did affect the Mayfield case in one key and -- one hopes -- uncontroversial way: It allowed law-enforcement officers and intelligence agents to share a significant amount of information about Mayfield. In short, it eliminated "The Wall" that existed prior to 9/11.

As for the bias question, the first FBI fingerprint analyst knew nothing about Mayfield when he matched a print found on a bag of bomb detonators in Spain to the Portland lawyer's print. Mayfield's print was one of 20 kicked out of millions. The second FBI analyst knew nothing about Mayfield when he concurred with the first analyst. Neither did their unit chief when he reviewed their work.

Only after this -- and before any disagreement with Spanish officials over the fingerprint identification -- did the FBI investigate Mayfield. Only after this did the FBI learn Mayfield was a Muslim and had represented a member of the Portland Seven in court and had contact with suspected terrorists.

Coming to know all this may have contributed to the FBI lab's reluctance to revisit its findings when Spanish officials disputed them. One analyst said they might have gone back over their work if Mayfield had been "the Maytag repairman." But you don't have to be Elliott Ness to see that he wasn't.

You can say the second FBI analyst shouldn't have known what the first analyst concluded before doing his analysis. You can say the FBI might have been willing to consider its findings if it had not come to know Mayfield was a Muslim and had represented a convicted terrorist in court and had contact with suspected terrorists.

But none of this explains the mess-up. After all, an independent, court-appointed expert confirmed the FBI's identification on the same day that Spanish officials identified an Algerian man based on the print.

Here's what the report concluded: "[M]ayfield's religion was not the sole or primary cause of the FBI's failure to question the original misidentification and catch its error. The primary factors were the similarities of the prints and the Laboratory's overconfidence in the superiority of its examiners.

"However, we believe that Mayfield's representation of a convicted terrorist and other facts developed during the field investigation, including his Muslim religion, also likely contributed to the examiners' failure to sufficiently reconsider the identification . . ."

This may be a kind of bias, but it's not an anti-Muslim bias. It's a bias against a Muslim who had represented a member of the Portland Seven and had contact with suspected terrorists -- and had a fingerprint similar to one found in a terror bombing. It was a not-unreasonable bias against Mayfield.

A tough break for him, but nothing to make a federal case of -- and clearly not the stuff of legend.

David Reinhard, associate editor, can be reached at 503-221-8152 or davidreinhard@news.oregonian.com

[crazyhorse691]

Can't get much more simpler and to the point than what David Reinhard wrote. He did leave out that the usual protesters outside the Federal Building this time were out numbered by the panhandlers. And so dies a moonbat legend.

[crazyhorse691]

Additional editorial expressed the papers regret for their reporting on the story without pursuing more facts.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/public_editor/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1137196510135870.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

[maggiecakes]

These little moonbats we have in Portland have made cause ce'le'bre of Mayfield. I think he is guilty of something, but it just hasn't yet been deconstucted. He is hiding something.
Remember the Symbioneese Liberation Army and Patty Hurst? Only in Portland would the principals from this story be considered heros, when they actually were domestic terrorists.
Welcome to the new normal where our Portland Mayor Tom Potter rides bikes with Critical Mass.

[crazyhorse691]

Welcome to the new normal where our Portland Mayor Tom Potter rides bikes with Critical Mass.

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Our dear little moonbats are fickler than a dry basement in Portland; first rainfall turns the basement into a kiddy pool. They turned against Katz so fast and so completely that her chief of staff(Sam Adams) never even mentioned her during his campaign for city council. I figure Potter will end up the same way.