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Oregon Man Arrested in Spain Bombings Probe
Fox News ^ | Thursday, May 06, 2004 | Fox News Staff

Posted on 05/06/2004 4:25:03 PM PDT by Grampa Dave

Edited on 05/06/2004 5:05:05 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

WASHINGTON  — FBI agents arrested a Portland, Ore., man Thursday as part of the investigation into the deadly train bombings in Spain, federal officials said.

Brandon Bieri Mayfield, a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant, said a senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The arrest, first reported in Newsweek, is the first known in the United States with connections to the March 11 bombings in Madrid.

The FBI also searched his home, which he shares with his wife, the official said.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; US: Oregon; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 311; alfuqra; alqaeda; brandonmayfield; globaljihad; jihadinamerica; jihadinspain; katz; m11; madrid; madridbombing; mayfield; nationofislam; noi; portland; portlandoregon; redcross; spain; terrorism; verakatz
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To: dixiechick2000
"Wasn't there an attorney for a '93 WTC suspect who was arrested for doing the same thing? Am I remembering correctly?"

I believe that was that vile/doubly ugly left wing lesbian lawyer from NYC who carried verbal messages of acts of treason from the prisoners to those not in jail yet.
341 posted on 05/06/2004 11:26:54 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: oreolady
I think he lived in Salem, too.
342 posted on 05/06/2004 11:27:10 PM PDT by oreolady (John Kerry threw my tagline over the fence!!!!!)
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To: oreolady
Now I remember he made a trip to Afghanistan with some pals.............
facts entering brain, lol
343 posted on 05/06/2004 11:28:27 PM PDT by oreolady (John Kerry threw my tagline over the fence!!!!!)
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To: Mr.Atos
Thanks for the nice summary re this POS/Islamo Lawyer:

"So this lawyer... this Butcher... was one of the lackies screaming about the 'unfairness' of the treatment of his clients the PDX AQ-7... one of the scum, trying to portray Ashcroft as a fascist tyrant... and the Patriot Act as hitlerian doctrine. And the local media, and the Oregonian ate it all up and spit it back out as agitprop to rile up Portland's populations of irrational, obtuse, mental midgits disguised as progressive geniuses. And they took to the streets, and they took to the web, and they spit and crapped their hate over this city for the better part of a year. And the whole time, this man, Brandon Mayfield, not only KNEW that they - his clients - were guilty, HE was plotting the next great savage act of mass murder himself.

Can we now say to the Leftist population of Portland, you are Anti-American, you are Stooges, and you are complicit with butchers!

... and you are friggin I-D-I-O-T-S!!!

Or perhaps we'll just keep on thinking it."


344 posted on 05/06/2004 11:30:44 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: SAMWolf
We have our share of Islamofascists and Islamo supporters in San Francisco and Berkeley.

The entire Bay area should be monitored from San Jose to Santa Rosa.

The first Jihad Johnny came from Marin County. That didn't surprise any of us who know how liberal and anti America, Marin County is.
345 posted on 05/06/2004 11:34:12 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: oreolady
I can't think of his name at this time.

He worked for Intel in the Beaverton area.
346 posted on 05/06/2004 11:37:01 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: oreolady; dixiechick2000; blam; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SAMWolf
His name was Mike Hawash.

The link below will take you to several Threads/articles re Hawash another Islomfascist in the Portland area.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/keyword/Mike%20Hawash%20
347 posted on 05/06/2004 11:45:55 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Dogs don't crap where they eat.

348 posted on 05/06/2004 11:49:15 PM PDT by oceanperch (King Vanity Parking Only all others will be towed)
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To: Mr.Atos
You are really good at summarizing what has happened in the Portland area:

The really sad part about it, is that the good people here have been spoon fed the 'tolerance' elixer for so long, that they are no longer capable of judgement nor discrimination. They eat poison like food in terms of ideas, and accept anything that they are told as long as it comes from the 'Left'; even if it comes from the likes of Mayfield. When they say "anyone but Bush," they mean that they would trust anyone else with the safety of their children rather than the President or any other Republican, even if that means, Osama or Mayfield or even tied up in a bag with rocks and chucked into the Willamette if no other choice is available. I cannot tell you how a population gets to be so twisted from reason. But, history contains far too many examples to think it a fluke, and here we are at the precipice once again... swords drawn, pleading with our brethren for some semblance of sanity.

349 posted on 05/06/2004 11:49:34 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: oceanperch
You posted "Dogs don't crap where they eat!"

I agree with you. The left wing politicians have created Mecca Havens in the Portland/Seattle areas.

Islamofacists can stay safe in those areas to plan whatever they want plan.

Then if they are involved they can fly to anyplace in America or the world from Seattle or Portlan.

Or they can drive down the West Coast area in less than a day.
350 posted on 05/06/2004 11:53:46 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (America can't afford a 9/10 Jihad Johnny F'onda al Querry after 9/11.)
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To: oolatec
He is a new convert but totally looks like a white boy.

He represented one of Muslim 7 snagged up here in a custody case.

Hey folks Oregon is a beautiful place visually to live.

We can't help that it has also attracted less desirable citizens.

351 posted on 05/06/2004 11:54:29 PM PDT by oceanperch (King Vanity Parking Only all others will be towed)
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To: oreolady
On this whole thread, nobody has mentioned one more islamofacist in Oregon, a few months ago, remember the one who worked for Intel?

Hawash regrets 'worst decision'
Ex-Intel worker says he's sorry as judge issues last Portland 7 sentences

By BEN JACKLET AND JANINE ROBBEN

Feb 10, 2004

Portland Tribune

Former Intel Corp. engineer Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash apologized to his family and took full responsibility for his actions Monday as he was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for conspiring to fight against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"I do not blame anybody but myself," Hawash told the court as his wife, Lisa, looked on from the front row. "What I have done was completely out of my character, and I clearly knew that it was an illegal act."

Hawash's sentence, the lightest handed down to any of the six male members of the group, was based in part on his agreement to testify against his fellow travelers. Federal prosecutors called the agreement a "crucial" factor in getting four of them to also plead guilty.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones, who said Hawash's involvement in the conspiracy had been a "mystery" to him from the beginning, agreed that the lighter sentence was appropriate.

"I'm convinced that you will never commit another criminal act," he told Hawash.

Co-defendants Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, 24, and his brother, Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, 26, also were sentenced Monday to serve eight and 10 years, respectively.

The sentencings marked the apparent end of an odyssey that began in fall 2001, when six of the so-called Portland Seven flew to China in an attempt to enter Afghanistan for the purpose of fighting against forces of the United States.

Hawash, a Jordanian-born Muslim with a master's degree in electrical engineering, was joined on the journey by five other Portland Muslims. According to prosecutors, Hawash -- who has a wife, three children and a house in Hillsboro valued at $273,650 -- had become acquainted with the men in part through two Portland area mosques.

The other members of the group are:

• The U.S.-born, Saudi Arabia-raised Bilal brothers, who apparently had high school educations and worked at assorted jobs.

• Portland transplant Jeffrey Leon Battle, 34, who left his ex-wife -- Portland Seven co-conspirator October Martinique Lewis, 27, so impoverished while he was in China that his Muslim "brothers" had to support her and their young son.

• Portlander Patrice Lumumba Ford, 32, whose advanced degree in Far East studies and fluency in Mandarin caused lead prosecutor Charles Gorder Jr. to suggest that he "should be working for the State Department" instead of heading off to prison.

• Habis Abdulla Al Saoub, 38, a native of Jordan who prosecutors say was the group's leader because of his past experience as a "holy warrior" against the Russian army in Afghanistan.

Battle and Ford, who did not cooperate with the government, received 18-year terms in November. Lewis, who did not travel to China, was sentenced to three years in December.

Al Saoub, who reportedly had fought against the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was never arrested. According to CNN, he may have been killed in October while fighting near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, but the information has not been confirmed.

Hawash, 39, described the former mujahedeen "freedom fighter" Al Saoub as the group's leader and prime motivator. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the U.S. decision to go to war with Afghanistan, Hawash said Al Saoub made the case that Muslims were being wrongly attacked as scapegoats and needed assistance from fellow Muslims.

He said Al Saoub had convinced him that traveling to Afghanistan was "an obligation," and that if he didn't do it, "it becomes a sin."

That belief led to what Hawash's attorney, Stephen Houze, described as "a single aberration in the life of (Hawash) -- the worst decision he ever made."

Treatment called 'fair'

The first thing Hawash said in court was that he had been treated fairly by the government.

Hawash was raised as an exile in Kuwait and came to the United States on a scholarship 21 years ago. Before his recent stint as an independent contractor, he worked for Intel in both Hillsboro and Israel.

Hawash's March 2003 arrest stunned his friends, who included several former Intel executives. They quickly organized a series of protests against his being held on a "material witness" warrant for undisclosed reasons. The case received coverage in The New York Times and The Washington Post and became for many critics a symbol of what they contended was U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's unfair pursuit of suspected terrorists.

Federal prosecutors obtained an indictment in May 2003 that implicated Hawash. The indictment superseded one against the other six co-conspirators that had been filed in October 2002.

Jones reiterated Monday that every legal step taken in the case was based on probable cause. "There was not one constitutional violation that took place," he said.

Jones chastised Hawash for not telling his side of the story earlier: "We had 250 people out in front of the courthouse, banging drums and saying, 'Free Mike.' You left all those people dangling out there."

Jones said Hawash hired a lawyer long before he was arrested, and when he was called before a federal grand jury to testify for the first time, he took the Fifth Amendment.

'Proud to be a citizen'

Ford and Battle, who were the last to plead, were the only members of the group who did not accept offers of lighter sentences in exchange for their agreement to cooperate.

At Monday's sentencing, Jones recommended that the Bilals, neither of whom is married, be allowed to serve their time together in a minimum security facility. He recommended that Hawash be allowed to serve his sentence at Sheridan, the federal facility that is closest to his family's home in Hillsboro.

Hawash has been a U.S. citizen for 15 years. He told the court Monday that the first day he voted in the United States was "a proud day for me.

"I'm proud to be a citizen of this country," he said. "I am proud to be associated with the people of this country, and I regret my actions."

Gorder declined to comment on whether anyone else would be charged in the Portland Seven conspiracy.

352 posted on 05/06/2004 11:59:06 PM PDT by TenaciousZ
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To: johnfrink
I wonder if a little bit of brutality and humiliation in the interrogation of the Oregon Al Quaeda cell in custody could have led to information that would have saved 200 lives in Madrid.... ah, but their lawyers would have protested that. Brandon would have screamed for his clients' civil rights on all the TV talking head shows that preach tolerance of Muslims to the ignorant American masses.
353 posted on 05/07/2004 12:02:46 AM PDT by ValerieUSA
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To: Grampa Dave
Home grown terrorists, Bump
354 posted on 05/07/2004 12:04:36 AM PDT by SAMWolf (I looked into my family tree and found out I was a sap.)
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To: Grampa Dave
I wonder if Portland becoming a red-carpet terrorist mecca will lead to any electoray changes?

Or are Oregonians proud to be on the side of Al Queda?

355 posted on 05/07/2004 12:05:36 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: TenaciousZ
Hawash provided info that proved valuable in securing guilty pleas from his Islamic militant playmates, but did he hold back info about planned train bombings in Europe?

I wonder if a little humiliation of prisoners being interrogated in Iraq led to the arrest of the Al Quaeda operatives in Hawash's homeland, Jordan, who were planning a chemical weapon attack that could have killed 35,000+?
356 posted on 05/07/2004 12:08:22 AM PDT by ValerieUSA
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Grampa Dave
Well, I listened to the 11:00 PM news and figured I would get a fuller picture here.

Let me add a few things.

Amtrack uses a Tranfalgo (sp?) spanish train to go at high speed up from Portland to Vancouver BC.

The guy converted to Islam because his wife is Egyptian. (wasn't there a petty criminal Al Quada member who converted to Islam while in prison and was lined up with an Egyptian wife?)

This sounds pretty far fetched. By that I mean that even if he is an immigration attorney with Islamic ties, how would he get his finger prints on an explosives bag in Spain? The whole PR release just doesn't sound quite right. I think we should put ourselves in skeptic mode rather than leaping to conclusions (at least for a few days).

357 posted on 05/07/2004 12:09:25 AM PDT by Robert357
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To: dixiechick2000
The Oregon coast is attracting undesirables too.

In the last year seems.

358 posted on 05/07/2004 12:19:39 AM PDT by oceanperch (King Vanity Parking Only all others will be towed)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
his fingerprints were found on one of the bags

Oh, I heard some apologist for this guy tonight on TV somewhere trying to say that since this guy did a lot of immigration work, perhaps his fingerprints were found on some of their paperwork.

Bags is a WHOLE new ball game.

359 posted on 05/07/2004 12:23:07 AM PDT by Howlin
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To: oreolady
Hi oreolady think about you at times back to the Portland Freep Hillary Book signing. : )
360 posted on 05/07/2004 12:40:38 AM PDT by oceanperch (King Vanity Parking Only all others will be towed)
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