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KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon
www.katu.com

Portland Man Linked To Spain Terror Attacks

May 6, 2004

PORTLAND, ORE. - A Portland man was arrested by FBI agents Thursday as part of the investigation into the deadly train bombings in Spain, federal officials said.
The man, identified by Newsweek as Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield, a convert to Islam, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant, said a senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Newsweek is also reporting that Mayfield was arrested after Spanish authorities allegedly found his fingerprints on bomb-related evidence associated with the March 11 attack.

Mayfield's arrest is the first known in the United States with connections to the March 11 bombings in Madrid that took the lives of nearly 200 people.

The attack was Europe's worst since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people.

Since that day, March 11, 2004 has become a day of infamy, which many compare to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

An addition to taking Brandon Mayfield into custody, the FBI also searched his home, which he shares with his wife, the official said.

Neighbors tell KATU News that Brandon Mayfield and his wife have lived in the home for about a year and a half and are a friendly family.

"Yes, I would say friendly, not overly friendly, but not anything that you would be suspicious of," one neighbor, who lives directly next door to the Mayfields, told KATU News.

In addition to the raid at Brandon Mayfield's home, KATU News learned agents also searched the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton.

A woman who lives at the apartment complex next to the mosque was at her kitchen window this morning and says she saw the whole thing, and now cannot believe what she is hearing.

"It's horrifying. It's absolutely horrifying to look out the window and see that they could possibly be doing any kind of… I don't know," Aurora McCann told KATU News.

McCann was home for an early lunch when she saw the search from her kitchen window.

"I saw a couple of cop cars - one unmarked. I think it was black… it was either black or white… an unmarked car out here and a couple of people from the mosque - older gentlemen out there just talking."

Watch her story

At the time, McCann says she did not think much of the activity going on outside her window.

"They weren't engaging in conversation closely. I mean, they were pretty standoffish as far as, you know, discussing the topics, but I couldn't hear anything. I just assumed that it was maybe somebody that got pulled over," she said.

Hearing that it was actually part of an ongoing FBI investigation comes as a shock.

"This close - I mean the school bus stops right out here in front of this apartment building to pick up kids for school."

"Newsweek is also reporting that Mayfield was arrested after Spanish authorities allegedly found his fingerprints on bomb-related evidence associated with the March 11 attack."

I don't think we have the whole story on this yet.

Ernest James Ujamma aka Bilal Ahmed

"In addition to the raid at Brandon Mayfield's home, KATU News learned agents also searched the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton."

I/we need some help here. Is this mosque named the Bilal Mosque, or is it called the Bilal mosque since those brothers went to it.