An American Connection? (American convert to TROP™ perhaps involved in Madrid bombings.)

Newsweek ^ | May 6, 2004 | Michael Isikoff

[quidnunc]

Law-enforcement officials detain an Oregon man they say may be linked to Europe’s 9/11

FBI agents today detained a Portland, Ore., lawyer after receiving evidence from Spanish authorities that the man’s fingerprints allegedly were found on bomb-related evidence associated with the March 11 railway attack in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 2,000 people, Newsweek has learned.

The arrest of the lawyer was described by federal law-enforcement authorities as a major investigative breakthrough that for the first time suggests links between an individual inside the United States and the Madrid bombing — the worst act of terrorist violence since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The man was identified as Brandon Mayfield, a convert to Islam who is tangentially linked to one of the chief defendants in the so-called “Portland Seven” case — a suspected terror cell in Oregon whose six surviving members pled guilty last year of plotting to fight for the Taliban against U.S. soldiers during the war in Afghanistan.

Sources said that Mayfield had been under round-the-clock surveillance by the FBI for some time. According to law-enforcement sources, he was picked up by agents in Portland today and is being held as a “material witness” in a Grand Jury investigation — a status that allows the Justice Department to hold him in secret without formally filing charges against him.

-snip-

[oceanview]

is there any good news today?

[Galtoid]

Mayfield has been arrested. Unbelievable.

[bwteim]

Friends is going off the air....

/ running for cover

[tbpiper]

Friends is going off the air....

????..TQN, The Quaker Network?

[bwteim]

Yes, tragic, it's been taken over by the Amish...

[VOA]

is there any good news today?

Rumsfeld will stay the Secretary of Defense.
That's good enough for one day!

[tbpiper]

it's been taken over by the Amish...

Wooden cameras and horse drawn helicoptes are going to make for some 'quiant' news stories.

[bwteim]

That IS the good news item.

[lainde]

On the way home I was just astounded by the news flashed on the radio abount an American connection to the bombings in Spain. They failed to add the informative phrase: "A convert to Islam". Now it might make sense.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Huh? How can this be anything other than good news? The feds make a local bust in the WOT, showing that they've been vigilant and pro-active. One more off the streets, which may lead to more arrests.

And if(still just an 'if' right now) this Brandon Mayfield ends up having connections to Socialists, or even better, Spanish Socialists...

[oceanview]

here's how it can be bad news:

"John Kerry today claimed that the arrest of a man linked to the Madrid bombing INSIDE the United States proved that President Bush wasn't doing enough to fight the domestic war on terror."

[VOA]

1. Convert to Islam
2. Ties to Islamics convicted of crimes in the WOT
3. Fingerprints on case that held explosives in the Madrid bombings.

Three strikes, Mr. Lawyer, YOU'RE OUT of circulation for a bit of time, I suspect.

Take my advise, counselor, start singing like a bird and get the best deal you can.
RUN, don't walk to the nearest Federal prosecutor, before a co-conspirator sells you out.

[Diddle E. Squat]

No one but rabid Dems will believe that spin.

[eno_]

And if not do the no-neck thugs that are holding him indefinitely get fired?

[eno_]

Whoops, this is the good one. There's another one out there where someone is under surveillace for doing an open records request.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Of course, we all added that relevent phrase w/o prompting.
Unfortunately the 50% which still actually listens to the RATmedia did not.

[aposiopetic]

Some more info on this is at Madrid case leads to lawyer in Oregon, from the May 7, 2004 online edition of The Oregonian.