Madrid case leads to lawyer in Oregon

The Oregonian ^ | May 7, 2004 | Noelle Crombie and Mark Larrabee

[aposiopetic]

Federal agents on Thursday detained a Washington County lawyer in connection with the deadly March 11 terrorist attack in Madrid -- the first American connection to the worst terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001.

Brandon Mayfield, 37, who lives in Aloha and played a minor legal role in the Portland Seven terrorism case, was picked up at his West Slope law office on a material witness hold Thursday morning, said Tom Nelson, Mayfield's attorney.

< snip >

[Grampa Dave]

It was probably the later: "Or were his fingerprints on the bag from handling it stateside and someone else delivered it to Spain?"

Hopefully, we will find out.

[ValerieUSA]

http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=67123

May 7, 2004
Mayfield's stepmother says 'he has always been a delight'

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI

PORTLAND, Ore. - The first American to be arrested in connection with the deadly train bombing in Madrid is a former Army lieutenant who lives in a nondescript home in a Portland suburb, a convert to Islam who faithfully attends a nearby mosque.

Brandon Mayfield was born in Oregon and grew up in Kansas, family members said. His wife trusts in her husband's innocence; his parents say he has never ever traveled to Spain.

But law enforcement officials in Spain said Friday that Mayfield's fingerprints had been found on bags containing detonators of the kind used in the March 11 attack.

He is being held as a material witness, which allows the government to hold him without filing formal charges, to allow time for further investigation.

"He has always been a delight," said his stepmother, Ruth Alexander, in Halstead, Kan., where Mayfield grew up.

"This is positively unbelievable. He was never in any trouble growing up," she said in an interview with an Associated Press reporter.

She recalled a compassionate child who once kept a pet grasshopper.

(How pathetic and stupid - why didn't get this delightful child a puppy?)

Her stepson went into the Army right after he graduated from high school, "because he felt that was the right thing to do," she said, and was posted overseas in Germany.

Mayfield met his Egyptian-born wife, Mona, while stationed near Tacoma, Wash., at Fort Lewis. Records from Washoe County, Nev., show the two were married in 1998. Mayfield converted to Islam after marriage, Alexander said.

Mayfield, who is 37, comes from a family of non-church-goers, Alexander told The Associated Press.

"When they started having children, he thought they should have some religion to have the family focus on," she said.

(They stated having children in 1989, but didn't get married until 1998. He converted to Islam after marriage - at least a dozen years after they starting making kids together? I question the accuracy of this report.)

Leaders at the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton, Ore., said he would show up regularly for prayer on Fridays, and that he helped congregants who needed legal advice.

Mayfield passed the Oregon bar in 2000 and largely kept a low profile in the Portland legal community until 2002, when he volunteered to represent Muslim terrorism suspect Jeffrey Battle in a child custody case.

Battle was among six Portland area residents who were sentenced last year on charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States by helping al-Qaida and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

(Two of those terrorist wannabes also attended Mayfield's mosque.)

Mayfield lost one of his biological brothers to leukemia, Alexander said, while another still lives in Halstead, and teaches art at a public school.

Mayfield's paternal grandmother, Lydia Mayfield, was well-known in Hutchinson for her plainspokeness, Ruth Alexander said, and was once investigated by the FBI for a letter to the editor published in the local newspaper in which she threatened the president.

(When was this? Which President?)

Records show Mayfield spent a single semester at Lewis & Clark law school in Portland, but that he received his degree from Washburn University in Kansas, according to Dena Anson, the director of university relations at the Kansas school.

Neighbors said the Mayfields moved into a repossessed home in Aloha, Ore., fixed it up and then held a dinner party. The Mayfields had so little furniture then, neighbor Arlene Witt recalled, that she and her husband sat on the couch and Brandon and Mona Mayfield sat on the floor.

In Portland, Mayfield did work for low-income clients.

The two have three children - Shane, Sharia, and Samir, ages 15, 12 and 10, respectively.

(According to this report, they were married in 1998. What does their mosque teach about having 3 children out of wedlock?)

AP Correspondent Roxana Hegeman contributed to this report from Halstead, Kan.

__________________________________________________________________

Another KATU report from yesterday included this:

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."

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."

(Okay, so McCann is mostly a ninny. Didn't this rocket scientist realize that the mosque next door financed the trip overseas of 2 wannabe terrorists who are now serving time for attempting to join Al Quaeda fighters against the US?)

[aposiopetic]

Looks like some important Moroccans made a *goodwill* visit to Portland earlier this year. They were hosted by none other than Serena Cruz, who oversaw the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Some say Morocco is failing to reel in the big fish in its efforts against terrorism, including the 3/11 plotters.

[happygrl]

"When they started having children, he thought they should have some religion to have the family focus on," she said.

Do these people ever tell the truth ?

They were marrried in 1998. She has children who are ages 15, 12 and 10, thus they are HER children, unless they had them out of wedlock.

So what's with the fakey "when they started having children..."

Furthermore, previous info has him converting to Islam in 1989. None of this adds up.

Truth ?

[Grampa Dave]

Getting the truth from this pair will be very hard if not impossible.

[aposiopetic]

I thought maybe it was a typo.

Seriously.

[Sacajaweau]

Dave: Pretty hard stuff to track but I suppose we can try to track the units and the "specialties" of each. I thought that the attorney converted earlier. I'd like to see these guys timelines side by side. The Attorney apparently lives like a pauper and so did Williams when he plunked himself at the Mission.

The Lawyer did "social work cases" so that might bring him into contact with Missions and such. One newspiece also said that he was concerned with "rights" cases after 9-11 and I'm guessing MUSLIM rights.

What still drives me absolutely nuts is the single casing found among the Oregon-7's weapons cache. It fit the Bushmaster but none of the other weapons found. There were several weapons and boxes of cartridges for each. They are listed on the web someplace in the indictment of the 7.

[Grampa Dave]

"The visitors' luggage was removed from the plane, and officials became alarmed when they saw documents in Arabic with 911 written on them. It turned out that one of the group's host in Dallas, a previous stop, had given them instructions to call the 9-1-1 emergency number if they got into trouble, but it was mistaken for a reference to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

If anyone believes that story, I have several bridges in the San Francisco Bay area to sell them.

[aposiopetic]

They were on diplomatic passports, too (like they weren't sophisticated or something).

[Grampa Dave]

We may never find out the links.

We never found out where John Mo lived when he served in the Oregon Guard.

[Sacajaweau]

I believe 1989 is the correct date (and probably the marriage date). He would have been 22 and fresh out of the army if he had a 3 year stint. College was 4 or 5 years away. What did he do for 5 years??

[Grampa Dave]

RW remember my question about progressives and if they were strong in that part of Kansas?

Read this interesting little tidbit:

"Mayfield's paternal grandmother, Lydia Mayfield, was well-known in Hutchinson for her plainspokeness, Ruth Alexander said, and was once investigated by the FBI for a letter to the editor published in the local newspaper in which she threatened the president."

This sounds like some of the progressives I have met over my lifetime when they decide to in the open re their hostility towards America.

[Grampa Dave]

Apparently he and his family lived on the coast in the Newport, Oregon area.

There is a large group of not very nice Islamos in that area going back to at least the early 1990's.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well this doesn't seem to explain the bag showing up in Spain.....

__________________________________________________________________

Seven members of Moroccan parliament detained at Portland airport

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Seven delegates from the Moroccan parliament making a goodwill tour of the United States were detained at Portland International Airport this weekend.

The Moroccans were released but missed a connecting flight and spent all day at the airport before boarding another flight late Saturday night.

In the meantime, officials searched their luggage, the FBI questioned their intent and their American hosts — including Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz — found themselves apologizing for what appeared to be a case of post-9/11 jitters.

"I'm very embarassed. I am really frustrated by their treatment here today," Cruz said.

Speaking through an interpreter, the visitors said they fully understand security precautions but said their treatment was unacceptable. They carried diplomatic passports and Delta Air Lines officials were aware of their status, they said.

.......................snip.................

[aposiopetic]

Well this doesn't seem to explain the bag showing up in Spain.....

Agreed.

[ValerieUSA]

A report from KGW - believe it at your own risk:

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_050704_news_spain_mayfield.19bd6f5d6.html

Different pictures emerge of Mayfield in Madrid bombing case

02:29 PM PDT on Friday, May 7, 2004

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI and ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writers

The night of the Madrid train bombing, Mona and Brandon Mayfield were watching television with their children here, when their program was interrupted by breaking news from the deadly devastation in Spain.
"He turned to me and said — 'Those Goddamn terrorists. I'm sick and tired of them harming civilians,'" said Mona Mayfield, 35, remembering her husband's response.

Nearly two months later, her husband, 37-year-old Brandon Mayfield, a Portland attorney, became the first American to be arrested in connection with the Madrid bombing.

He is a former Army lieutenant who lives in a clapboard home in Aloha, a convert to Islam who attends a mosque in Beaverton and a native of Oregon who grew up in Kansas.
His family adamantly denies any connection to the train bombing.
"I think it's crazy — we haven't been outside the country for 10 years," said his wife, who met her husband on a blind date at Fort Lewis army base near Tacoma, Wash. in 1987. "They found only a part of one fingerprint. It could be anybody. He was in the army and they're just trying to fit a certain profile."

Law enforcement officials in Spain said Friday that Mayfield's fingerprints had been found on a bag containing detonators of the kind used in the March 11 attack. He is being held as a material witness, which allows the government to hold him without filing formal charges, to allow time for further investigation.

"He's innocent and he's another victim of the Patriot Act and people ought to be examining awful closely. If it can happen in my family it can happen to anybody," said his mother, AvNell Mayfield, in Hutchison, Kan.

Mayfield's stepmother, Ruth Alexander, in Halstead, Kan., where Mayfield grew up, recalled a compassionate child who once kept a pet grasshopper.

Her stepson went into the Army right after he graduated from high school, "because he felt that was the right thing to do," Alexander said.

(Why would someone who grew up in this anti-American family "feel" that way?)

He was posted at Fort Lewis Army Base in Tacoma, Wash., where he met his wife, Egyptian-born Mona, who immigrated to Olympia, Wash., as a child. They married and have three children — ages 10, 12 and 15, all of whom spent their early years on U.S. army bases.

Their youngest was born on the Bitburg air base in western Germany, where Brandon Mayfield was stationed in the air defense unit. His only trip to the Middle East, said his wife, was in 1993, when the couple and their three children took a 30-day leave to travel to Mounsura, Egypt.

Her husband was honorably discharged in 1994, after a shoulder injury, she said. The couple returned and Mayfield finished his undergraduate degree at Portland State University, where his favorite topic was constitutional law. His law degree is from Washburn University in Kansas.
"If the Constitution could be a religion — that would be his religion," said his wife.

Mayfield converted to Islam after marriage, Alexander said. He comes from a family of non-church goers, she added.
"We have a Bible in the house. He's not a fundamentalist — he thought it was something different and very unique," said Mona Mayfield, of her husband's conversion to Islam.

Mayfield was a regular at a Beaverton mosque near their home, where his red hair and white skin stood out in a crowd of mostly new immigrants from Muslim countries.
He was seen as a moderate, said mosque administrator Shahriar Ahmed. Mayfield showed up for the Friday ritual of shedding his shoes, washing his bare feet and sitting on the carpets to hear services. He did not, as some devout Muslims do, pray five times a day at the mosque, Ahmed said.

"He was on the less religious side if anything," Ahmed said. He was reserved, but liked to talk about what he considered civil rights violations of Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks, Ahmed said. "He was very much interested in civil rights, if you get into discussion with him."

(Yeah, tthat sounds like someone who cursed the Madrid bombers.)

Mayfield passed the Oregon bar in 2000 and largely kept a low profile in the Portland legal community, representing poor clients in family law and immigration cases.
Many were referrals from the state bar association's Modest Means Program, which refers poor clients to attorneys willing to work at a discount, said Kateri Walsh, spokeswoman for the Oregon Bar Association.
He worked out of a rented office west of downtown Portland. Short, bearded and bespectacled, Mayfield was so unremarkable there that a massage therapist working in the building there could not recall ever seeing him.

In 2002, he volunteered to represent Muslim terrorism suspect Jeffrey Battle in a child custody case.
Battle was among six Portland area residents who were sentenced last year on charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States by helping al-Qaida and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

Mona Mayfield was preparing her husband's lunch, when two FBI agents knocked on her door Thursday.
"I was vacuuming and I threw in a load in the washer. I heard the knock and thought it was the mailman," said Mayfield, breaking into sobs.
She said the agents sat her down at her dining room table and began ransacking her house. "I left everything as is. I didn't have the strength to clean it up," she said.

[ValerieUSA]

I always use a vacuum cleaner and washer when I prepare lunch. What a contrived little tale to illustrate what a typical innocent American housewife she is.......

[aposiopetic]

his wife, who met her husband on a blind date at Fort Lewis army base near Tacoma, Wash. in 1987

He was posted at Fort Lewis Army Base in Tacoma, Wash., where he met his wife, Egyptian-born Mona

Just a reminder that someone else at Fort Lewis, John Allen Muhammad, also converted to Islam in 1987.

[aposiopetic]

"I think it's crazy — we haven't been outside the country for 10 years," said his wife

Protesting a bit much, don't you think? Who said they would have had to leave the country to assist in 3/11? Hmmmm...

[happygrl]

OH.

OK.

"Nevermind" she says in her best Rosanne rosannadanna voice.