Posted on 05/24/2004 6:51:28 PM PDT by gcul
FBI apologizes to man linked to Madrid bombing 25 May 2004 00:37:43 GMT
By Teresa Carson
PORTLAND, May 24 (Reuters) - A Muslim attorney from Oregon, held for two weeks, often manacled and chained, as a material witness in the March 11 train bombing in Spain, was cleared on Monday with an apology from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"Hamdullilah, thank God I'm here," 37 year-old Brandon Mayfield told a packed press conference.
Mayfield, who was released on Friday, had been held under the 1984 material witness law because Spanish authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had thought that a single fingerprint on a bag with detonators found near a Madrid train station matched his print.
But the Federal District Court said on Monday that "he was the victim of a misidentification by the FBI" and at a separate FBI press conference, Robert Jordan, the FBI agent in charge of the Oregon office, apologized to Mayfield and his family for the hardships his detention has caused.
"We are not investigating Brandon Mayfield at this point," Jordan said.
Surrounded by his wife and three children, Mayfield described his imprisonment as "humiliating and embarrassing."
People held under the material witness act should not be thrown in with convicted criminals awaiting sentencing and people arrested for probable cause of committing crimes, he said.
"During my incarceration I was often manacled and chained," he said. He declined to say if FBI agents became physical with him when he was arrested.
"People should wake up. We need to start protecting our civil liberties," Mayfield said, also blasting the Patriot Act. "The material witness statute obviously gives the government too much power and must be amended, if not repealed," he said.
Mayfield's defense team is asking the courts to investigate leaks by U.S. government authorities and asking the government to preserve the fingerprint information, but Mayfield declined to say if he would bring legal action against the government.
The fiasco has "blown my (law) practice completely apart," Mayfield said, because of negative publicity and the fact that agents had access to confidential legal files in his single practitioner office.
Mayfield expressed concern about others "languishing away" under the material witness law.
This "shouldn't happen to anybody," Mayfield said.
Not a good month for law enforcement.
Last week the Justice Dept. indicted a Secret Service prosecution witness in the Martha Stewart case.
Misidentification? How did that happen? I thought they had his fingerprint???
Just yuck....
The first leak was to Isikoff at Newsweek.
Investigate him.
At some point, I'm sure we're going to have to do more than apologize. I'm thinking in terms of a $ettlement.
This has been a deliberate setup - see how many islamics work inside the FBI, and the State Dept, and ????.
Time to PURGE
"At some point, I'm sure we're going to have to do more than apologize. I'm thinking in terms of a $ettlement."
Spoken like a good west-coast lawyer.
No settlement is required nor does he deserve a settlement. This entire affair has been a setup with this islamic slug at the core of it.
something still smells about this case. The partial print matched him? Of all people, him, someone who was being watched by the FBI anyway? How did this happen? A fingerprint ID takes a short amount of time, why did it take 2 weeks to release him?
I still say we have one of some possibilities:
- he gave us something we wanted. this "the prints don't match" story is his get out of jail free card.
- he won't talk, so instead of trying to prosecute him on this evidence - we release him, and see who shows us to "silence" him.
please elaborate. a setup? by who?
All muslims should be required to give the FBI a full set of good prints! Sounds like this wouldn't have happened it they had had them.
Our local Portland, OR station reported that he was going to sue. So what else did you expect of an ambulance-chasing slime-bucket lawyer. After all, there's a clause in the Constitution that says nobody ever has to have any annoyances in their life. Right?
(/sarcasm)
Fingerprinting gunowners will never solve any crimes or prevent any deaths. I don't see how having all muslims prints will stop anything.
Complete setup from the get go to get access to his files and computers.
Yup. If I was a yacht broker in Portland I would be sending this fella my card.
Anyhoo, I was half kidding . . . Well, maybe 40% kidding . . . Or should I say 30% kidding? . . . I should've used the 'end sarcasm' tag! :-)
I don't for a minute believe he is innocent. Remember, it was the Spaniards who claimed that it wasn't Mayfield's fingerprints which has got him off. Those Spaniards who chickened out in Iraq. Can't make me believe they aren't in on his getting off.
Apparently they mis-identified the fingerprint. What the hell is happening with our intelligence communities?
That's what I'd like to know. Mr. Mayfield is owed more than just a cheesy apology.
I wouldn't put it past the "intelligence community" to do something like this on purpose...to smoke someone else out, or send a message. It's still a rotten thing to do.
Yep, this failed the smell test big time. Considering this guy's history there's a lot more going on here than has been leaked to the media. Here's hoping the FBI will shut down the Seattle cell.
Are you completely naive or just plain dumb?
1. They had a complete set of good prints of him from military service.
2. The first thing they did when they arrested him was to take yet another full set of "good" prints.
Neither of these sets of prints prevented them from holding him based on their own mistake.
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