Here it is. This idiot has got to be tied in to this as well.
Investigators have linked Portland, Ore., lawyer Brandon Mayfield to the Madrid terrorist bombings through a fingerprint lifted from a bag containing detonators discovered near the train station where three of the four bombed trains originated, according to sources in Spain and the United States familiar with the probe.
The bag, which contained cell phone detonators similar to those used in the attack that killed 191 people, was found in a stolen van left in the town of Alcala de Henares. It was parked near a house where police say the bombs were assembled.
Tracing another set of fingerprints found in both the van and the house, as well as the origin of the cell phones, police found a cell phone shop in Madrid owned by Moroccan Jamal Zougam, whom Spanish police describe as the plot's mastermind.
When Spanish investigators were unable to identify one of the fingerprints on the bag in the van, they distributed it to other countries, including the United States, where authorities linked it to Mayfield, said the sources, who asked for anonymity because a judge has imposed a gag order on government officials in the case. Mayfield would have been fingerprinted when he served in the military.
Mayfield, 37, a Kansas native and Army veteran, was detained on a material witness warrant Thursday, the first American linked to the simultaneous bombings of four commuter trains in Madrid. More than 2,000 people were injured in the attack, which helped topple the Spanish government in an election held three days later.
Eighteen Spanish and Moroccan suspects have been arrested.
Mayfield's attorney and relatives say they are baffled by the alleged connection between the mild-mannered Muslim convert and the Madrid plot, noting that Mayfield has not been out of the country in more than 10 years.
Mayfield told Thomas Nelson, the Portland lawyer who is acting as his spokesman, that he had never been to Spain, his passport had expired in October of last year, and he had never met anyone from Morocco.
"Brandon is flabbergasted," Nelson said. "He has no explanation for these charges. He thinks this is crazy." Nelson said he believed that Mayfield's only travel abroad had occurred when he was in the Army and serving in Germany.
Nelson complained about a "calculated leak" from the Justice Department to the news media Thursday about Mayfield, telling KATU-TV in Portland that the information had "led to the frenzy that we see out here that is destroying and disparaging his family, his relationships, his children and his law practice. That leak is devastating. It was unnecessary, unethical and inappropriate."
But federal officials were clearly upset that their investigation was rushed to a premature close. "The plan was to sit on him longer, but it started to get out in a big way, so they had to move," said a law enforcement official who declined to be named, citing the gag order.
Acquaintances in Portland said they did not know of any involvement by Mayfield with militant Islam, though he became tangentially involved with one of six members of a Portland terror cell who pleaded guilty to charges last year. Mayfield defended Jeffrey Leon Battle, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiring to fight against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, in an unsuccessful bid to retain custody of his son.
"I don't think they knew each other before Mayfield volunteered to represent him in the custody matter," said one defense lawyer involved in the case. The lawyer described Mayfield as "a very, very low-key guy, very quiet."
Mayfield's younger sister, Amy Sikes, said her brother had served about four years in an Army signals unit out of Fort Lewis, Wash., in the late 1980s and had been stationed for about a year in Germany. He met his Egyptian-born wife, Mona, while at Fort Lewis and converted to Islam in 1989, his sister said. The couple have two sons, ages 15 and 10, and a 12-year-old daughter, Sikes said.
"She's the love of his life, and I'm sure that's what got him interested in the Islamic culture," Sikes said of Mayfield's wife. "He's very family oriented and always has been."
Page A - 3
I seem to recall that it was conclusively determined that the print did not match the Oregon guy. It was either a faulty or rushed I.D.
Oh, man you are (probably) so right on Mayfield. Luckily, you can search mucho on him via keywords here at FR.
Brandon Mayfield was indeed mistakenly fingered (pun intended), he has a legitimate beef with the F.B.I. The feds apologized, but of course that is not enough for this loony attorney. He is on a personal crusade to make sure we stop profiling mooselimbs.
That's the first thing that popped into my mind this morning when I hear the guy they caught in PAK. had tried to set up a camp in OR.
I was thinking about the same guy. Last I heard, he was suing the US for false arrest or something. Do you think we were stupid enough to let this guy go, or do you think they let him go hoping he'd lead us to more highly placed terrorists?