OT: Precisley my point: "Madrid bombings case thrown out against Oregon attorney"
Pure bullcrapo!!! war on terror my butt. cnn.com
Now how many times was this poor sap brought before the
public in the last 3weeks...and ("we found fingerprints on a bag with this attorney's prints") Bullsh#ft!
Court cites FBI identification error of fingerprints
Monday, May 24, 2004 Posted: 5:46 PM EDT (2146 GMT)
Mayfield speaks to reporters Monday.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- A federal court threw out the case Monday against an Oregon lawyer arrested in connection with the Madrid train bombings, citing a fingerprint-identification error by the FBI.
Brandon Mayfield, a 37-year-old American convert to Islam, was released from custody last week. (Full story)
But he was not altogether cleared of suspicion at the time; the government said he remained a "material witness" and put restrictions on his movements.
Those restrictions were lifted Monday.
"Due to the misidentification by the FBI of a fingerprint, the court orders the material witness proceeding dismissed," read a statement posted on the U.S. District Court's Web site. "The court orders all property seized to be returned to the material witness."
Furthermore, the court said that any copies of Mayfield's property held by the federal government were to be destroyed, and that all documents in the case would be unsealed.
Mayfield, a former Army lieutenant, was arrested May 6, after FBI agents raided his suburban home in Aloha, Oregon.
FBI officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said that his fingerprint matched one found on a bag of detonators near the train station in Madrid in the March 11 bombing, which killed 191 people and injured 2,000 others. But last week, Spanish authorities said the fingerprints of an Algerian man were on the bag.
The bombings have been blamed on Islamic militants, with possible links to al Qaeda.
Steven Wax, the public defender who represented Mayfield, said an FBI computer likely returned a number of possible fingerprint matches, and that his client could have been singled out for investigation and subsequent arrest because he is Muslim. "It's a major civil rights issue," he said.
Wax said Mayfield believes he was not only arrested, but also subjected to so-called "sneak and peak" searches where agents break into a home but are under no obligation to tell the owner. They are allowed under the USA Patriot Act. Mayfield may sue the government, Wax said.
After Spanish authorities cast doubt on the match, the FBI re-examined the print and decided it was not Mayfield's, Wax said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Gorder left a message on his answering machine stating that he would not be responding to media phone calls. Other calls to the U.S. Attorney's office were not immediately returned.
Brandon Mayfield's mother said the family wants an apology from the U.S. government.
"That's what we've been saying all along. It's not his fingerprint," AvNell Mayfield of Halstead, Kansas, said in a telephone interview minutes after the announcement. "He was falsely accused, and they still weren't letting him go."
The family erupted in joy after the announcement, with Mayfield's son and brother giving each other high-fives in the living room of the attorney's home.
"They're dancing and clicking their heels," Avnell Mayfield said. |
