MSNBC: American lawyer held in Madrid bombings

[Lori Price CLG]

...allegedly connected to al-DIAduh.

Link to story in 'Newsday'
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usbom...

Portland man arrested in Madrid bombings

Acting on leads generated from the Madrid train bombings earlier this year, FBI agents Thursday arrested a Portland, Ore., man on a material witness warrant and searched his home, authorities told Newsday.

They would not identify the man, other than to say he is a U.S. citizen born in America. His wife, who was not arrested, also is a U.S. citizen but was born in Egypt. The authorities would not provide names or other descriptions of the couple, other than to say they were young.

<snip>

-Lori Price

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Cool all we needed huh?

[maddezmom]

2. Portland man arrested in Madrid bombings-link

May 6, 2004, 5:25 PM EDT


WASHINGTON -- Acting on leads generated from the Madrid train bombings earlier this year, FBI agents Thursday arrested a Portland, Ore., man on a material witness warrant and searched his home, authorities told Newsday.

They would not identify the man, other than to say he is a U.S. citizen born in America. His wife, who was not arrested, also is a U.S. citizen but was born in Egypt. The authorities would not provide names or other descriptions of the couple, other than to say they were young.

They said that the arrest on a material witness warrant was based on investigative leads flowing from the simultaneous bombings of several trains in Madrid March 11 which took 191 lives. Several Islamic militants, many of Moroccan origin, have been arrested and 12 suspects remain in custody in Spain on suspicion of involvement in the bombings.

U.S. authorities said that FBI agents were conducting a low-key search of the house.

~snip~
more: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usbom...

[oregonjen]

3. Our local news station in Portland just broke in with it

He's a lawyer from Portland

[Solly Mack]

4. Does this mean Spain can invade America?

Curious minds and all that...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. We DEFINITELY need a regime change.

[Lori Price CLG]

21. Oh, we will... if Bush steals the election again.

Hopefully, we will have the second American Revolution, if the Bush-Rove terror team is re-installed in another coup d'etat.
-Lori Price

[yardwork]

11. Exactly what I thought!

By the logic we used to invade Afghanistan, this means that Spain can invade the U.S.

[Retrograde]

45. maybe if we give Florida back

Maybe if we give Florida back to Spain they'll be happy. Can we? Pleasepleaseplease?

linda in a former part of New Spain

[Lori Price CLG]

5. Link below:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usbom...

Portland man arrested in Madrid bombings

Acting on leads generated from the Madrid train bombings earlier this year, FBI agents Thursday arrested a Portland, Ore., man on a material witness warrant and searched his home, authorities told Newsday.

They would not identify the man, other than to say he is a U.S. citizen born in America. His wife, who was not arrested, also is a U.S. citizen but was born in Egypt. The authorities would not provide names or other descriptions of the couple, other than to say they were young.

(Note: Dan Abrams on 'The Abrams Report' reported that it was a lawyer.)

<snip>

[Just Me]

7. Good ole' ANTI-patriot ACT is setting this country on fire. Go figure.

"Enemy-making" is part of the process of dictatorships.

Good, Lord.

Get this evil corporatist regime off the radar. They are killing us, slow but sure.

[bolokshi]

8. Americans screwing Americans

WTF!!! these are the mofo that should be persecuted, how in the world would you support something that only wants the downfall of another..what because of pussy!!! man! give us a break!!
makes me wanna

[bhunt70]

9. please say he runs the republican fundraisers for the area...

[maddezmom]

10. updated link: Mayfield's fingerprints were found on materials related ...

~snip~
Brandon Mayfield, a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant, said a senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The arrest is the first known in the United States with connections to the March 11 bombings in Madrid.

The FBI also searched the man's home, which he shares with his wife, the official said.

Mayfield's fingerprints were found on materials related to the Madrid bombings, said a second senior law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland, confirmed two search warrants had been served Thursday in Washington County, which includes parts of Portland. She would not release further details.

~snip~
more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6804-200...

[yardwork]

12. Brandon Mayfield - interesting name.....

Gee, he doesn't sound like an Arab! How can that be? I thought that all terrorists were Arabs!

sarcasm off

[maddezmom]

13. and why are the officials leaking all this info?

so they can claim we are tough on terrayists?

[Tinoire]

15. Yeah but he converted to Islam, defends "terrorists"....

according to the anti-Arabists, he's an honorary Arab.

[maddezmom]

17. thanks for the link...so Asscrack thinks he's an enemy combatant

because was a defense attorney.

[Lori Price CLG]

36. In that case, God knows what AshKKKroft thinks of the CLG!

I am a self-proclaimed insurgent and all-around enemy of the Bush dictatorship. LOLOL!
-Lori

[demdave]

16. All terrorists are terrorist sympathizers.

After that, anyone can join.

[Just Me]

22. Really causes any "thinking" human being to wonder: who is the enemy?

[Tinoire]

14. Ah... Islam again...This mssg is 4 lawyers defending enemies of the state

the man in federal custody is Brandon Mayfield, an attorney who converted to Islam and represented Jeffrey Battle

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation...

===

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.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4918333 /

The Portland 7? Again?

Ashcroft must be wet from excitement. They just can't get "aroused" enough from all this demonization.

==

Law-enforcement officials today provided few details about the evidence against Mayfield, but said the alleged presence of physical evidence tying the man to the Madrid bombing made it an extremely serious matter. Sources said Mayfield's fingerprints were found on a bag containing bomb material connected to the Spanish attack. But officials said considerable uncertainty remained about Mayfield's role. The lawyer’s previous connection to the Portland Seven was tangential; he had represented the interests of one of the chief defendants, Jeffrey Battle, in a custody matter involving Battle’s 6-year-old child that arose after he and the other suspects were arrested in the fall of 2002.

The Portland Seven case was among the significant—and to some, controversial—cases brought by the Justice Department since September 11. Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed it as a “defining day in America’s war against terrorism,” asserting that the FBI had “neutralized a suspected terrorist cell within our borders.”

Critics later charged that the Justice Department produced no evidence that any of the suspects had engaged in acts of terrorism. But prosecutors did establish that the six men arrested had traveled through China trying unsuccessfully to cross into Pakistan in early October 2001. Their stated goal was to join Taliban forces in Afghanistan to help defend fellow Muslims against U.S. soldiers. (A seventh man was never arrested and prosecutors later said he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan.)


Among the most incriminating evidence in the case were secret tape recordings made by a U.S. informant before the group left for Asia.
On the tapes, Battle, a former Army reservist, expressed his hostility to U.S. interests in Afghanistan and his desire to attack a local Jewish religious school or synagogue with automatic weapons. Battle and another main codefendant, Patrice Lumumba Ford, later pled guilty to conspiracy to levy war against the United States, but both refused to agree to cooperate with federal prosecutors. The remaining four also pled guilty.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4918333 /

[pschoeb]

31. Besides representing Battle, he is an immigration attorney

So he could have handled paperwork involving Madrid bombers? thus the fingerprints?

http://oip.uoregon.edu/documents/iss/pdf/visamatters/la...


Patrick Schoeb

[carols]

44. Sounds like they are hanging another head on the village gates

"Convert to Islam" says it all. Rascist fuckers. Ashcroft would like nothing better than to develop a Department of Witch-hunting.
Carol

[Snazzy]

18. "A vocal critic of the Bush (*) Admin"

Newsweek said he was being held as a "material witness" in a grand jury investigation and that allowed the Justice Department to hold him in secret without formally filing charges against him.

A justice department spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Brandon Mayfield is a former Army officer and a vocal critic of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, Kent Mayfield said, but he declined to elaborate.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=1...

[maddezmom]

19. just repeated on Newsnight

in secret and indefinitely

[Lori Price CLG]

24. 'In secret and indefinitely'

Is that where all Bush critics will end up? Held 'in secret and indefinitely?'
-Lori

[maddezmom]

28. seems like it, doesn't it.

and asscrack keeps pushing the Patriot Act....we need regime change.

[9215]

40. Son-of a beeeech! nt

[FlandersFeelds]

20. Is he a repub or dem lawyer?

Is it known?

[Almost_there]

23. His "party" affiliation?

I don't think it mentions his political party, but, the CNN report indicated that he converted to Islam back in 1989, raised his children Islamic (they mentioned Islamic names, Shane? That's Islamic? Didn't know that...), but, he was a good, peaceful neighbor that traded cookies with his elderly neighbors.

Since he defended the Portland 7, I would guess he is more left than right, but, I don't know. He was evidently quite high profile in that case, and while I don't know the outcome, I am sure he is a fine lawyer. Truly, the one thing that gets me thinking is if the Spanish authorities have his fingerprints on something, what was it? The report just indicated "bomb related material". Is that just a briefcase? Maybe he handled it and gave it unknowingly to a client who went nuts. But, if he had a hand in actual procuring or producing stuff for a mass murder that killed almost 200 people, I truly think that he should be extradited to Spain and tried.

The reports have been ambiguous, but, he has been under surveilance for sometime, and I have a feeling (just a feeling) that he may know a bit more than he is letting on. I certainly hope he was a victim of circumstance (as Curly would say) but, I don't know. He hasn't officially been charged with anything, a material witness charge is really just a questioning stage where it is 100% legal (long before the Patriot Act, its been used in Mob trials for years), to hold someone that you know has information but, needs "coaxing" in sharing it.

Until he is charged though, I'll just wait and withold judgement.

~Almost

[ConcernedCanuk]

25. Silly Canuk question: Why were Mayfield's fingerprints on file?

.
.
.

Are all lawyers fingerprints on file?

Pretty hard to argue the fingerprint connection, unless they are not in fact his fingerprints.

And then of course there seems to be a "Portland" connection of some sort?

Earlier this year in Portland, the last of six men and a woman were sentenced on charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States by helping al-Qaida and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Mayfield represented one of those people, Jeffrey Leon Battle, in a custody case involving Battle's son. Law-enforcement officials did not know of any contacts between Mayfield and the other Portland terrorism defendants.
_______________________________________________________

things that make me go

hmmmmmmm

[AP]

32. Probably because he was in the army.

Right?

Or did I confuse him with Battle?

[maggrwaggr]

26. there's something smelly about this

smelly in the way the bogus chaplain/guantanamo case was smelly

[Snazzy]

27. Or Lynne Stewart in NY

Attorney for the "one eyed sheik": http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0216/hentoff.php

Think that's still going on.

-------

Here's a pic of Brandon Mayfield

[Ganja Ninja]

29. $10 bucks says he's a CIA man.

Wasn't that the speculation after the bombing Bush Co was behind it?

[Iceburg]

30. Yup... more spec ops -- your tax dollars at work

[Lori Price CLG]

33. Why would Mayfield leave his prints on the detonators? ROFL.

I cannot understand the depth of ignorance of the American people to swallow this. Let's say Brandon Mayfield *was* working with al-duh. WHY on earth would he leave his FINGERPRINTS on a bag of detonators? Hello, McFly?

-Lori Price

[Ganja Ninja]

34. And if he wasn't part of the plot how did a bag with his fingerprints

wind up in Spain?

[lumpy]

35. It has been reported that the fingerprint

is not conclusive that it is his.

[Lori Price CLG]

37. Sentinel Chicken, it boggles the mind, doesn't it?

This is a set-up by AshKKKan to establish a precedent to deter and intimidate attorneys from defending alleged 'enemy combatants' and 'terrorists.' It's enough to make me go out and get a law degree... LOL!

-Lori

[Ganja Ninja]

41. It's kind of amateurish if it's a set up.

You have to wonder how anyone could pull something this stupid. If he was involved in the plot then there would have to be more evidence linking him to it. Some sort of electronic paper trail linking him to a suspect or vice versa should be easy to find.

If it's a plant and a set up then it would automatically mean the American government knew or was involved in some way prior to the bombing. If that's the case it would be monumentally stupid.

[9215]

38. Maybe he was double crossed......

and his fingerprints got on there surrepticiously. This is, of course, speculation. I keep thinking of Oswald's print on the rifle.

[9215]

39. Here is another topic on the Madrid bombing link

to Right-Wing elements in Italy. Don't know about any connections, but thought I'd put this out there as general info.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[shamanstar]

42. he is associated with one of the portland 7

heres what i find interesting....

"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 Qaeda and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

Mayfield, who grew up in Halstead, Kan., was not involved with Battle's defense in that case. Law enforcement officials in Washington did not know of any contacts between Mayfield and the other Portland terrorism defendants. "

[JoFerret]

43. Intereresting turn up for the books

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&nci...