[Marxism] Use of Patriot Act in Frameup of Oregon Atty

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Attorney General admits use of Patriot Act in Mayfield case
Wednesday, April 06, 2005

PORTLAND (AP) — Since last May, when the FBI admitted it had wrongly 
arrested Portland lawyer Brandon Mayfield following the Madrid train 
bombings, the Muslim convert has contended that the Patriot Act was 
used to gain secret entry into his home and gather personal material 
which was used to portray him as a Muslim militant.

The Justice Department previously has denied using the Patriot Act in 
the Mayfield case — until now.

[Actually, the AP (in its own story!) as well as Attorney General 
Gonzalez are in error, for 4 days ago the Justice Department finally 
admitted that the Patriot Act was used in the Mayfield case: 
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R259326DA

[Mayfield has been claiming this all along, but the Justice Department 
lied about it. They finally were forced to admit they lied. And 
Gonzalez, of course, would have continued this lie before a 
Congressional Committee had he not been reminded that just 4 days ago 
the lie had been exposed.]

In a congressional hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Attorney 
General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged that provisions of the act were 
used in the investigation against Mayfield — after denying it during 
the hearing, and then correcting himself when asked a second time an 
hour later.
. . .
He named two sections of the code which he said were used — one that 
deals with extending the duration of electronic surveillance and 
another that makes it easier to get warrants to search the private 
residences of U.S. citizens.

Mayfield was arrested at his Portland law office on May 6 after an FBI 
computer matched his fingerprint to one found on a bag of detonators 
near the scene of the Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people. He 
was freed two weeks later, after the FBI admitted the fingerprints were 
not his.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?R249536DA

     *     *     *
[Here is an earlier story to remind us about the case and that fills in 
some of the details. This is ripe for some investigative reporting. How 
is it that a fingerprint that was in no way a match, was used to 
justify the arrest of a person "who fit the profile" as they say in the 
TV program Law and Order. Of course, they already had the profile. Then 
they fit the fingerprint to him and used it for a secret fishing 
expedition to gather more information. See below*]

Freed lawyer views imprisonment as fallout of failing to protect 
minority groups

RIC ANDERSON (Associated Press)

TOPEKA, Kan. - Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer wrongfully 
imprisoned this month in connection with terrorist bombings in Spain, 
said his ordeal underscored a warning he has sounded since his days as 
a law student at Washburn University.

At Washburn in 1996 and 1997, Mayfield said, an interest in 
constitutional law spurred him to write a paper cautioning against 
attacks on personal rights and privileges. He titled the paper 
"Liberty" - what Mayfield lost after the FBI linked him to the March 11 
bombings and held him as a material witness for two weeks.

"One of the messages of the paper was you have to protect people even 
if the majority doesn't agree with them, provided they aren't breaking 
the law," he said Sunday. "That this happened to me was kind of ironic 
in that sense."

Mayfield, a 37-year-old Muslim convert, said he believes he was 
targeted for investigation because of his religion. He said his 
incarceration also pointed out alarming problems with the U.S. Patriot 
Act, which, among other provisions, allowed FBI agents to search his 
home without his knowledge.

"The Patriot Act goes way too far in taking away our privacy and 
freedom as U.S. citizens," Mayfield said.

Mayfield was taken into custody May 6 in connection with the bombings, 
which killed 191 people and wounded 2,000 others in Madrid. According 
to court documents, the FBI began investigating Mayfield two weeks 
after the attacks, when fingerprint examiners found 15 possible matches 
to a fingerprint found on a plastic bag containing detonators of the 
kind used in the bombings. The matches included prints belonging to 
Mayfield [not true--the correlation was was off the mark], and three 
FBI examiners narrowed the identification to him.

FBI agents raided Mayfield's home and office and confiscated computers, 
a key to a safe deposit box, assorted papers and what agents classified 
as "Spanish documents" but which apparently was foreign language 
homework for one of Mayfield's three children.

In additional evidence aimed at supporting Mayfield's arrest, the FBI 
said he attended a Portland mosque and advertised legal services in a 
publication owned by a man with suspected links to terrorism. Officials 
also pointed to a call made by Mayfield's wife, Mona, to a branch of an 
Islamic charity with suspected terrorist ties.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/state/8805157.htm

* Court documents released Monday suggested that the mistaken arrest 
first sprang from an error by the FBI’s supercomputer for matching 
fingerprints and then was compounded by the FBI’s own analysts. “The 
FBI apologizes to Mr. Mayfield and his family for the hardships that 
this matter has caused,” the bureau said in a statement. The agency 
also said it would review its practices on fingerprint analyses.

“We need to know more about how this happened. All of us in this 
country need to know more about how this type of mistake can be made,” 
said U.S. Public Defender Steve Wax, Mayfield’s attorney. Mayfield, a 
former Army lieutenant, was released last week. But he was not 
altogether cleared of suspicion; the government said he remained a 
material witness and put restrictions on his movements.

Full at, including FBI bungling that alerted his family to the secret 
entry: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5053007

from Brian Shannon

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