http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5139800,00.htmlFBI Notes Shed Light on Ore. Lawyer Arrest
Thursday July 14, 2005 3:31 AM
AP Photo PD105
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The day before a Portland attorney was wrongly
arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Madrid train bombings, an
FBI official stated in an e-mail that the agency did not have enough
evidence to arrest the man on criminal charges.
The recently declassified e-mail, written by Portland FBI spokeswoman
Beth Anne Steele in May 2004, also noted that the attorney, Brandon
Mayfield, was a Muslim convert. And it said the FBI had a plan to
arrest Mayfield "if and when" his supposed link to the March 2004
terrorist attack "gets outed by the media."
Mayfield was arrested a day later under the material witness law,
which allows the arrest and detention of witnesses who might flee
before testifying in criminal cases. The FBI said at the time that
fingerprints found on a bag of detonators near the bombings had been
matched to Mayfield.
Two weeks later, the FBI admitted the fingerprints belonged to
someone else, freed Mayfield and apologized to him.
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