Spain raises doubts over fingerprint

Spanish authorities are skeptical of a U.S. report that a print tied to the deadly Madrid bombings is a "bingo match" for a former Kansan.

Eagle news services

MADRID, Spain - The newspaper El Pais reported Saturday that Spanish investigators have serious doubts about whether the fingerprint found on a plastic bag tied to March 11 explosions on commuter trains is that of former Kansan Brandon Mayfield.

The report said Spanish forensics experts found only eight points of similarity between the print and the one of Mayfield held in U.S. files because he is a former Army officer.

The FBI said it found 15 such points, El Pais said.

The Portland, Ore., lawyer and father of three has not been charged with a crime, and U.S. authorities have stressed that their investigation is at an early stage.

Spanish police have been intrigued by the possibility of a U.S. connection to the Madrid bombings ever since FBI agents informed them more than three weeks ago that a fingerprint found on a plastic bag of detonators left by the bombers appeared to match Mayfield's.

But senior Spanish law enforcement officials said their own forensics experts remain unconvinced.

"The experts here in Spain... still have doubts about the fingerprint," the senior Spanish official said.

The FBI thinks the print on the bag, which was found in a van abandoned by bombers at the suburban station where they boarded the trains, matches Mayfield's conclusively, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.

"My understanding is it's a bingo match," the U.S. law enforcement official said.

The FBI fingerprint examination was made by an analysis team that may have found Mayfield's print either in a database related to previous terror cases or in his military file, officials said. The FBI analysts also found indications that whoever left the fingerprint on the bag involved in the Madrid bombings had some connection to the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where international Islamic extremists have been active.

Mayfield, 37, was arrested at his Oregon law office Thursday as a material witness in the bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded 2,000.

He grew up in and around Halstead, about 30 miles north of Wichita, where much of his family still lives. He attended law school in Topeka after serving in the Army.

Mayfield's military background particularly interests Spanish police because they think someone with military experience may have provided training or advice about the assembly of the remote-control backpack bombs used in the attacks.

But Spanish police say they have not turned up any sign so far that Mayfield was in Spain during the time the bombings were plotted and carried out, two senior officials said.

Nor have Spanish police found evidence that Mayfield had meetings, phone conversations or Internet communications with any of the two dozen bombing suspects, a predominantly Moroccan group of Islamic extremists with limited ties to Americans or the United States.

In a report prepared more than three weeks ago by Spanish police about the lead involving Mayfield, he was described as a U.S. military veteran who was already under investigation by U.S. authorities for alleged ties to Islamic terrorism.

It is not known why Mayfield was being investigated, though the mosque where he worshipped was also attended by defendants in another terrorism case. Known as the "Portland Seven," the six men and one woman have pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States.

One of the men was a client of Mayfield in a child custody case.

"The FBI said it found 15 such points, El Pais said."

Does anyone know how many matching points it takes to be considered a 'perfect' match? (15 matching points seems like a lot)

Incredible: "My understanding is it's a bingo match," the U.S. law enforcement official said. The FBI fingerprint examination was made by an analysis team that may have found Mayfield's print either in a database related to previous terror cases or in his military file, officials said. The FBI analysts also found indications that whoever left the fingerprint on the bag involved in the Madrid bombings had some connection to the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where international Islamic extremists have been active.