Free Republic

NEWARK — The fourth annual American Muslim Voice peace convention brought many speakers of various backgrounds to provide a blueprint for protecting civil rights in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era. Visitors at the Chandni Restaurant in Newark on Sunday evening cheered and listened to guest speakers, such as anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Muslim convert Brandon Mayfield and Ron Takaki, an ethnic studies professor at University of California,Berkeley. The conventions theme was building a beloved community, which included topics such as Fighting for the American Constitution and America, One Nation under God? These topics were discussed by a group of panelists...

Once upon a time, in the peaceable, multicultural kingdom of Portland there was a man named Brandon Mayfield. He was arrested and jailed briefly for an awful crime he didn't commit. Why? Because he was a Muslim in George Bush's America, and the president's minions had a really scary new law called the Patriot Act. This law allowed them to arrest and put in jail a totally innocent Muslim for the simple crime of being a Muslim in George Bush's America. And the people in the peaceable, multicultural kingdom of Portland were sore afraid. So goes the Mayfield legend, but...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2006 — A Justice Department inspector general report found that problems with FBI forensic analysis and performance led to the mistaken arrest of an Oregon man as a suspect in the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings. Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield was incorrectly identified by the FBI as a suspect in the attacks because of incorrect fingerprint data. Mayfield was arrested on May 6, 2004, and secretly held as a material witness for two weeks. He was released when the Spanish National Police eventually matched the fingerprints to an Algerian national. Justice Department's Inspector General Glenn Fine's...

PORTLAND -- The Patriot Act is about to come under fire in Portland. Brandon Mayfield, the local Muslim mistakenly linked to the Madrid bombings, is fighting back. Friday he and his high profile attorneys go to court and the case is getting international attention. The federal court docket lists this case as Brandon Mayfield vs. John Ashcroft et al. Along with the former attorney general, he's also suing the FBI and the Department of Justice. Who knows if his case will ever go before a jury, but Friday a judge will hear arguments that could change the way the country...

Brandon Mayfield, the Portland-area lawyer and Muslim convert wrongly accused in the deadly Madrid train bombing, has hired celebrity trial lawyer Gerry Spence in a possible civil suit against the federal government. Spence has a high-profile client list that includes former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, the family of plutonium worker Karen Silkwood and white separatist Randy Weaver. The Wyoming-based Spence will work on the Mayfield case with a Portland civil rights lawyer, Elden Rosenthal, and a Newport lawyer, Michele Longo Eder. The attorneys, none of whom were available for comment Thursday, notified the federal court in Portland this week...

<p>Portland, OR, May. 25 (UPI) -- The FBI has apologized to Brandon Mayfield, a Portland, Ore., attorney and Muslim convert, for connecting him with the Madrid train bombing.</p> <p>The agency said it erroneously identified Mayfield's fingerprint on a bag of detonators found near the site of the deadly March 11 terror attack in Spain, the Portland Oregonian reported Tuesday.</p>

PORTLAND, Ore. - Offering a rare public apology, the FBI admitted mistakenly linking an American lawyer’s fingerprint to one found near the scene of a terrorist bombing in Spain, a blunder that led to his imprisonment for two weeks. The apology Monday came hours after a judge dismissed the case against Brandon Mayfield, who had been held as a material witness in the Madrid bombings case, which killed 191 people and injured about 2,000 others. Mayfield, a 37-year-old convert to Islam, sharply criticized the government, calling his time behind bars “humiliating” and “embarrassing” and saying he was targeted because of...

FBI apologizes to man linked to Madrid bombing 25 May 2004 00:37:43 GMT By Teresa Carson PORTLAND, May 24 (Reuters) - A Muslim attorney from Oregon, held for two weeks, often manacled and chained, as a material witness in the March 11 train bombing in Spain, was cleared on Monday with an apology from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Hamdullilah, thank God I'm here," 37 year-old Brandon Mayfield told a packed press conference. Mayfield, who was released on Friday, had been held under the 1984 material witness law because Spanish authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had thought...

Live speech by Brandon Mayfield thanking people for standing by him and announcing his charges being dismissed. Stated his profession as a private attorney compromised.

Prints on Madrid bombing material not those of Portland man 05:02 PM PDT on Thursday, May 20, 2004 From NWCN.com Staff and Wire reports MADRID, Spain -- Fingerprints found on a plastic bag containing detonators of the kind used in the March 11 Madrid train bombings were identified as belonging to an Algerian national, police said Thursday evening. Police made no reference to the claim earlier this month by the FBI that a fingerprint from the bag belonged to Portland-area lawyer Brandon Mayfield. He was arrested on May 6 as a material witness in the bombings that killed 191 people...

Just announced on the local news: Brandon Mayfield, the Portland attorney who was detained for a possible connection to the Madrid terrorist acts, has been cleared and released from the detention center. Speculation is that the FBI now believes fingerprints may not be significant or that they were not really his....unsure about this as of yet. Breaking... Am looking for wire copy.

<p>In a tiny meeting cubicle at Multnomah County Detention Center, AvNell Mayfield watched as her son Brandon sat in blue prison scrubs, tried to touch his wife's hand through a heavy glass partition and spoke in reassuring tones through a telephone receiver attached to the wall.</p>

Attorney being held has Newport ties By Steve Card Of the News-Times A Portland attorney arrested by FBI agents Thursday as part of the investigation into the March 11 deadly bombing in Madrid, Spain has connections to Lincoln County. Brandon Mayfield, who currently practices law in Washington County, was taken into federal custody on a material witness warrant after Mayfield's fingerprint was allegedly found on a plastic bag containing bomb material associated with the railway bombings in Spain. No formal charges have been filed against Mayfield and, in fact, Spanish police have questioned the fingerprints linking him to the bombing....

An Aloha man being held as a material witness in the Madrid, Spain, train bombings is expected to testify in a Portland federal courtroom before a grand jury Tuesday. Brandon Mayfield is a lawyer and former Army officer who converted to Islam when he married his wife about 16 years ago. Federal law officials say Mayfield's fingerprints were found on a bag they said contained detonators in the train bombings. Nearly 200 people died that March eleventh and more than two-thousand were wounded. But a Spain newspaper is reporting that it was one fingerprint found connecting Mayfield to the bombings....

Events push mosque leader into spotlight Whether bumped from a prayer breakfast or fielding concerns about a detention, Shahriar Ahmed broadens views of Islam Monday, May 10, 2004 JILL SMITH BEAVERTON -- The question took Shahriar Ahmed by surprise. The president of Bilal Mosque in Beaverton was looking for an elevator at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center when a security guard approached him: "Aren't you the guy who was disinvited from the prayer breakfast?" A week earlier, organizers of the Mayors' Prayer Breakfast of Washington County had pulled Ahmed from the program because he is Muslim. Most mayors bowed out...

Fingerprint links Oregon with Spain Officials have been watching Brandon Mayfield of Aloha since two weeks after the March 11 Madrid terror bombings Saturday, May 08, 2004 LES ZAITZ, NOELLE CROMBIE, JOSEPH ROSE and MARK LARABEE Federal investigators are examining whether a Washington County lawyer shipped materials later used by terrorists to blow up four commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, a law enforcement official said Friday. Brandon Mayfield, 37, a former U.S. Army officer and Aloha father of three, was linked to the attack that killed 191 people by a fingerprint on a bag containing detonating devices. The...

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Police investigating the Madrid terror bombings have arrested a Moroccan whose telephone number was found in the ruins of an apartment where seven suspects blew themselves up, the Interior Ministry said Saturday. The man, whose name was not released, was arrested Thursday night in Parla, a town just south of Madrid, a ministry official said. The suspect's telephone number was found in the wreckage of an apartment where seven suspects, including the suspected ringleader of the train attacks, blew themselves up on April 3 as police prepared to go in and arrest them, the official said....

The FBI has arrested a Portland, Ore., lawyer in connection with the March 11 Madrid bombings, the New York Times reports. Brandon Mayfield is being held as a "material witness" rather than a suspect, but "officials confirmed Thursday night . . . that Mr. Mayfield's fingerprints matched prints found on a bag in the wreckage of the Madrid bombing." Mayfield is an American citizen and Muslim convert. Why is Portland apparently such a magnet for jihadis? Last August Maher Hawash pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges. As the Washington Post reported at the time, "In return for his promise to...

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.

MADRID, Spain — The fingerprints of the American attorney arrested as a material witness in the Madrid train bombings were found on a plastic shopping bag that held detonators like the ones used in the deadly March 11 terrorist attacks.