Thursday, May 20, 2004

The Oregon lawyer accused in Madrid bombing has been released

Brandon Mayfield, you may recall, was picked up on the evidence of his fingerprint on a plastic bag connected to the Madrid train bombing. A fingerprint that turned out not to be his.

There was also some confusion about some involvement he had with a terror suspect. I thought the reports were saying he had defended a man accused of terrorism, but the account I'm reading now says:

Mayfield once did child custody work for a man who was convicted of plotting to travel from Oregon to Afghanistan with a group of Muslims plotting to help al Qaeda and the Taliban fight U.S. forces.

After being held for two weeks without being charged, Mayfield has been released, "amid reports the evidence linking him to the blast was found to be false." Source

That didn't keep them from reporting that he was linked to it back when they picked him up before they had confirmation. How long does it take to confirm a fingerprint match? Two weeks you think? The FBI went through the Mayfield house, and confiscated the kids' Spanish homework.

If you ask me, and you didn't, I'd say the U.S. Justice Department was just too eager to claim they "got one" (bad guy).

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.