[News] Portland Lawyer Arrested In Spain Attacks

Fri May 7 12:53:10 EDT 2004

KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon
www.katu.com

Portland Lawyer Arrested In Spain Attacks

May 6, 2004

PORTLAND, ORE. - FBI agents arrested a Portland man Thursday as part of the 
investigation into the deadly train bombings
in Spain, federal officials said.

Brandon Mayfield, 37, who is a Portland attorney, U.S. citizen and convert 
to Islam, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant, said a 
senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mayfield's fingerprints were found on materials related to the Madrid 
bombings, said a second senior law enforcement official, also speaking on 
condition of anonymity.

Mayfield's arrest is the first known in the United States with connections 
to the March 11 bombings in Madrid that took the lives of nearly 200 people.

The attack was Europe's worst since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner 
over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people.

Since that day, March 11, 2004 has become a day of infamy, which many 
compare to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Family And Friends Shocked

In addition to taking Brandon Mayfield into custody, the FBI also searched 
his home, which he shares with his wife.

At Mayfield's home, his wife Mona, said, "as you can imagine, today has 
been quite dramatic. My husband is a good man, a good father, a good 
husband. It's just unfair. It's unfair to myself and it is unfair to my 
children."

She said they have three children, two boys ages 10 and 15, and a girl, 
aged 12. Her husband was born in the small Oregon coastal community of Coos 
Bay.

"I am upset that this has leaked out. There has been no charges against my 
husband and we pray for his early release," said Mona.

[]
<http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=67100> Wife Of Accused Lawyer Speaks 
Out

Portland attorney Tom Nelson, who described himself as Mayfield's friend 
and mentor, said Thursday afternoon that he
received a call from Mayfield Thursday, pleading for help.

[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040507mayfield_nelson_4am.wvx>Tom 
Nelson speaks Friday about accused friend

"His wife was in tears because of the way the search was conducted. The FBI 
apparently hurt things in the house, left things in disarray," Nelson told 
reporters outside Mayfield's home. "He is a regular run-of-the-mill guy."

Nelson also said Mayfield had never traveled to Spain.

Mayfield's mother, AvNell Mayfield, told a Kansas newspaper said her son 
had not traveled outside of the U.S. since he visited his wife's family 10 
years ago.

"He is not a militant person," she said. "He is very law-abiding, very 
quiet. He is a devout Muslim and goes to mosque. This is an outrage."

Neighbors tell KATU News that Brandon Mayfield and his wife have lived in 
the home for about a year and a half and are a friendly family.

"Yes, I would say friendly, not overly friendly, but not anything that you 
would be suspicious of," one neighbor, who lives directly next door to the 
Mayfield's, told KATU News.

Witness Watches Search Mosque

f05a65.jpg

In addition to the raid at Brandon Mayfield's home, KATU News learned 
agents also searched the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton.

A woman who lives at the apartment complex next to the mosque was at her 
kitchen window this morning and says she saw the whole thing, and now 
cannot believe what she is hearing.

"It's horrifying. It's absolutely horrifying to look out the window and see 
that they could possibly be doing any kind of
 I don't know," Aurora McCann 
told KATU News.

McCann was home for an early lunch when she saw the search from her kitchen 
window.

"I saw a couple of cop cars - one unmarked. I think it was black
 it was 
either black or white
 an unmarked car out here and a couple of people from 
the mosque - older gentlemen out there just talking."

[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040506portland_mosque_witness.wvx>Watch 
her story

At the time, McCann says she did not think much of the activity going on 
outside her window.

"They weren't engaging in conversation closely. I mean, they were pretty 
standoffish as far as, you know, discussing the topics, but I couldn't hear 
anything. I just assumed that it was maybe somebody that got pulled over," 
she said.

Hearing that it was actually part of an ongoing FBI investigation comes as 
a shock.

"This close - I mean the school bus stops right out here in front of this 
apartment building to pick up kids for school."

What Led To Thursday's Arrest

Material witness warrants, usually kept confidential by a federal judge, 
are used by the government to hold people suspected of having direct 
knowledge about a crime or to allow time for further investigation into the 
witness. Suspects may be held indefinitely without formal charges.

Officials would not provide any further details about the man or his 
alleged connection with the Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people and 
injured 2,000 others.

Spanish authorities blame the attack on Islamic extremists, possibly linked 
to al-Qaida.

Eighteen people have been charged to date in Spain - six charged with mass 
murder and the others with collaboration or with belonging to a terrorist 
organization.

The FBI and other U.S. agencies have warned that al-Qaida or its 
sympathizers might attempt to attack mass transit systems in major U.S. 
cities this summer.

Earlier this year, in Portland, the last of six men and a woman were 
sentenced on charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States by 
helping al-Qaida and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

Mayfield represented one of those people, Jeffrey Leon Battle, in a custody 
case involving Battle's son.

Law enforcement officials did not know of any further contacts between 
Mayfield and any of the other Portland terrorism defendants.

Mayfield had attempted to have Battle's son, who went by the Muslim name 
Esau in Portland, placed in the custody of an uncle who had also converted 
to Islam, rather than with his biological mother and Battle's former wife 
Angela Rowden of Houston. Rowden was awarded custody of the boy, who now 
goes by the name Geoffrey.

Related Stories and Video
[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040507mayfield_gma4am.wvx>ABC: Neal 
Karlinsky reports
[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040507mayfield_nelson_4am.wvx>Tom 
Nelson speaks Friday about accused friend
[]
  <http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=67100>Wife Of Accused Lawyer 
Speaks Out
[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040506mayfield_story_11p.wvx>Paul 
Bukta reports
[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040506portland_mosque_witness.wvx>Witness 
account at Mosque
[]
  <http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/040506portland_bed_of_terror.wvx>Portland 
a hotbed of terror?

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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