U.S. To Pay $2M For False Terror Arrest

(CBS/AP)  A lawyer the FBI wrongly arrested after the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings because of a misidentified fingerprint has settled part of his lawsuit against the U.S. government for $2 million.

Brandon Mayfield, who said he was detained for two weeks in 2004, maintained that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith.

"Not only does my detention as a material witness in the Madrid bombing underscore the fallacy that fingerprint identification is reliable, I hope the public will remember that the U.S. government also targeted me and my family because of our Muslim religion," he said in a news release Wednesday.

But Mayfield got something the government rarely gives anyone under investigation: a formal apology from the United States of America, reports CBS News Justice Department producer Stephanie Lambidakis. The apology, a separate two-paragraph statement attached to the agreement, also expresses regret that the government "mistakenly linked Mr. Mayfield" to the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Not mentioned in the settlement or the Justice Department statement is the full picture of what FBI agents sought and found during their clandestine search of Mayfield's house: computer drives and documents that were copied, DNA samples taken and preserved on cotton swabs, six cigarette butts, and 355 digital photographs, Lambidakis reports.

Mayfield's lawsuit against the government got a big boost in January when a Justice Department's internal watchdog, the Inspector General, released a blistering report on how FBI examiners "misindentified" Mayfield's fingerprint, Lambidakis says. The findings cited confusion among the FBI fingerprint examiners and described the mistake as a "watershed event for the FBI lab, which has described latent fingerpint identification as the 'gold standard for forensic science.'"

Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said the FBI has since adopted suggestions for improving its fingerprint identification process "to ensure that what happened to Mr. Mayfield does not happen again."

But the local FBI office said Wednesday that it was proud of its work in the case, CBS News reports, other than the fingerprint error.

"If a similar investigation was being conducted, and we were provided a fingerprint identification, we would do exactly what we did in the case of Mr. Mayfield," said agent Robert Jordan.

Two internal Justice investigations cleared the FBI and prosecutors of wrongdoing, said Scolinos. A December 2005 review of the matter by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility found that federal prosecutors who handled the investigation acted appropriately.

A month later, Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine concluded Mayfield's faith was not the reason the FBI began its investigation, and that the agency did not misuse provisions of the USA Patriot Act.

Mayfield was arrested in May 2004 on the basis of a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators in Madrid that was mistakenly matched to him after the March 11, 2004 train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500. Mayfield was jailed on a material witness warrant but was released after the FBI acknowledged the fingerprint was not his.

The government acknowledged in the settlement that it "performed covert physical searches of the Mayfield home and law office, and it also conducted electronic surveillance targeting Mr. Mayfield at both his home and law office," according to a news release from Mayfield's attorney, Elden Rosenthal.

The settlement allows Mayfield to continue to pursue his challenge of the USA Patriot Act, Rosenthal said. Mayfield claims the act violates the Fourth Amendment because it allows government searches without probable cause that a crime has been committed.

"The Patriot Act is decidedly not patriotic," Rosenthal said. "We will vigorously pursue this constitutional challenge to the highest courts in the country."

[firststate]

From the neocon member's handbook:
With regard to this constitution thing, after careful review we have instituted the following updates as a part of the war on whoever it is we're after this ______ (insert time period)

Only article 2, okay and maybe some of article 3 are permissible during the _____ (insert current crisis) crisis. Forget everything else in the Constitution, especially that pesky bill of rights foolishness. Article 1 is changed, now: Congress shall occupy that big building at the other end of the mall from the ellipse. Their purpose shall be to heap praise upon the executive and such judiciary as may be approved by the executive. Neglect of that duty, especially with regard to the executive is to be considered treason, under penalty of summary execution (short summary, his/her praise level was low, he/she has been executed.

Updates are at the discretion of the _________ (insert english word for Der Fuhrer).

[firststate]

The neocons think the constitution is seditious.

[alphaa10-2009]

The Mayfield case demonstrates how Bush-- who came into office claiming he would get government off the backs of Americans-- ended up placing America under more Big Brother surveillance than ever before.

Unfortunately, "civil liberties" is still a phrase Department of Justice staffers must look up, to determine latest semantic variation. Atty. Gen. Gonzales understands the issues at stake in the same manner a cartoonist could be compared to Rembrandt-- he is totally out of his league.

The so-called Patriot Act is simply McCarthyism written large, in modern script, and with the Bush assurance, "Trust us... we know what to do."

[glidescube]

Suppose the government only watched and followed neocons? How much would they embrace this patriot act then?

[firststate]

Some states require that individuals granted professional licenses (attorneys, doctors, nurses, engineers, contractors etc.) be fingerprinted and have background checks done. The same is true for reserve police officers and deputies, volunteer firemen, teachers, school employees and volunteers, and even library volunteers. Limiting exposure to liability has become a necessity and can be a good thing.

[firststate]

If nobody in the government f'd up, why the $2 million AND a written apology from the United States of America?

[mrvolleyba11]

I'm wondering why his fingerprints are on file with the FBI or any government policing agency? They have to have his fingers prints in order to get a (supposed) match in the first place and about the only way for that to happen is to have a police record or have a govement security related job! I do think it was wrong what the FBI did while he was improperly detained but am a little curious about the finger print record.

[dwayneahall]

I think the governments actions were awful. I once thought Laywers didn't go to jail, but now see that it pays a million a week if they do. I say this as someone that was jailed wrongfully: This is a rare exception that anyone gets paid and an apology.

[movsrus]

I am glad Mr Mayfield got the government for 2 million and hope he is succesful in pursuit of his lawsuit for violation of his rights under the Patriot Act. Our government is worse than Big Brother and it is time someone smacked it right between the eyes to say that we have had enough of this foolishness. Too bad this fine could not be taken out of the salaries of the idiots in the FBI who screwed up in the first place.

[book54552134]

Lucky for this guy that he happened to be an attorney who knew how to protect his rights. Were it not for that, it's likely that he would be in the same legal limbo as the plantiff in Germany - or worse, would still be a prisoner, somewhere, without anyone knowing why, or where.