Patriot Act challenge

November 29, 2006 5:23 PM

"We are Muslims. We are American. We are patriotic," Mona Mayfield said. "We are unhappy with the current administration stripping away our rights." The federal government has agreed to pay Brandon Mayfield $2 million to settle part of a lawsuit he filed after the FBI misidentified a fingerprint and wrongly arrested him in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings.

The FBI did not mention Mayfield's faith in its press release issued following his release, and reiterated some of an OIG report's findings on their investigation in a follow-up. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner also issued a statement praising the report, which did find that the Patriot Act was not misused. There is some controversy about what the report says about Mayfield's faith, and parts of the report were redacted before it was declassified.
posted by owhydididoit (21 comments total)

"We are Muslims. We are American. We are patriotic," Mona Mayfield said. "We are unhappy with the current administration stripping away our rights."

Of course not, those are the rights you were planning to use for your terrorist attacks!!!

/just kidding
//some neocon was going to say it in a more eloquent way anyhow
posted by IronLizard at 6:07 PM on November 29, 2006

These rights are yooooour rights,
These rights are myyyyyy rights,
These rights belong to you and me.
posted by stirfry at 6:17 PM on November 29, 2006

Is the other man one armed?

“Using standard protocols and methodologies...(but)...Upon review it was determined that the FBI identification was based on an image of substandard quality”

Detained for two weeks while they did that, I don’t know that that is torture. And those IG’s are pretty square.

Still, covert physical searches, electronic surveillance of a law office...is it worse that the Patriot act was perhaps misused or that it was determined to have been used properly?
posted by Smedleyman at 6:57 PM on November 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

I demand that Mayfield prove that he is not working with our enemies (or penguins.)
posted by homunculus at 7:27 PM on November 29, 2006

Chairman Sensenbrenner also issued a statement praising the report, which did find that the Patriot Act was not misused.

Sensenbrenner really loves the Patriot Act.
posted by homunculus at 7:32 PM on November 29, 2006

redacted = censored

when I was reading through the GAO account of the persons detained after 9/11 it struck me as strange the material that would be redacted censored (ages of persons detained for instance), additionally the number of people did not add up from section to section.
posted by edgeways at 8:21 PM on November 29, 2006

I guess I'm confused... why exactly did he get anymoney? I understand that blahblahblaah - and I'm a card carrying ACLU memory and everything else... but he was only detained for 2 weeks and all those crappy searches seem to be in accord with the Patriot (crap) Act

I guess I just don't understand why he got $2m - I'll be arrested for 2 weeks for 2 mil...

Dont prisioners who get falsely impressioned for YEARS usually get nearly nothing?
posted by meta x zen at 10:10 PM on November 29, 2006

I guess I'm confused... why exactly did he get anymoney?

Because it's worth way more than $2 million to the FBI to maintain the illusion that fingerprint matching is done by scanning prints into a computer, watching it go *beep beep beep*, and then arresting the guy who's picture pops up on the screen once it's done.
posted by queen zixi at 2:02 AM on November 30, 2006

Sensenbrenner would need to evolve up to be a horse's ass. If he praises something, I immediately wonder what's screwed up about it.
posted by mephron at 4:43 AM on November 30, 2006

but he was only detained for 2 weeks and all those crappy searches seem to be in accord with the Patriot (crap) Act

Yeah, it's weird, either you are disappeared to Gitmo or a CIA torture prison overseas, or you get a cool $2 mil. Beating this Patriot Act is like hitting the jackpot in an Orwellian lottery.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:59 AM on November 30, 2006

Okay, it's an AP report, but I really like the fact that it's in Forbes.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:25 AM on November 30, 2006

I'm a little confused as to what the Patriot Act has to do with the FBI misidentifying a fingerprint.
posted by Dolukhanova at 7:38 AM on November 30, 2006

I'm a little confused as to what the Patriot Act has to do with the FBI misidentifying a fingerprint.

I am guessing that it might be that the partial print would have been insufficient grounds for the detention without the leeway provided by Patriot Act.

The 2 million is probably because the victim is a lawyer as opposed to someone who can be dumped on without knowing what recourse is available.

I'm also curious if he was subjected to interrogation but is not allowed to mention it.
posted by srboisvert at 7:55 AM on November 30, 2006

I'm also curious if he was subjected to interrogation but is not allowed to mention it.

That would certainly provide a reason for him to challenge USAPATRIOT.
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:09 AM on November 30, 2006

It makes me wonder whether the government is secretly monitoring all Muslims. Mayfield is a white convert to Islam who still retained his Anglo-American name after conversion. If Mayfield was singled out for persecution as a Muslim, but he has no skin tone or surname that marks him as "other," then how did the government know?
posted by jonp72 at 11:18 AM on November 30, 2006

In other news, Right Wing Talk Radio goes nuts when Ellison says he will take his oath of office on the Koran, not the Christian Bible. Of course, they all fail to note that Congressmen do not take oaths on Bibles, they just raise their hands.
posted by caddis at 1:37 PM on November 30, 2006

Interview with Mayfield.
posted by homunculus at 1:42 PM on November 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

The Bush administration's latest, and most appalling, assault on habeas corpus.
posted by homunculus at 2:02 PM on November 30, 2006

That's horrifying, homunculus. I hope Al-Marri finds relief soon.

I want to believe that Americans are finally realizing that fascism is encroaching, and I take our recent elections as some evidence of that. But while it's clear that the Democrats have some mandate in Congress, they don't have enough seats to really run things. For better or worse, public opinion, in the form of polls, might matter more now than it would if the Democrats were to have a solid majority in both houses.

What needs to happen is for more and more mainstream media to start publishing articles such as the one you linked. Cynically, I think that fewer people will sympathize with him than with Mayfield, who is a veteran US native son.
posted by owhydididoit at 7:12 PM on November 30, 2006

I must have called her about 9:00, 9:30, sometime in that timeframe. I got an unexpected knock on the door, because I usually don't take clients unless it's by appointment. And strangely enough, I saw a man and a woman standing there, looking self-important, thinking that they were maybe trying to sell me something. And I thought I would just say, “Hi,” you know, “what is it that you need? I’m busy,” and have them be on their way. But instead they forcefully pushed their way into my office.

And at that point, I told them -- I mean, they identified themselves, said they were FBI agents, said they wanted to talk to me. And I kind of motioned for them to step out of my office. And I said, “If you want to talk to me, just -- if you want to, you could put your questions in writing, and I may or may not get back to you.” And at that point, then they continued to push their way into my office and eventually handcuffed me and identified that they were going to arrest me.

Chilling.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:16 PM on November 30, 2006

Extraordinary Rendition Victim in U.S. to Appeal Lawsuit Dismissal
posted by homunculus at 1:55 PM on December 1, 2006