Griper Blade: Exonerated Madrid Bombing Suspect was Wrongly Investigated Before the Crime

Yesterday, Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield settled a suit against the FBI for nearly $2 million. Mayfield, a convert to Islam, was falsely linked by the FBI to the 2004 train bombings in Madrid. The FBI said that Mayfield was the victim of fingerprint error. As a result, he was falsely arrested. He may also have been falsely investigated -- before the event he was suspected of playing a part in -- but more on that later.

FBI Press Release:

Soon after the submitted fingerprint was associated with Mr. Mayfield, Spanish authorities alerted the FBI to additional information that cast doubt on our findings. As a result, the FBI sent two fingerprint examiners to Madrid, who compared the image the FBI had been provided to the image the Spanish authorities had.

Upon review it was determined that the FBI identification was based on an image of substandard quality, which was particularly problematic because of the remarkable number of points of similarity between Mr. Mayfield's prints and the print details in the images submitted to the FBI.

What a coincidence! What are the odds that a bad scan would show a "remarkable number of points of similarity" to a muslim in Oregon? The odds would suggest a match to an innocent Christian, wouldn't they? After all, computerized fingerprint analysis is estimated to be 99% accurate -- and you'd think that that estimate would factor in bad scans...

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Tags: news politics terrorism FBI crime human rights Bush neocon republican cowardice Maher Arar Brandon Mayfield