Brandon Mayfield

We are proud to welcome Brandon Mayfield as our first guest blogger at Project Hamad. His story is a cautionary one for anyone who thinks the suspension of habeas corpus, or the passage of the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), have no implications for the civil rights and liberties of law-abiding citizens. A Kansas-born U.S. Citizen, a former Army Lieutenant, an attorney in Portland, Oregon, Brandon Mayfield was wrongly accused and incarcerated for the terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain. Prior to his arrest the FBI had Mr. Mayfield and his family under warrantless surveillance and Mr. Mayfield is reasonably certain they broke into his house twice during this time period.

The FBI was positive they had a fingerprint match with one found on detonators in Spain. The fingerprint was described as a “100% match”, an “absolutely incontrovertible match” and a “bingo match.” On the other hand, when they sent Mayfield’s prints to the Spanish authorities they replied that his prints were “conclusively negative.” The FBI later admitted that Mayfield’s Muslim faith may have caused them to disregard the repeated reservations of the Spanish authorities regarding the fingerprint.

Nevertheless the FBI proceeded with their investigation of Mayfield which ultimately led to his arrest, seizure of legal files from his law office, and further searches of his home. For the first week of his imprisonment he was confined to “lock-down,” unable to communicate with his wife or kids. Meanwhile on the outside, a media frenzy was occurring based on information leaked by anonymous government sources.

Three weeks later Mayfield was released when Spanish authorities found a match with the fingerprints of an Algerian man, Ouhnane Daoud. The FBI and the Attorney General issued a formal apology.

Brandon Mayfield is currently involved in several lawsuits against the Federal government. One, to reclaim materials removed from his home and office, including DNA samples taken from his family’s toothbrushes. The other, a challenge of the constitutionality of the U.S. Patriot Act, particularly the sections that allowed the warrantless wiretapping and secret searches of Mr. Mayfield’s home. This case could reach oral arguments in district court sometime this spring with potential implications for us all.

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Dear concerned citizens,

If you value the notions of justice, due process and human decency you will get involved in a worthy project. Project Hamad is such a project. It is beyond doubt that there are innocent people sitting in prisons, detention centers, and military facilities around the world as a result of the federal government’s mismanaged and misguided war on terror.

I can tell you from experience that the government does target innocent individuals and lauds their capture as victories in their fight. But this fight is ruining the lives of people. Real people, with families and spouses, and concerned friends and others who love them and count on them.

Mr. Hamad is one of these people, among scores of others, who had the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, secretly abducted and stripped of his freedom.

I too was abducted and stripped of my freedom and subjected to personal pain, humiliation, threats, and uncertainty, not to mention the effect that it had and will continue to have on my family as well. I do not want what happened to me to happen to anyone else, to you and to your family.

I was fortunate enough to have the likes of Chris Schats, Steve Wax, and William Teesdale at the federal public defenders office to assist me at a time when things looked very bleak. They were caring, professional, and worked tirelessly to help me fight what seemed like at the time an insurmountable opponent.

They and the others who helped me and are now helping Mr. Hamad’s cause are warriors of justice and freedom. They care. But even though they are heroes (often unsung heroes) they do not possess superhuman strength and they do get tired. So that is where we can help. Collectively we can bring attention to an egregious wrong that has gone on much too long. That an innocent man or woman can spend even a moment confined against their will for unfounded and totally unsupported allegations of crimes they did not commit is a travesty. To spend years in such confinement is a crime in and of itself.

Please, help to stop the crime and to restore our time honored rights of privacy and due process. I implore you collectively to demand our individual rights be respected. to write your congressmen and women and insist that the men being held at guantanamo be given a right to an immediate trial, with the right to competent counsel of their choosing, to put on evidence and confront their witnesses and accusers, not a military tribunal.

Also insist that your representative abrogate sections 207, 213, and 218 of the Patriot Act (50 USC 1804 and 1823); get rid of NSA warrantless and FISA warranted wiretaps, and ask them to restore Habeus Corpus and to completely get rid of the recently enacted Military Commission Act, which strips us of an 800-year-old English right to challenge your arrest, and provides punishment without a judge and jury (known as a bill of attainder), both of which are prohibited by the original articles of the Constitution itself, Art.1 Sect. 9 and Art. 3 Sect. 2 sub. 3.

And also tell your representatives to free another innocent man: Adel Hamad. A man with a smile who cared about people. Ask them to care too.

By writing your local senators and representatives with detailed requests, you can put a check and balance on our governemnt branches and keep the tree of democracy strong.

I am proud to be an American and the ideals it has traditionally stood for. But we are a government of laws and not men. No man is above the law and no government is above the constitution. The Patriot act is unconstitutional, as is the recently enacted Military Commissions Act.

Mr. Hamad was targeted for who he is and for his beliefs, but religious profiling is not acceptable. The power of the government to secretly search your home or business without probable cause or to arrest and abduct you anywhere in the world under the guise of an alleged war on terror must be stopped. I look forward to the day the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act are no longer law or are declared unconstitutional and all citizens are safe from unwarranted arrests and searches by the federal government.

Sincerely, Brandon Mayfield.

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