"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Remember Brandon Mayfield?

Brandon Mayfield was arrested in connection with the Madrid train bombings in 2004 under provisions of the Partiot Act. From CNN:

According to an FBI affidavit at the time, his fingerprint was identified as being on a blue plastic bag containing detonators found in a van used by the bombers.

The FBI's fingerprint identification was wrong, however, and Mayfield was released several days later.

What the article doesn't mention is that Spanish authorities, who had forwarded the fingerprint info, knew it was a bad match and told our the FBI so and that Mayfield wasn't a suspect. The FBI, of course, knew better. As the case developed, in the words of Gertrude Stein, "there was no there there" to the extent that even the FBI could figure it out.

That's $2 million of our (yours and mine) money.
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