I’ve written about Brandon Mayfield many times and today will probably be the last time. But it’s worth another look as I came across the Department of Justice’s internal report (PDF) on what went wrong in the case. This was released in January 2006 by the way.
First the basic facts of the case:
- March 11, 2004 – a series of bombs hit Madrid, Spain that end up killing 192 people and wounding 2,050.
- Spanish police recover a fingerprint from a bag of detonators and upload it to INTERPOL. This fingerprint, one of many recovered, is labeled Latent Finger Print 17 (LPF17).
- On March 19, the FBI run the digital copy of LFP 17 through AFIS (their fingerprint database) and identify it as belonging to Brandon Mayfield, an American citizen in Oregon who has never been to Spain in his life.
- On May 6, the FBI “detain” Mayfield on a material witness warrant, at first booking him under a false name and then later under his real name. He is kept in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day for three weeks (one of which was in the “mental ward” of the prison). His home and office are searched.
- On May 19, the Spanish police tell the FBI they’ve identified the fingerprint as belonging to Ouhnane Daoud, an Algerian man.
- On May 20, the FBI review Daoud’s fingerprint and tentatively conclude it is his and not Mayfield’s. Mayfield is released to “home detention”.
- On May 24, the “material witness” and other material against Mayfield is completely dropped.
- On July 16, the FBI finally issues a formal report that LFP 17 belongs to Daoud.
That’s what’s publically known. The DOJ’s own internal results show something quite interesting however.
To begin with, you have to remember that LFP 17 was a digital copy of the fingerprint. Spain was trying to track down the 3/11 bombers and put everything they had in Interpol’s database. The FBI did an automated search through AFIS and had a “hit” on Mayfield’s fingerprints on March 19.
If he was identified on March 19, why did they wait until May 6 to detain him and do a search of his home? Well the truth is that they didn’t wait. The dates are blacked out in the DOJ report but it’s clear that the FBI not only wiretapped Mayfield’s home (with a FISA warrant) but also did unannounced physical searches of his residence. And yes that’s legal in this case. And remember this is all before he was arrested or even told he was a suspect in this case.
By the way, Mayfield and his family knew someone had been in their house because FBI agents bolted one door the wrong way and left a footprint on the rug that was too big to belong to any of them. As far as Mayfield’s family were concerned, some burglar or criminal had been in their home and it freaked them out (as it would anyone).
The DOJ’s report reveals that what happened in the “match” of Mayfield’s print was that AFIS is designed to find the “nearest closest match” to any fingerprint. That’s true as I’ve used AFIS before. So the FBI never found a perfect match for LFP 17 fingerprint, just a “near” match, and one of them was Mayfield’s. Since Mayfield was a Muslim and had done some pro bono legal work for a terrorist suspect, they immediately thought they had their man.
The FBI says not only did they make an initial “match” of Mayfield to LFP 17, but a second and then third person confirmed it. So how did three people get it wrong? Well it seems that some parts of Mayfield’s fingerprint do match LFP17. There was a whole upper left quadrant however that did not match at all. The FBI then just “assumed” it was a second overlapping fingerprint. Furthermore, all of the people making secondary “confirmations” that it was Mayfield’s prints had already been told that the Bureau had confirmed it was. So they saw exactly what they were looking for. I should also mention here that the FBI were only examining a “third generation” digital copy of the fingerprint and never examined the original.
But wait, it gets worse. The FBI “identified” LFP 17 as Mayfield on March 19. The police in Spain were of course quite pleased to see that some of the perpetrators had been identified. They then ran their own analysis of Mayfield’s print and determined it did not match. This happened on April 13 and not only that, but the FBI told the Spanish they were wrong on April 15. So why did the FBI ignore the fact that Spain’s own forensic experts had determined LFP 17 was not Mayfield’s?
We believe that the FBI Laboratory’s overconfidence in the skill and superiority of its examiners prevented it from taking the “April 13 Negative Report” as seriousl as it shoudl have. A better response to a conflicting determination by another forensic laboratory would have been first to determine the complete basis for the other laboratory’s disagreement before committing anew to the validity of the original determination, and also to arrange for a fresh examination of the relevant prints but a new examiner who had not previously committed hmself to a particular conclusion. The FBI Laboratory took neither of these steps.
In other words, the FBI thought the Spanish were too incompetent to match Mayfield to the LFP 17 prints because nobody is as high and mighty as the FBI.
And yet it’s even worse than that. The Spanish police said Mayfield’s prints weren’t a match on April 13. The FBI told the Spanish they were sure it was Mayfield’s on April 15. But on April 21, the FBI submitted several affidavits to a Spanish judge that stated the Spanish police agreed with the FBI’s “confirmation” when in reality all the Spanish had done was agree to re-examine LFP 17. In other words, the FBI lied to Spanish authorities.
Therefore the FBI had incorrectly matched Mayfield’s prints, been TOLD they were not his prints by another forensics lab (Spain) and were wiretapping and searching Mayfield’s home before he was even arrested.
Mayfield would be in jail right now if the Spanish police hadn’t identified LFP 17 as belonging to the Algerian citizen Daoud. And notice it took the FBI almost an entire month to conclude that the Spanish were right. Unbelievable!
I should add here that this fingerprint match was the only evidence connecting Mayfield to the Madrid bombings. The man had never even been to Spain and had absolutely no ties or even allegations of ties to any of the people involved. The only thing “Spanish” in the Mayfield’s home was his 6 year old son’s Spanish homework. And yes, the FBI seized it as “evidence”.
And let’s not forget they wiretapped Mayfield’s home. From the DOJ report:
In addition, some witnesses expressed doubts that the government could have obtained the electronic surveillance information it sought had it attempted to use traditional criminal investigative methods.
That’s referring to the fact that the DOJ went to FISA to obtain the wiretap, making it a “foreign intelligence” case rather than a criminal one. All completely legal I’m afraid.
The FBI later apologized to Mayfield, saying it was a “mistake” that the man’s house was wiretapped, his home and office were searched and he was kept in solitary confinement for three weeks. Sorry about that, old chap!
Brandon Mayfield has been an American citizen his entire life. And if they can do it to him, “unintentionally” or not, they can do it to you.
Cross-posted from Flogging the Simian
