Another Fine Effort to Win "Hearts and Minds"

Seems like the FBI has a problem with muslim lawyers that defend a convicted terrorist. Surprising? Hardly. Who wouldn't be suspicious of someone like that. Especially if their fingerprints show up in Madrid, after the March 11th bombing. There's just one problem: the prints didn't match.

The Washington Post has the story here.

FBI fingerprint examiners resisted admitting their mistake in linking an Oregon lawyer to the Madrid train bombing in 2004 in part because they had learned of his conversion to Islam and that he had represented a terrorism defendant, according to a report released today by the Justice Department's inspector general.

The 20-page summary report by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also said that while Brandon Mayfield's fingerprint was similar to one found on a bag of detonators in Madrid, FBI examiners ignored important differences and violated some of their own procedures by insisting for weeks that there was a definitive match.

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The examiners did not know that Mayfield was a Muslim before making their initial conclusion, but they did learn of his religion and of his role as an attorney representing terrorism suspects in subsequent weeks, the report said.

Fine's office said in a news release that "Mayfield's religion was not the sole or primary cause of the FBI's failure to question the original misidentification and catch its error."

But, it added, "we believe that Mayfield's representation of a convicted terrorist and other facts developed during the field investigation, including his Muslim religion, also likely contributed to the examiners' failure to sufficiently reconsider the identification after legitimate questions about it were raised by the Spanish National Police."

Spanish police had conducted their own fingerprint analysis and informed the FBI on April 13, 2004, that its result was "negativo" for Mayfield. The FBI initially disputed that finding, however, even dispatching an examiner to Madrid to explain the FBI's opposing view.

If the evidence is there, that's one thing. If it's not, then why invite trouble by targetting the man? All the FBI has done, besides opening themselves up to a lawsuit, is validate the insane claims of islamo-fascists that insist the US leads a crusade against muslims. Way to win hearts and minds!

A billion people are not our enemy. Why do those responsible for our protection continue to act as though they are?