Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

and young children. 121 He was detained for two weeks in jails in Texas and New York
before being released. He never testified before a grand jury or court.
Brandon Mayfield
When FBI agents arrested Oregon immigration and family attorney Brandon Mayfield at
his law office, a group of agents searched his cars, law office, and home. Although
Mayfield tried to keep his client files confidential, federal agents seized almost all of his
files. Meanwhile, Mayfield’s wife, Mona Mayfield, was at their house as dozens of agents
searched it for more than five hours. FBI officials forced her to sit at the kitchen table
and restricted her movement as they searched and seized items:
A half hour [after the federal agents entered], twelve other agents came
in … Two agents told me to sit at the table. The FBI said that we need
to contain the situation, and I could not watch. They searched the house
from 10:30 to 3 [p.m.]. I asked if I could make a phone call; they said no
… I told them I needed to go and pick up the kids. They told me if you
leave that you cannot come back. So I stayed until I could.
They were everywhere, and they piled all of our stuff in the living room.
… I asked to make phone calls. At first they would not let me.
Eventually they let me call Brandon’s mom. I guess they were
questioning her too and would not let her pick up the phone, so I left a
message. So then the phone rings and I pick it up and it’s Mike Isikoff
from Newsweek. He started asking all these questions. I asked the female
agent what’s going on? How did Isikoff know? She just said I don’t
know. They wouldn’t let me pick up the phone again. 122
“Evansville Eight”
The FBI frequently has transported witnesses to detention centers in a manner
consistent with the assumption that they were criminal suspects who posed a serious
121
HRW/ACLU e-mail interview with Dr. Albader al-Hazmi, Dharan, Saudi Arabia, April 22, 2004 (Interview with
Dr. Albader al-Hazmi). See also Ellise Pierce, “Coming Home,” Newsweek Web Exclusive, available online at:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/637609.asp?cp1=1, accessed on April 20, 2004 (Pierce, “Coming Home”) (“There
were six men with guns. They asked me if I knew Mohammed Atta and I said that I’d never heard that name.
They mentioned another name, Khalid-something, and I said I never heard that name.”).
122
HRW/ACLU interview with Mona Mayfield, wife of material witness Brandon Mayfield, Beaverton, Oregon,
July 22, 2004.
39 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G)