No stinkin' constitution here

[Major Variola (ret)]

"Material-witness warrants are used by the government to hold people
 suspected of having direct knowledge about a crime or to give agents
more
 time to investigate."



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-madrid7may07,1,303922.story?coll=la-home-headlines

                   ALOHA, Ore.  A Portland lawyer was detained Thursday
by the FBI after
                   federal officials linked his fingerprint to
bomb-related evidence associated with
                   the Madrid railway attacks that killed 191 people in
March, a federal law
                   enforcement official said.

                   The arrest of Brandon Mayfield, 37, raises the
possibility of a U.S. connection
                   to the March 11 bombings, which Spanish authorities
have blamed on Islamic
                   extremists.

                                                           The former
Army
                                                           officer, a
Muslim
                                                           convert, was
held on a

material-witness warrant
                                                           after the FBI
searched
                                                           his home in
the Portland
                                                           suburb of
Aloha.
                                                           Mayfield's
arrest was
                                                           first
reported Thursday
                                                           on Newsweek
                                                           magazine's
website.

                                                           He has not
been charged
                                                           with any
crime, and the
                                                           federal
official stressed
                                                           that the
investigation was
                                                           continuing
and is in many
                   ways preliminary. Spanish officials cautioned earlier
this week that they did not
                   consider the fingerprint evidence to be conclusive.

                   Material-witness warrants are used by the government
to hold people
                   suspected of having direct knowledge about a crime or
to give agents more
                   time to investigate.
<snip>