Arrest follows years of outrage

It was March 2003, the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, and into the office of dumbfounded Pakistani newspaper editor Najam Sethi walked an articulate, fresh-faced Vermont woman, saying she wanted to vent her anger at America in his pages.

Violence-plagued Lahore teemed with anti-American sentiment, yet Catherine C. Mayo seemed to move about with ease, Sethi recalled. And writing for the Daily Times of Pakistan, Mayo told about her 1960s activism. About her love of Cat Stevens and Howard Dean. About the mountains and lakes of her native Vermont. And about her shame and anger at America.

In an open letter to her granddaughters published on June 24, 2003, Mayo wrote: ``Governments in the world right now have made terrible decisions and have caused a lot of fear and bloodshed. But remember, girls, the world is beautiful, and it is yours."

She wrote for the newspaper until July. ``Then she just disappeared," Sethi said.

Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., was arrested Wednesday aboard a Washington, D.C.-bound flight that was diverted to Logan International Airport after she made suspicious remarks, startled passengers and crew with her behavior, and resisted efforts to calm her. It was the first major air scare since British authorities broke up a terrorist plot last week, triggering a tightening of flight security worldwide.

Mayo was charged yesterday with intimidating flight crew members and interfering with the crew, a federal felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Her court-appointed lawyer, Page Kelley, said Mayo suffers from mental illness, and authorities plan to determine if she is mentally competent to stand trial.

US Magistrate Judge Timothy Hillman ordered Mayo held without bail pending a detention hearing next Thursday.

Mayo showed up in court wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt and, according to Kelley, was ``just barely lucid" and appeared agitated when she spotted FBI agents who had questioned her for hours the previous day seated behind her in the courtroom.

Assistant US Attorney James Lang said the government was seeking to detain Mayo without bail on the grounds that she was a danger to the community and a risk of flight. ``I think there's an obvious question here of competency," said Lang, adding that the defense was seeking to have a psychologist of its choosing evaluate Mayo.

At a press briefing outside the courthouse after the proceeding, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan was asked how Mayo was able to get prohibited items, like the bottle of water and hand lotion, on board. He said, ``I really don't have any idea in terms of how those items ended up on this flight."

But he said federal authorites were sharing information about the case with law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad. ``If there are additional security measures that need to be taken, then I'm confident they will be done."

When asked if there was a security breach, Sullivan replied, ``I can't say that."

Mayo did not comment in court yesterday, but the picture that emerges from her intensely personal writings and from brief interviews with her family is that of a longtime liberal activist who became angry and devastated by the turn of events in the world since Sept. 11, 2001.

In that time, she developed an affinity for Pakistan, an impoverished Muslim nation that has become both a US ally and a possible hiding place of numerous terrorists, including Osama bin Laden.

But what triggered Mayo's strange and provocative in-flight behavior at a time of heightened tension surrounding air travel remains a mystery.

``She has a very serious mental illness," Kelley said. ``This case is not about terrorism. This is a case about somebody who is mentally ill. She has a history."

During the flight from London, Mayo first alarmed passengers by pulling out a just-banned bottle of water, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court yesterday. Then she allegedly made comments that led the flight crew to believe she was referring to a bomb and that she was associated with Al Qaeda.

Passengers said she had paced up and down the aisle and at one point urinated on the floor. She was handcuffed and subdued until F-15 jets escorted the plane to Logan. Local authorities, working with British officials, continued to investigate yesterday how she managed to board the flight with the water, cigarette lighters, and hand lotion. Mayo also had a short screwdriver and matches, both of which are permitted.

One of Mayo's three sons, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. ``I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid," he told Associated Press.

Her former husband, William Mayo, has said she had ``emotional issues."

But Sethi said the woman he met in his Lahore office in 2003 was ``very composed and very adult."

He asked Mayo to write a few columns about being an American in Pakistan, paying her 1,500 rupees, about $5, for each one.

Mayo clearly took issue with US foreign policy.

``I am an American child of the 1960s," she wrote on March 18, 2003, two days before US troops poured into Iraq. ``We defied the standards of our parents and declared that a war was unjust. All conflicts can be settled by peaceful means."

Sethi said he thought her writing was ``innocuous and interesting." But then she simply stopped showing up.

``She seemed to be traveling around," he said. ``I haven't really thought about her since."

Mayo's family said she had traveled to Pakistan many times in the past few years.

Her lawyer said yesterday that Mayo's family said she ``has a problem being grounded in reality" that has required past hospitalizations.