Reporting from Washington - FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III has strongly condemned Scotland's justice minister for freeing the only man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, saying in a letter released Saturday that his action had made a "mockery" of justice and encouraged terrorists everywhere.
Mueller's letter came on the heels of criticism by President Obama and other administration officials over the decision Thursday to release former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, who was convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people, most of them Americans.
But Mueller's letter, written Friday to Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, was unusual for its scorching criticism, particularly from a top U.S. law enforcement official with a reputation for diplomacy and public restraint.
EDIT: Public restraint, my ass ! Restraint is perceived as weakness in the muslim culture.
"Over the years I have been a prosecutor, and recently as the director of the FBI, I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors, since only the prosecutor handling the case has all the facts and the law before him in reaching the appropriate decision," Mueller writes in his letter to MacAskill. "Your decision to release Megrahi causes me to abandon that practice in this case.
"I do so because I am familiar with the facts, and the law, having been the assistant attorney general in charge of the investigation and indictment of Megrahi in 1991. And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of 'compassion.' " [...]
"Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law," Mueller wrote. "Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world."