[A long appreciation of Robert Mueller on the website of the Washingtonian, on the day that he demits office as Director of the FBI, contains the following paragraph:]
In the summer of 2009, Mueller became the most vocal US opponent of the release by the Scottish government of Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only person imprisoned for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 — a case Mueller had originally helped oversee at the Justice Department under President George H W Bush. Megrahi was greeted as a hero on the tarmac in Libya after being released on “compassionate grounds” by the Scots as part of health concerns that, based on newly released documents, seem to have been more about helping British firms access Libya’s oil reserves. Amid a series of tepid official condemnations — President Obama labeled it “highly objectionable” — Mueller’s letter to Scottish minister Kenny MacAskill stood out. Far from an official missive of the state to a fellow government official, Mueller’s letter was personal and heartfelt, written by a man not prone to public rebukes. As he wrote, “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. Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world.”
[The full text of Mr Mueller’s foolish and intemperate letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice can be read here.]
No doubt Mueller was hoping the weight of official condemnation would outweigh in public minds the lack of evidence and intimidate those minded to look!
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