Robert Mueller, the Director of the F.B.I, sent a letter to the Justice Secretary in Scotland over the decision to release Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the bomber of Pan Am 103, slamming the decision.
Mueller, who usually stays out of the public eye,
sent a scathing letter to Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary in Scotland, over the release on "compassionate grounds." The letter is a rare glimpse of anger in the normally composed FBI Director. In addition to MacAskill, Mueller sent the letter to the families of the bombing victims.
"I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors," Mueller wrote. "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. ... And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of 'compassion." He goes on to say that al Megrahi's release was "as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law."
The
case is particularly close to Mueller who was the person in the FBI leading the investigation into the 1988 bombing and headed the case that resulted in al Megrahi's indictment in 1991. Outrage over the release intensified when the convicted terrorist was welcomed home to Libya with a large crowd and treated as a rock star. According to doctors, al Megrahi has only a few weeks to live due to terminal prostate cancer. President Obama himself called the release "highly objectionable."
In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland and killed 259 on the plane and 11 on the ground. Among the dead were 189 Americans. To date, al Megrahi is the only person that has been convicted of the terrorist attack.
