This is classic, from a fairly short letter from FBI director - Robert S. Mueller 111 - to Scottish Minister Kenny MacAskill, re the release of Lockerbie bomber, Mr. Megrahi, on compassionate grounds:
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.
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.
a bit later:
Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation, the conviction by jury after the defendant is given all due process, and sentence appropriate to the crime, the terrorist will be freed by one man's exercise of "compassion."
There was no jury in this exceptional case, only three judges.
cheers
