Longrider

Following on from the bleating about Al-Megrahi’s release, I see that the director of the FBI thinks that it is his place to lecture a foreign country about how to run its affairs.

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.

And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of “compassion.”

The decision, of course, was clearly explained. And, the facts of the original case were not the issue. Al-Megrahi fulfilled the criteria for compassionate release under the Scottish system. That is what MacAskill needed to consider. According to the Scottish government, that is what he did consider.

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.

It is neither – it has repeatedly been explained that the prisoner fulfilled the relevant criteria. Nothing inexplicable about that. And, frankly, for Mueller to assume the arrogance to lecture another country about its justice system is pretty rich. When the USA ceases to indulge in its egregious plea bargaining arrangements and keeping convicted murderers for years – decades – on death row before finally ritually murdering them, then, and only then, may representatives of the US justice system step onto the high moral ground and presume to lecture others about justice. Until then, shutting the fuck up is the most appropriate action.

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.”

Cockwaffle. Presuming that he is guilty – and there is doubt about that – he will die an a few weeks. During those last weeks, he will be semi-comatose, bedridden and in pain. Whether he endures that at home in Libya or in a Glasgow hospital ward under guard makes little practical difference. To suggest that this gives comfort in any way to terrorists is risible nonsense. And, frankly, as I stated earlier, it is compassion and mercy that sets us apart from the terrorist.

Your action rewards a terrorist even though he never admitted to his role in this act of mass murder and even though neither he nor the government of Libya ever disclosed the names and roles of others who were responsible.

If you really, really think that allowing him home to die a painful death in a few weeks time is “reward” then you have a very odd idea of what a reward is. This is not justice you seek, it is revenge. And, of course, an innocent man would not admit to what he had not done and he would not reveal the names of others involved, because, surprise, being innocent, he wouldn’t know, would he?

Your action makes a mockery of the emotions, passions and pathos of all those affected by the Lockerbie tragedy: the medical personnel who first faced the horror of 270 bodies strewn in the fields around Lockerbie, and in the town of Lockerbie itself; the hundreds of volunteers who walked the fields of Lockerbie to retrieve any piece of debris related to the breakup of the plane; the hundreds of FBI agents and Scottish police who undertook an unprecedented global investigation to identify those responsible; the prosecutors who worked for years – in some cases a full career – to see justice done.

But most importantly, your action makes a mockery of the grief of the families who lost their own on December 21, 1988.

More utter cockwaffle. And if the wrong man was convicted, that is the mockery. If the right man was convicted, then allowing him home to die is the right thing to do. He has served eight years. Given that he is dying, eight years is all he is going to serve. And, frankly, the emotions of the victims should play no part in any justice system. The only thing that matters is the evidence and nothing but the evidence. When we allow emotive nonsense such as the above to creep into the justice system, justice is damaged.

You could not have spent much time with the families, certainly not as much time as others involved in the investigation and prosecution.

Irrelevant.

You could not have visited the small wooden warehouse where the personal items of those who perished were gathered for identification – the single sneaker belonging to a teenager; the Syracuse sweatshirt never again to be worn by a college student returning home for the holidays; the toys in a suitcase of a businessman looking forward to spending Christmas with his wife and children.

Irrelevant.

You apparently made this decision without regard to the views of your partners in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy.

Irrelevant.

Although the FBI and Scottish police, and prosecutors in both countries, worked exceptionally closely to hold those responsible accountable, you never once sought our opinion, preferring to keep your own counsel and hiding behind opaque references to “the need for compassion.”

Your opinion is irrelevant. This was a matter for the Scottish administration under Scottish law and fuck all to do with you and the US administration, athough you choose to ignore that fact that MacAskill did, indeed, consult widely before making his decision.

You have given the family members of those who died continued grief and frustration. You have given those who sought to assure that the persons responsible would be held accountable the back of your hand.

No, he has not. He applied the law as it should be applied.

You have given Megrahi a “jubilant welcome” in Tripoli, according to the reporting. Where, I ask, is the justice?

MacAskill did not give Megrahi a jubilant welcome, the Libyans did. As for justice – when you can differentiate between that and revenge, maybe your question would carry more weight.

The Scottish government’s response to this pile of utter tripe,

Compassionate release is not part of the US justice system but it is part of Scotland’s.

says it all, really.