The Detroit terror convictions that Attorney General Ashcroft was so proud of are spriraling further into treacherous waters. Background here.

The news today is that the government's confidential informant in the case, Marwan Farhat, says that the FBI told him to break the law during the investigation.

In a Jan. 21 letter, written at the airport as he left for an undisclosed foreign country, informant Marwan Farhat said he was asked by FBI Special Agent Robert Pertuso to steal mail from Arab Muslims whom the federal government had identified as terror suspects.

Farhat, of Dearborn, claimed in a six-page letter to Pertuso that the FBI failed to deliver on a promise to give Farhat 25 percent of any money confiscated from the terror suspects. In his letter, Farhat said he received nothing.

“I worked around the clock helping and assisting the government of the United States to put Muslims in jail,” wrote Farhat, who said he assisted the FBI in giving information on scores of Arabs. “My life has been destroyed, abused and used to benefit your interests.”

He handed the letter, which was obtained by The Detroit News, to a U.S. immigration agent as he caught a flight from Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Wednesday. Fearful for his safety, and with the government’s approval, Farhat left the United States days after his identity was publicly revealed.