public, M.R. Hoover is tossing in his grave (for additional reasons).

The valid goal you describe could easily have been accomplished with a public statement like "No evidence of X or Y; no reason at this time to think A or B as a factor or motivation; no proof whatsoever of a conspiracy or larger intended attack".

Instead, our federal law enforcement quislings, doubtless with direction from above, declared affirmatively, definitively---"No hate crime. No terroristic act. No religious motivation. Isolated Incident. No conspiracy".

If the latter still might have been less efficacious than the former in quelling a "backlash", cry me a river. It doesn't outweigh the obligation not to deceive. And what would the "backlash" consist of, anyway, an execution-style assassination spree against Americam Muslims? Yeah, sure. A few guys got roughed up after 9/11 for heaven's sake. That sort of thing happens all the time, all over the world, in response to Muslim terror.

The FBI would call it a hate-crime, I'd warrant.