The Clintons' Terror Pardons
Debra Burlingame
February 12, 2008
It was nearly 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve, 1982. Two officers on New York
Police Department's elite bomb squad rushed to headquarters at One
Police Plaza, where minutes earlier an explosion had destroyed the
entrance to the building. Lying amid the carnage was Police Officer
Rocco Pascarella, his lower leg blasted off.
"He was ripped up like someone took a box cutter and shredded his
face," remembered Detective Anthony Senft, one of the bomb-squad
officers who answered the call 25 years ago. "We really didn't even
know that he was a uniformed man until we found his weapon, that's how
badly he was injured."
About 20 minutes later, Mr. Senft and his partner, Richard Pastorella,
were blown 15 feet in the air as they knelt in protective gear to
defuse another bomb. Detective Senft was blinded in one eye, his facial
bones shattered, his hip severely fractured. Mr. Pastorella was blinded
in both eyes and lost all the fingers of his right hand. A total of
four bombs exploded in a single hour on that night, including at FBI
headquarters in Manhattan and the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
The perpetrators were members of Armed Forces of National Liberation,
FALN (the Spanish acronym), a clandestine terrorist group devoted to
bringing about independence for Puerto Rico through violent means. Its
members waged war on America with bombings, arson, kidnappings, prison
escapes, threats and intimidation. The most gruesome attack was the
1975 Fraunces Tavern bombing in Lower Manhattan. Timed to go off during
the lunch-hour rush, the explosion decapitated one of the four people
killed and injured another 60.
FALN bragged about the bloodbath, calling the victims "reactionary
corporate executives" and threatening: "You have unleashed a storm from
which you comfortable Yankees can't escape." By 1996, the FBI had
linked FALN to 146 bombings and a string of armed robberies -- a reign
of terror that resulted in nine deaths and hundreds of injured victims.
On Aug. 7, 1999, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. African embassy
bombings that killed 257 people and injured 5,000, President Bill
Clinton reaffirmed his commitment to the victims of terrorism, vowing
that he "will not rest until justice is done." Four days later, while
Congress was on summer recess, the White House quietly issued a press
release announcing that the president was granting clemency to 16
imprisoned members of FALN. What began as a simple paragraph on the AP
wire exploded into a major controversy.
Mr. Clinton justified the clemencies by asserting that the sentences
were disproportionate to the crimes. None of the petitioners, he
stated, had been directly involved in crimes that caused bodily harm to
anyone. "For me," the president concluded, "the question, therefore,
was whether their continuing incarceration served any meaningful
purpose."
His comments, including the astonishing claim that the FALN prisoners
were being unfairly punished because of "guilt by association," were
widely condemned as a concession to terrorists. Further, they were seen
as an outrageous slap in the face of the victims and a bitter betrayal
of the cops and federal law enforcement officers who had put their
lives on the line to protect the public and who had invested years of
their careers to put these people behind bars. The U.S. Sentencing
Commission affirmed a pre-existing Justice Department assessment that
the sentences, ranging from 30 to 90 years, were "in line with
sentences imposed in other cases for similar terrorist activity."
The prisoners were convicted on a variety of charges that included
conspiracy, sedition, violation of the Hobbes Act (extortion by force,
violence or fear), armed robbery and illegal possession of weapons and
explosives -- including large quantities of C-4 plastic explosive,
dynamite and huge caches of ammunition. Mr. Clinton's action was
opposed by the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. attorney offices
that prosecuted the cases and the victims whose lives had been
shattered. In contravention of standard procedures, none of these
agencies, victims or families of victims were consulted or notified
prior to the president's announcement.
"I know the chilling evidence that convicted the petitioners," wrote
Deborah Devaney, one of the federal prosecutors who spent years on the
cases. "The conspirators made every effort to murder and maim. . . . A
few dedicated federal agents are the only people who stood in their
way."
Observed Judge George Layton, who sentenced four FALN defendants for
their conspiracy to use military-grade explosives to break an FALN
leader from Ft. Leavenworth Penitentiary and detonate bombs at other
public buildings, "[T]his case . . . represents one of the finest
examples of preventive law enforcement that has ever come to this
court's attention in the 20-odd years it has been a judge and in the 20
years before that as a practicing lawyer in criminal cases."
The FBI cracked the cases with the discovery of an FALN safe house and
bomb factory. Video surveillance showed two of those on the clemency
list firing weapons and building bombs intended for an imminent attack
at a U.S. military installation. FBI agents obtained a warrant and
entered the premises, surreptitiously disarming the bombs whose
components bore the unmistakable FALN signature. They found 24 pounds
of dynamite, 24 blasting caps, weapons, disguises, false IDs and
thousands of rounds of ammunition.
A total of six safe houses were ultimately uncovered. Seven hundred
hours of surveillance video were recorded, resulting in a mountain of
evidence connecting the 16 prisoners to multiple FALN operations past
and present.
Federal law enforcement agencies considered these individuals so
dangerous, extraordinary security precautions were taken at their
numerous trials. Courthouse elevators were restricted and no one,
including the court officers, was permitted to carry a firearm in the
courtroom.
Given all this, why would Bill Clinton, who had ignored the 3,226
clemency petitions that had piled up on his desk over the years,
suddenly reach into the stack and pluck out these 16 meritless cases?
(The New York Times ran a column with the headline, "Bill's Little
Gift.")
Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the midst of her state-wide "listening
tour" in anticipation of her run for the U.S. Senate in New York, a
state which included 1.3 million Hispanics. Three members of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- Luis V. Gutierrez (D., Ill.), Jose E.
Serrano, (D., N.Y.) and Nydia M. Velazquez, (D., N.Y.) -- along with
local Hispanic politicians and leftist human-rights advocates, had been
agitating for years on behalf of the FALN cases directly to the White
House and first lady.
Initial reports stated that Mrs. Clinton supported the clemencies, but
when public reaction went negative she changed course, issuing a short
statement three weeks after the clemencies were announced. The
prisoners' delay in refusing to renounce violence "speaks volumes," she
said.
The Clintons were caught in an awkward predicament of their own making.
The president had ignored federal guidelines for commutation of
sentences, including the most fundamental: The prisoners hadn't
actually asked for clemency.
To push the deal through, signed statements renouncing violence and
expressing remorse were required by the Justice Department. The FALN
prisoners, surely relishing the embarrassment and discomfiture they
were causing the president and his wife, had previously declined to
accept these conditions. Committed and unrepentant militants who did
not accept the authority of the United States, they refused to
apologize for activities they were proud of in order to obtain a
clemency they never requested.
So desperate was the White House to get the deal finalized and out of
the news, an unprecedented 16-way conference call was set up for the
"petitioners" who were locked up in 11 different federal facilities so
that they could strategize a response to the president's offer. Two
eventually refused to renounce their cause, preferring to serve out
their lengthy sentences rather than follow the White House script.
Mr. Clinton's fecklessness in the handling of these cases was
demonstrated by the fact that none of the prisoners were required, as a
standard condition of release, to cooperate in ongoing investigations
of countless unsolved FALN bombing cases and other crimes. Mrs.
Clinton's so-called disagreement with her husband on the matter made no
mention of that fact. The risk of demanding such a requirement, of
course, was that the prisoners might have proudly implicated
themselves, causing the entire enterprise to implode, with maximum
damage to the president and potentially sinking Hillary Clinton's
Senate chances.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rican politicians in New York who'd been crowing to
their constituents about the impending release of these "freedom
fighters" were enraged and insulted at Hillary Clinton's withdrawal of
support. "It was a horrible blunder," said State Sen. Olga A. Mendez.
"She needs to learn the rules."
The first lady called her failure to consult the Puerto Rican political
establishment before assessing the entire issue a mistake "that will
never happen again" -- even as the cops who had been maimed and
disfigured by FALN operations continued to be ignored. Tom and Joe
Connor, two brothers who were little boys when their 33-year-old
father, Frank, was killed in the Fraunces Tavern attack, were
dumbstruck to learn that White House staffers referred to the FALN
militants as "political prisoners" and were planning a meeting with
their children to humanize their plight.
Members of Congress viewed the clemencies as a dangerous abuse of
presidential power that could not go unchallenged. Resolutions
condemning the president's action were passed with a vote of 95-2 in
the Senate, 311-41 in the House. It was the most they could do; the
president's pardon power, conferred by the Constitution, is absolute.
The House launched an investigation, subpoenaing records from the White
House and Justice in an effort to determine whether proper procedure
had been followed. President Clinton promptly invoked executive
privilege, putting Justice Department lawyers in the impossible
position of admitting that they had sent the White House a
recommendation on the issue, but barred from disclosing what it was.
Twenty-four hours before a scheduled Senate committee hearing, the DOJ
withheld the FBI's written statement about the history of the FALN and
an assessment of its current terrorist capability. "They pulled the
plug on us," said an unnamed FBI official in a news report, referring
to the Justice Department decision to prevent FBI testimony.
The investigation revealed that the White House was driving the effort
to release the prisoners, rather than the other way around. White House
aides created talking points and strategies for a public campaign on
the prisoners' behalf included asking prominent individuals for letters
supporting clemency.
Jeffrey Farrow, a key adviser on the White House Interagency Working
Group for Puerto Rico recommended meetings with the president and the
three leading members of Congressional Hispanic Caucus who were pushing
the effort, stating in a March 6, 1999 email, "This is Gutierrez's
[sic] top priority as well as of high constituent importance to Serrano
and Velazquez." The next day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Maria
Echaveste sent an email to White House Counsel Charles Ruff, who was
handling the clemency issue, supporting Mr. Farrow's view, saying,
"Chuck -- Jeff's right about this -- very hot issue." Another adviser
in the Working Group, Mayra Martinez-Fernandez, noted that releasing
the prisoners would be "fairly easy to accomplish and will have a
positive impact among strategic communities in the U.S. (read, voters)."
And there you have it. Votes.
While the pardon scandals that marked Bill and Hillary Clinton's final
days in office are remembered as transactions involving cronies,
criminals and campaign contributors, the FALN clemencies of 1999 should
be remembered in the context of the increasing threat of domestic and
transnational terrorism that was ramping up during the Clinton years of
alleged peace and prosperity. To wit, the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing, the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin attack, the 1995 Oklahoma City
bombing, the 1995 "Bojinka" conspiracy to hijack airplanes and crash
them into buildings, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1996 Summer
Olympics bombing, Osama bin Laden's 1996 and 1998 "Declarations of War"
on America, the 1998 East African embassy bombings, the 2000 USS
Sullivans bombing attempt, the 2000 USS Cole bombing, and the 2000
Millennium bombing plot.
It was within that context that the FBI gave its position on the FALN
clemencies -- which the White House succeeded in keeping out of news
coverage but ultimately failed to suppress -- stating that "the release
of these individuals will psychologically and operationally enhance the
ongoing violent and criminal activities of terrorist groups, not only
in Puerto Rico, but throughout the world." The White House spun the
clemencies as a sign of the president's universal commitment to "peace
and reconciliation" just one year after Osama bin Laden told his
followers that the United States is a "paper tiger" that can be
attacked with impunity.
It would be a mistake to dismiss as "old news" the story of how and why
these terrorists were released in light of the fact that it took place
during the precise period when Bill Clinton now claims he was avidly
engaged, even "obsessed," with efforts to protect the public from
clandestine terrorist attacks. If Bill and Hillary Clinton were willing
to pander to the demands of local Hispanic politicians and leftist
human-rights activists defending bomb-makers convicted of seditious
conspiracy, how might they stand up to pressure from other interest
groups working in less obvious ways against U.S. interests in a
post-9/11 world?
Radical Islamists are a sophisticated and determined enemy who
understand that violence alone will not achieve their goals. Islamist
front groups, representing themselves as rights organizations, are
attempting to get a foothold here as they have already in parts of
Western Europe by deftly exploiting ethnic and racial politics,
agitating under the banner of civil liberties even as they are
clamoring for the imposition of special Shariah law privileges in the
public domain. They believe that the road to America's ultimate defeat
is through the back door of policy and law and they are aggressively
using money, influence and retail politics to achieve their goal.
On the campaign trail, the Clintons like to say that Bill is merely
supportive and enthusiastic, "just like all the other candidates'
spouses." Nothing could be further from the truth. Returning Bill and
Hillary Clinton to the White House would present the country with the
unprecedented situation of a former and current president
simultaneously occupying the White House, the practical implications of
which have yet to be fully explored.
The FALN clemencies provide a disturbing example of how the abuse or
misuse of presidential prerogative, under the guise of policy, can be
put in service of the personal and private activities of the
president's spouse -- and beyond the reach of meaningful congressional
oversight.
Ms. Burlingame, a former
attorney and a director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation,
is the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of
American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on
Sept. 11, 2001.
