Clinton: No possibility of scandals from Bill

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."