|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Bill Clinton's Clemency for Terrorists Steve Malzberg "I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it." These are the words of presidential spokesman Tony Snow at last Thursday's daily press briefing. What Snow is referring to is the criticism leveled at President Bush by both former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, over Bush's decision to commute the prison sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Snow couldn't have said it any better.
Bill Clinton weighed in on the commutation of Libby's prison sentence as if he has no history of controversy in these matters. "I think there are guidelines for what happens when somebody is convicted. You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy; [the Bush administration] believes that they should be able to do what they want to, and that the law is a minor obstacle."
The blatant hypocrisy of the man who would once again share the White House is breathtaking. No, I'm not alluding to the fact that Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 over perjury allegations surrounding the Monica Lewinski affair. I'm not pointing to the fact that he pardoned 140 people on Jan. 20, 2001, his last day in office. That list included his half brother Roger, his former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and of course Marc Rich. No, I'm going back to what President Bill Clinton did in August of 1999.
Against the advice of his Justice Department and against the advice of the FBI, Clinton offered conditional clemency to 16 jailed members of the FALN. In the 1970s and early 1980s this Puerto Rican terrorist group set off more than 130 bombs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. In January of 1975 they blew up Fraunces Tavern during lunchtime here in New York City. That blast killed four and injured 60 more.
Why let these thugs out of prison after we had seen the first World Trade Center bombing, the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, and the bombing of the USS Cole under Bill Clinton's watch? He said at the time that the 16 in question were not actually involved in killing anyone.
Story Continues Below
Yet they were all convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, bomb-making and sedition, as well as firearms and explosives violations. In fact a federal prosecutor was quoted back in November of 1999 as saying that the 16 FALN members were busted by the FBI while making bombs and planning to blow up military offices and rob a Chicago Transit Authority fare collector. Clinton also defended his actions by noting that to accept clemency, each terrorist had to sign a form denouncing terrorism and violence.
Some feel that Bill Clinton did this to help his wife in her run for the U.S. Senate seat from New York the following year. It was supposed to get her the Hispanic vote, although I'm not sure how exactly. The U.S. House and Senate were so enraged over what Clinton had done that they condemned the move, 311-41 in the House and by a 95-2 margin in the Senate. The final resolution said in part: ". . .Whereas the president's offer of clemency to the FALN terrorists violates longstanding tenets of U.S. counterterrorism policy and whereas the release of terrorists is an affront to the rule of law, the victims and their families and every American who believes that violent acts must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The making of concessions to terrorists is deplorable and President Clinton should not have granted clemency to the FALN terrorists." Yes, Tony Snow is right on the money. It's pure Arkansas chutzpah. Steve Malzberg is a radio talk-show host heard nightly on WOR Radio from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time in New York City and around the nation on the WOR Radio Network. You can hear him and e-mail him through www.wor710.com.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2008 NewsMax.Com |