The Clintons' Terror Pardons

Wall Street Journal Opinions ^ | updated 3/05/08 | Debra Burlingame

[OPS4]

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.

[OPS4]

Lest we forget!

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.

[OPS4]

Wrong it is not misleading it is about vigilence for security and is op/ed and quite on point.

[Admin Moderator]

To prevent duplication, please do not alter the title. Thanks.

[OPS4]

No Problem Ill add it here, Borders of the United States Will not be secure under Hillary Clinton's watch, considering the Clinton's pardons on such groups as the FALN who are active in Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

[fight_truth_decay]

Debra Burlingame led the opposition to the International Freedom Center site planned for Ground Zero. WSJ's Varadarajan in his column ran this:

"After her op-ed [opposing the IFC] appeared in the Journal in June, she received calls from political players in Washington, asking her to drop her opposition to Mr. Bernstein's project. She is prepared, only, to name John Bridgeland--a former director of the Domestic Policy Council in President Bush's White House, deputy policy director for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, and, after 9/11, the first director of the USA Freedom Corps Office. He called twice "to discourage me...no, not discourage, to 'explain what was actually going to be happening [at the Freedom Center],' and that I'd 'got it all wrong.' I said to him, 'Are you aware of some of the exhibits that they're talking about?'" He wasn't. "Here's a man who didn't know what was happening, yet he was picking up the phone and trying to effect an outcome."

I believe, Burlingame, Co-founder of 911 Families for a Safe & Strong America and very dedicated, extremely bright individual, would be very apt for any political office of her choosing.

[OPS4]

BILL PARDONED TERROR FALN CLEMENCY ENCOURAGED KILLERS JOSEPH F. CONNOR By JOSEPH F. CONNER Killed by the FALN: Frank T. Connor, the author's father. Killed by the FALN: Frank T. Connor, the author's father. PrintEmailDigg ItStory Bottom September 27, 2006 -- BILL Clinton's scath ing, defensive attack against Chris Wall ace and Fox News on Sunday left me once again struck by the former president's pure hypocrisy and arrogance. Clinton wagged his familiar finger in the face of the American public - which he clearly takes for fools - as he defended the indefensible: his administration's abysmal record on terrorism. What made his self-righteousness especially burn for me is that fact that Clinton pardoned terrorists from the group that killed my father - and did it simply to help his wife's (successful) bid for a Senate seat. Now he wants me to believe he took the threat seriously? Clinton claimed to have implemented a "comprehensive anti-terror strategy" that was in place when President Bush and his team entered the White House on Jan. 20, 2001. As others have pointed out since Sunday, this "strategy" had some obvious holes - such as not linking the 1993 World Trade Center bombers to the greater terror war against America, and not raising the stakes against terrorism after the Khobar Towers bombing, the U.S. embassy bombings and the USS Cole attack. But those were (mostly) sins of omission. The pardons were a sin of commission. http://www.nypost.com/seven/09272006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/bill_pardoned_terror_opedcolumnists_joseph_f__conner.htm

[cll]

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and it is within the border and customs area of the United States.

[OPS4]

Clinton Camp Pushes O-Bomber Links: Ignores Her Own Radical Ties
President Clinton pardoned another one-time member of the Weather Underground, Susan L. Rosenberg, after she had served 16 years in prison on federal charges.

Rosenberg had been arrested in 1984 while unloading 740 pounds of dynamite, a submachine gun and other weapons from the back of a car.

Rosenberg admitted the materials were to supply others for politically-motivated attacks. Authorities had been searching for Rosenberg since 1981, for what they believed was her role in the robbery of a Brinks truck in Rockland County, N.Y. The attack, for which Rosenberg was thought to have aided with surveillance and getaway driving, left two police officers and a guard dead.

Rosenberg has denied playing a role in the Brinks heist. In arguing for a pardon in 2001, she noted that she had been a model prisoner.

And in 1999, President Clinton also pardoned 16 violent Puerto Rican nationalists responsible for more than 100 bombings of U.S. political and military installations, after they promised to renounce violence. The attacks reportedly killed six people and wounded dozens more. In justifying the pardons, President Clinton noted none of the men had been convicted of crimes that resulted in death or injuries.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4330128&page=1

[cll]

Puerto Rico Ping! Please Freepmail me if you want on or off the list.

[OPS4]

Venezuela is not! Or are you going off the point of security? In 1958, Betancourt's Democratic Action (Acción Democrática, AD) party largely disenfranchised the extreme left wing, notably the Communist Party of Venezuela (Partido Comunista de Venezuela, PCV). The 1959 Cuban Revolution influenced PCV and student groups hoping to repeat Fidel Castro's success in Venezuela. Many leftist students formed the Leftist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, MIR) in April 1960. Betancourt's firm stance against Castro, especially Cuba's expulsion from the Organization of American States (OAS) led to bloody military uprisings in 1962, first at Carúpano on the Península de Paria, then at Puerto Cabello. After the unsuccessful revolts, Betancourt suspended civil liberties and arrested the MIR and PCV members of the forerunner to the National Assembly of Venezuela bicameral Congress (Congreso) in 1962. This drove the leftists underground, where they engaged in rural and urban guerrilla activities, including sabotaging oil pipelines, bombing a Sears Roebuck warehouse, and bombing of the United States Embassy in Caracas. FALN failed to rally the rural poor and to disrupt the December 1963 elections. The head of the Office of Public Safety (OPS), Byron Eagle, sent LAPD officers to Venezuela in 1962 to train local police officers and assist them in their fight against the FALN [1]. [edit] References 1. ^ A. J. Langguth's Hidden Terrors (Pantheon Books, 1978 (Chapter I [edit] See also * Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Puerto Rico) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuerzas_Armadas_de_Liberaci%C3%B3n_Nacional_%28Venezuela%29

[cll]

Two different FALNs. The FALN in the United States was made up of purported mainland “Puerto Ricans” who were committing crimes and terror on behalf of the cause of independence for Puerto Rico, a cause which less than 5% of the actual Puerto Ricans on the island support. It was merely an excuse to terrorize and subvert the government of the U.S. and they were on the payroll of the global communists.

The Venezuelan FALN was also on that payroll, but operated separately from the “Puerto Rican” FALN.

[OPS4]

Not what I read they are all working together and Farc is also involved do some reading before posting some of the bokks for ref. are posted in the same wiki.

[OPS4]

NewsMax.com

Sunday, Oct. 14, 2001 9:09 p.m. EDT

In a bone-chilling chapter of her new book “The Final Days,” late heroine-author Barbara Olson warned that ex-president Bill Clinton’s pardons of terrorists who had repeatedly bombed buildings in New York City “send a signal” that the U.S. isn’t serious about fighting terrorism.

In words that now seem like a harbinger of her own Sept. 11 death at the hands of the Middle Eastern terrorists, Olson cited example after example of how U.S. officials strenuously warned Clinton that pardoning FALN Puerto Rican separatists who had waged their own bombing jihad on America posed a threat to national security.

In August 1999 Clinton pardoned 16 FALN terrorists without even being asked, in a move that was widely seen as a cynical ploy to win Hispanic votes for his wife’s New York Senate bid.
http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/olson.htm

[redinIllinois]

Barbara Olson was such a loss.....along with every single American who has died at the hands of terrorists.

The Clinton’s have blood on their hands.

[OPS4]

That is for sure, Barbra Olson, is in Heaven with God and His Angels!

Blood is the Clinton Legacy.

[TBP]

The Clintons pardon terrorists, Obama hangs out with them, and McCain wants to bring them to the United States and only interrogate them in a friendly way.

Such wonderful choices.

[cookcounty]

It is not true that in the wake of the Cole bombing, Clinton did nothing about terrorists.

..... He boldly (or baldly) released 16 terrorists.

[AnimalLover]

ping

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

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

The real Clinton legacy: terror.