The Fraunces Tavern Bombing The FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation in English) was a Puerto Rican separatist group active between 1974 and 1983 that attempted to win independence from the United States through terrorism. Their favorite tactic was to firebomb densely populated civilian locations, most famously the Fraunces Tavern in New York on January 24, 1975, in an attack that killed four people and injured sixty others. The final tally of their bomb attacks was 146.
Thanks to diligent, painstaking work by the FBI and federal prosecutors, the FALN's cells were slowly rolled up and its members imprisoned in the late 70s and early 80s. Until the very end, the group had the materiél, the logistical capabilities, and the intent to murder and maim innocent people:
FBI agents obtained a warrant and entered the [group's headquarters], 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.
Terrorists: Guilty by more than association
In August 1999, President Clinton pardoned 16 FALN terrorists,
claiming that they were victims of "guilt by association" (and indeed,
they were guilty associates of a terrorist organization). All the more
bizarre was the fact that the FALN members had never sought clemency
--- a conventional precondition to receiving it --- and Clinton had
already rejected thousands of clemency applications during his tenure.
Since these pardons lacked the sex & money hook of the later Marc Rich
pardon, they didn't break out into national consciousness. But they
were an embarrassment for the Clinton administration.
Mrs. Clinton, who by then was a candidate for the US Senate in New York, hedged her public relations efforts by denouncing the convicts without denouncing the pardons.
The question lingers, why did Clinton do it? And now we know:
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)."
So he did it for votes. Specifically, Latino votes for his wife in New York. The Wall Street Journal carried the full story yesterday. It has to be read to be believed. As a blog commenter at the New Republic put it, "[it's] practically a script for the most devastating attack ad of all time -- courtesy of a 9/11 widow -- and it is all true."
The bottom line is that Bill Clinton overruled the recommendations of the FBI and pardoned unrepentant conspirators to murder in order to help his wife win an election.
Those who have followed the Clintons' careers for some time will hardly be surprised. In 1992, with his New Hampshire poll numbers sinking in the wake of Gennifer Flower's revelation of their affair, Bill Clinton took time off from campaigning to head home to Arkansas. Not to rest and relax, but to stage a photo-op snuffing of a retarded African-American death row inmate, Ricky Ray Rector, thereby proving that he was no Dukakisian pansy.
From reviving Bill's presidential campaign through an obscenely cynical and wicked effort to make him look hard on crime, to launching Hillary's senatorial campaign by going soft on terrorism, the common denominator in the Clintons' electoral gambits is willfully doing violence to the judicial system. Here's hoping neither of them gets another chance.