Presidential Pardons

Friends of mine whom I see regularly in the paint (as opposed to my on-line friends) have gently taken me to task regarding my thoughts on the possible future of Zacarias Massaoui. I have been informed that no sitting president would dare commute, not to say pardon, a convicted terrorist.

*snort*

On April 4, 1980 eleven members of The Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation — better known by the acronym FALN — got snatched up by the Feds.

The FALN had had a busy set of years from 1974 to 1983: 72 actual bombings, 40 incendiary attacks, 8 attempted bombings and 10 bomb threats.

December 11, 1974. Claimed responsibility for the bomb at 336 East 110th Street in East Harlem that injured and permenently disabled a rookie police officer.

January 24, 1975. Claimed responsiblity for the bombing of the Fraunces Tavern, killing four people and injuring more than 50.

April 3, 1975. Claimed responsibility for four bombings. 51 Madison Avenue, the New York Life Insurance Company; 45 East Forty-Ninth Street, the Bankers Trust Company plaza; 340 Park Avenue South, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company headquarters; and 5 West Forty-Sixth Street, the Blimpie Base restaurant. At least five people were injured.

June 9, 1979. Claimed responsibility for an explosion at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago. At least five people injured.

Remember that the total tally comes to: 72 actual bombings, 40 incendiary attacks, 8 attempted bombings and 10 bomb threats.

Those eleven folks got their trials and wound up getting convicted of various Federal charges, relating to sedition, conspiring to interfere with interstate commerce by violence, conspiring to build destructive devices, various weapons charges, and other interesting stuff. Of the eleven convicted, the following got sentences ranging from 55 years to 90 years (what I would consider to be life sentences):

Elizam Escobar. Total effective sentence of 60 years’ imprisonment.

Ricardo Jiménez. Total effective sentence of 90 years’ imprisonment.

Adolfo Matos. Total effective sentence of 70 years’ imprisonment.

Dylcia Noemi Pagán. Total effective sentence of 55 years’ imprisonment.

Alicia Rodríguez. Total effective sentence of 55 years’ imprisonment.

Ida Luz Rodríguez. Total effective sentence of 75 years’ imprisonment.

Luis Rosa. Total effective sentence of 75 years’ imprisonment.

Carmen Valentín. Total effective sentence of 90 years’ imprisonment.

Violent offenders, the lot of them. Actually blew things up — including police stations — rather than just talking about it. Committed robberies. Matter-of-fact, they got caught after attempting to rob an armoured car in Evanston, Illinois.

Gentle Readers, these critters actually did what Zacarias Moussaoui dreamed about. He talked about planning to crash a plane into the White House. These FALN clowns lit fuzes multiple times over, killed people, and robbed banks and armoured cars.

Fast forward the Way Back Machine to August 11, 1999. Sitting President Clinton commuted the sentences of these 11 critters, plus five more of their FALN buddies.
Enough political critters smelt the way the wind was blowing, and they got themselves a committee together. The reports are found here:
Executive Summary

Final Report

There is some suggestion that President Bill “Horndog” Clinton somehow got the idea that if he did the nice for these terrorists, the Puerto Rican contingent in New York might return the favour by elevating his wife to Senatrix of that State.

Voila! Commutation of the sentences of not one, but SIXTEEN bona fide murdering, robbing, blowing-things-to-hell terrs in return for a political favour.

Something to ponder over your evening Ovaltine.

LawDog

The Cornered Cat.
The apple don't fall far from the tree

9 thoughts on “Presidential Pardons”

  1. Thank you for mentioning Bill Clinton, LawDog. The other name I was thinking of besides that one, was Jimmy Carter. All it takes is a weenie like one of those, and you’ve got terrorists pardoned, running the streets, and killing innocent civilians like us. When are people going to wake up and realize that we truly are at war? Moussaui should have gotten the death penalty.

    Kiki B.

  2. LawDog, I passed this along to a school teacher Slick Willie fan I know, and a few other righties. I had forgotten how many ridiculous things that thieving SOB did. Thanks for the rehash.

    JebTexasLHB@netscape.net

  3. Hmmmm – another trial. Another chance for us to do it right this time, but more of having to listen to his blather.

    What to do, what to do?

    Nope…lock him away in a little room, make sure the guards only have the minimum required contact, and if human contact is absolutely required for something…use the Aryan Brotherhood.

  4. Moussaui is probably mentally ill and, if so, should have been treated for mental illness prior to trial.

    I didn’t know about the terrorists that Slick Willie pardoned. Where are they now?

    I did learn that Clinton pardoned a drug dealer who had been convicted for possession of 300 kilos of cocaine. Personally, I can’t get too excited about someone smoking a little pot. Coke, crack, meth and the rest of the chemical crowd are manufactured and sold by people who are not nice, and should be incarcerated, deported or shot, which ever is best.

  5. You know… I have never understood this whole mental illness defense. Yeah, so? I figure that you’re sick in the head if you do something like that, so what’s your point? I mean, if someone says that it is a mental illness, that, to me, means shoot them now so that they can NEVER get out again. Doesn’t that make sense? Why risk mentally ill people walking around? Oh well…

  6. Hating something enough to conspire to blow it up does not make you crazy, just evil.

    The not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease is a very tricky question when dealing with people from another culture.

    They do not think there is anything wrong with what they are doing; just listen to the PLO talk about suicide bombers. They think they are committing noble righteous acts.

    We consider what they are doing to be acts of unstable minds.

    The violence they commit speaks for itself. Do not try to find moral common ground with terrorists, or try to “understand” them.

    They seek to force us to change our behavior to obey their standards/ goals through violent intimidation, and attacks specifically aimed at innocents.

    How can such innately evil acts be understood?

    A response of swift and overwhelming force is the only currency terrorists understand.

    It is after all their stock and trade.

  7. Anonymous: The theory of the insanity defense revolves around moral responsibility – if someone is too wacko to tell right from wrong, you can’t hold them responsible for doing wrong.

    However, if they killed someone just because they’re nuts, they’ll probably do it again if they are given the opportunity – and with a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict, they are too likely to get that opportunity. No psychological therapies work very well on someone who’s that crazy, but psychologist/psychiatrists have often proven to be surprisingly gullible when someone decides to act not crazy until they get out of the padded cell. So, maybe it isn’t “right”, but a well-informed jury is probably more likely to give the death penalty to an obviously insane killer than to someone who had an understandable reason. But now and then the lawyers’ conspiracies to keep jurors ignorant actually succeeds…

    That’s without even considering sociopaths. Sociopaths “have no conscience”, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t know right from wrong – it’s just that they don’t understand why the rest of us care about it. They do damned well understand the legal consequences of commiting a crime and getting caught, but they aren’t planning on getting caught. There’s only one treatment for sociopathy – death. The trouble is identifying the sociopath. They are consummate actors, and when in the hands of authority, they’ll play whatever role pleases that authority the most. To a prosecutor, they’ll be so sane and peacable that he might begin to wonder about his evidence. The defense attorney will believe his client is innocent. If that doesn’t work, maybe they’ll simulate schizophrenia – and to pull that off, they’ll do degrading and disgusting things that NO ONE but a sociopath or a schizophrenic who was no longer aware of anything in the real world would do. If it works so they are committed to an institution rather than imprisoned, then over a period of years they’ll simulate a schizophrenic slowly recovering. That’s rare, but it does happen now and then, so the docs are likely to congratulate themselves and take it at face value.

    And quite likely, the released sociopath will drive to psych outpatient appointments with body parts in the trunk.

  8. hi. I think I have never posted in your blog, ’cause I read it on my cell phone and writing with the itti bitti keypad is a pain in the ass.
    I am Puertorrican, born and raised inside the Independentist Party. I grew up hearing the story of Lolita Lebron and the wells fargo truck they stole. Hasn’t been fond yet. told like is was some kind of Robin hood heroism.
    Over the years I have grown disillussioned with th e Independentist party. I still think the goal itself is aludable, I want Puerto rico to be independent. but the pary gets attached and claims as its own any terrorist wanabi that comes along. latest is Tito Kayak, the guy that climbed the statue of liberty to unfold a Puerto rican flag. Thanks for this post. adds to the ammunition when I go home and the family gets to attacking my defection.

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