Ultimatum for FALN
Giving terrorists a get-out-of-jail card

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 6 de Septiembre, 1999. update 9/6/99.

Ultimatum for FALN
September 6, 1999
BY LYNN SWEET SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU

President Clinton set a Friday deadline for 11 FALN prisoners to accept his clemency offer, with the White House increasingly concerned over the protracted amount of time the inmates are taking to reach a decision, administration sources said Sunday.

"I think it's time for them to... sign and to get out of jail," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Because now they are becoming prisoners of a partisan political debate. We want them back home in our communities."

In urging the prisoners to accept the deal, Gutierrez dropped his campaign to pressure Clinton to change the parole restrictions attached to the Aug. 11 clemency offer for the FALN inmates, the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation. The group wants Puerto Rico's independence from the United States.

"The issue is taking too long to decide," a White House source said. In the days since the Aug. 11 offer, congressional opposition has escalated. A Senate hearing is set for Sept. 15, while sympathizers have started a drive for unconditional release of the 11 prisoners and four others not covered by the clemency grant.

Also, the prisoners' lawyers made overtures--which have been rebuffed, the White House source said--to allow the group to report to a special parole unit.

"We have not dragged our feet," said Jan Susler, the Chicago-based lawyer for the inmates. "Even before being informed of the deadline, we fully expected to have a decision by this week."

Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a statement through her Senate fund-raising committee over the weekend calling for the clemency offer to be withdrawn. Her husband's offer creates complications for her likely New York Senate bid.

"It's been three weeks, and their silence speaks volumes," she said in a statement, apparently unaware that the prisoners issued a statement Thursday. They renounced the use of violence, one of the conditions Clinton set down when he offered leniency almost a month ago. The White House was aware of the statement.

The deal has been opposed by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, her likely GOP opponent, and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), whose upcoming retirement creates the open Senate seat. At the same time, New York Democratic Representatives Jose Serrano and Nydia Velazquez, with Gutierrez, have called for unconditional release.

Clinton's offer also was contingent on the prisoners' agreement to personally request clemency and to adhere to standard rules covering any inmate who is on parole.

Last Friday, the White House faxed a letter to Susler saying the clemency offer will be withdrawn if not accepted by 5 p.m. this Friday. The Chicago Sun-Times obtained a copy of the letter.

"As you know, the president has rejected your clients' view that they are deserving of unconditional clemency," said the the letter, which was signed by Dawn Chirwa, an associate counsel to the president. "He believes that they engaged in serious criminal conduct for which they should have been held accountable."

But Josefina Rodriguez, the mother of two of the 11 prisoners, Alicia Rodriguez and Ida Luz Rodriguez, said they've served long enough. "I have my fingers crossed that they free them. But the deal they're offering isn't fair," she said.

She objected to one of the president's conditions for their release, that they be barred from associating with any convicted criminals without permission from a parole officer. The rule would make it illegal for her two daughters to talk to each other, and they now share a cell, she said.

The deadline cuts short Susler's plan to meet with 15 prisoners--including the four not offered clemency--to discuss the offer. Since Aug. 22, Susler has met with six of them in five prisons in four states and held two phone conference calls. Another group call is scheduled Wednesday.

The prisoners were linked to a spree of guerrilla acts in Chicago and elsewhere.

Contributing: Susan Dodge

U.S. News & World Report
September 6, 1999

Giving terrorists a get-out-of-jail card
Outrage over an offer to cut prison terms
By ANGIE CANNON

Tom and Joe Connor were boys when their father, Frank, was killed in the bombing of the historic Fraunces Tavern, a Wall Street landmark. He had gone to the restaurant for a business lunch when a bomb exploded. That was 24 years ago. Besides Connor, three other people died in the blast. Dozens were injured. A Puerto Rican nationalist group claimed responsibility, but no one was ever charged directly with the bombing.

Over the years, the Connor brothers have graduated from college, gotten married, had children, and followed their father into banking. But they still think about him every day. It gave them some comfort when 16 members of the group that claimed responsibility were convicted of other charges like seditious conspiracy and given prison sentences of 35 to 9 0 years. The outfit that claimed responsibility is known as the FALN. Those are the Spanish initials for Armed Forces of National Liberation. The group is devoted to seeking the independence of Puerto Rico. Law-enforcement officials say the FALN is responsible for more than 130 bombings around the nation between 1974 and 1983. The bombings killed six people and injured scores more. The wounds of those who lost loved ones have healed with time, but now they have been opened afresh with a controversial decision by President Clinton to commute the sentences of the 16 FALN members, a move unanimously opposed by federal law enforcement. The president's offer comes after a lobbying campaign by luminaries including former President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Coretta Scott King.

Clinton's offer is unusual. He rarely grants sentence commutations. Since 1993, he has approved only three out of 3,042 petitions. But the White House says none of the 16 was involved in any deaths and that their sentences "were far out of proportion to the nature of their crimes." Clinton has set conditions on their commutation: that they renounce violence and adhere to typical parole terms. The prisoners are weighing those conditions. If they accept them, 11 would be released immediately; two would serve more time; and three would have their fines forgiven. But survivors, such as Joe Connor, are dubious: "Does anyone honestly believe a terrorist can be taken at his word?"

Shock wave. Clemency was strongly opposed by the FBI, the federal Bureau of Prisons, and the U.S. attorneys in Illinois and Connecticut, according to a senior Justice Department official. A senior FBI official says the bureau is "shocked and dismayed" by the president's proposal. "People are very, very, very upset," the official said. "These are not model citizens going back on the street. These are terrorists." The Justice Department official conceded it was unusual for the department to send a final recommendation to the White House with different options for each prisoner, a move that suggested a range of views bylaw enforcement that did not exist. White House lawyer Jim Kennedy said the president knew law enforcement's position and "had all the advice necessary to arrive at a decision." But Robert Blitzer, the FBI'S former chief of domestic terrorism, expressed concern over the decision. "This flies in the face of the really tough and outstanding counterterrorism record that has been there for many years over a number of administrations, particularly the Clinton administration," he says. "When you do something like this, it sends the wrong message." The 283,000 member fraternal Order of police is up in arms. In New York last week, Police Commissioner Howard Safir joined with police union leaders to decry Clinton's decision, appearing with detectives severely wounded in FALN bombings in New York in 1982. Detective Anthony Senft lost an eye as he approached a Kentucky Fried Chicken box stuffed with dynamite. "Are we going to let Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, out?" Senft asks. "These people are no better than him. Thev belong in jail."

Diana Ettenson was six months pregnant when her husband died in the Fraunces Tavern blast, and, like others, she speculates that Clinton's move was designed to help his wife win votes from New York's Puerto Rican community in her Senate bid. The White House emphatically denies the charge. "I'm furious," says Ettenson. "Getting these people to promise not to be violent is like asking a 4-year-old not to take a cookie from the cookie jar."

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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