Mrs. Clinton Draws Fire On FALN

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 6 de Septiembre, 1999. Monday Tribune.

MRS. CLINTON DRAWS FIRE ON FALN
From Tribune News Services

As several New York Hispanic political leaders sharply criticized Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday for calling on her husband to withdraw his offer of clemency to Puerto Rican terrorists, Congressional Republicans contended that Mrs. Clinton was merely trying to get out of an election gimmick that backfired.

"This was an effort by the president, by the first lady, to manipulate politics in New York," said Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas). "I think it blew up in their face."

President Clinton offered conditional clemency last month to 16 imprisoned Puerto Rican members of the FALN terrorist group. To be freed, the inmates had to renounce terrorism, which their advocates insist they have done. The 16 were convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy and possession of weapons and explosives.

The Democrat who asked Clinton to make the offer, Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, insisted the president acted to ameliorate judicial overkill that has put the Puerto Ricans behind bars for an average of 19 years each.

Gutierrez said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former President Carter and others supported clemency.

The prisoners have not agreed to the offer because of requirements that they must not meet each with each other once freed and to avoid any political activity advocating Puerto Rican independence.

In a statement Saturday, Mrs. Clinton, a probable Senate candidate from New York, said: "It's been three weeks, and their silence speaks volumes. I believe the offer of clemency should be withdrawn." Aides said she told the president of her position before she issued the statement.

"Even her distancing I don't think works," Gramm said on ABC's "This Week." "Her position is, `You can let these criminals go if they say they won't do it again.' If you set that standard, you wouldn't have anybody in any prison."

"They took a gamble here and got burned and decided to back up," Gramm's GOP colleague, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"It didn't help her, and obviously they figured out they better withdraw this clemency offer, which is potentially a big problem for her... in New York," McConnell added.

The state has 1.3 million Puerto Ricans. As soon as the offer was made, Republicans accused the president of playing politics in his wife's behalf. Law-enforcement officials and some Democrats opposed it, including the man whose Senate seat Mrs. Clinton is expected to seek, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

The White House notified the prisoners last week that the clemency offer would be withdrawn if they have not acted by Friday afternoon.

Appearing Sunday with McConnell on Fox, Democrat Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware agreed that Clinton should not have made the offer and said it's "my instinct" that the offer should be withdrawn.

A former prosecutor, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), said he is struck by the prisoners' lack of remorse. "Without some sign of remorse, I would not have extended it in the first place," Leahy said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

On NBC, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) defended the offer. He said none of those who would be affected were convicted of violent crimes, and they were sentenced to consecutive sentences only because they offered no defense at trial.

Gutierrez decried that the episode "has been now put in the quagmire of partisan politics and the (Senate) race for New York. I think it is time for them to sign and to get out of jail."

Some of the most outspoken reaction against Mrs. Clinton came from Rep. Jose E. Serrano, a Bronx Democrat who is one of three Puerto Rican members of Congress. Serrano said he felt "grave disappointment and anger" at what he called her "intervention" in the issue, and said he was withdrawing his support for Mrs. Clinton's all-but-announced candidacy for the Senate.

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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