-Caveat Lector- >From the NY Post, http://www.nypost.com/news/14397.htm - FBI WARNED PREZ OF NEW FALN TERROR By BRIAN BLOMQUIST WASHINGTON - FBI Director Louis Freeh warned President Clinton the Puerto Rican militants he was freeing "would likely" return to their violent ways, new papers reveal. Freeh warned that clemency "would likely return committed, experienced, sophisticated and hardened terrorists to the clandestine movement" known as the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN in Spanish), a group responsible for 130 bombings and six deaths. Freeh's strongly worded advice, which came out yesterday at a congressional hearing on the FALN uproar, shows that Clinton knew that future violence was a risk when he freed the Puerto Rican terrorists. "Few of the current prisoners have expressed remorse for their crimes or for their victims; rather, most remained committed to violence as a means to achieve Puerto Rican independence," Freeh advised the Justice Department, which sent along his advice to the White House. White House spokesman Jim Kennedy responded that "these cases are inevitably difficult and often controversial - and on any given clemency case there is likely to be some in law enforcement who just say no. That's understandable and we respect that." Freeh revealed his advice on the FALN controversy in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). That letter was unsigned, undated and never sent to Hyde because Attorney General Janet Reno ordered that it stay secret, FBI spokesman Dave Miller said last night. But Miller confirmed the letter's authenticity and said Freeh wrote it within the past few weeks, as Clinton was weighing whether to invoke executive privilege to conceal papers and gag aides on why he granted clemency. Clinton claimed executive privilege last week. Freeh's letter was handed out by Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, which held a hearing on the FALN controversy. Waxman also handed out a letter from Clinton offering his first detailed defense of his clemency offer. In a five-page letter to Waxman, Clinton wrote that "political considerations played no role in the process" - an effort to douse speculation that he originally agreed to the clemency offer to help Hillary Rodham Clinton pick up the Hispanic vote in her presumed New York Senate campaign. Clinton pinned some of the blame on his counsel, Charles Ruff, who recently left his White House job to go back to a private law practice. Ruff played a major role in getting Clinton acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial. "The timing of my decision was dictated by the fact that [Ruff] ... committed to many of those interested in this issue that he would consult with the Department of Justice and make a recommendation in early August," Clinton wrote to Waxman. Clinton said he freed the convicted terrorists because they would have received a more lenient sentence under the sentencing guidelines that started after they were jailed - but Clinton said he "rejected" the claim that they were "political prisoners." Also at yesterday's hearing, a top Bureau of Prisons official said the White House never asked the bureau for its advice on whether to grant clemency to the 16 terrorists. Michael Cooksey, the bureau's assistant director of corrections, said some of the terrorists had an "extreme propensity to violence or escape." Neil Gallagher, the FBI's assistant director of national security, said, "I think they are criminals. They are terrorists, and they represent a threat to the United States." -- Dan S DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
