Senate Committee Approves Friend of Terrorists
Holder Passes First Hurdle for Confirmation as Attorney General
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Eric Holder to be the next Attorney General with just two dissenting votes. Holder's nomination now moves to the full Senate. I would like to congratulate Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) for doing the right thing and voting against this friend of terrorists.
As Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, Holder was in charge of overseeing the pardons and clemency process. In that capacity, he was instrumental in the pardons of two members of the Weather Underground. This is the organization in which President Obama's friend Bill Ayers was a top leader. The Weather Underground declared war on America. They bombed the Pentagon (long before Al Qaeda thought of it), New York City police headquarters, and other official targets.
The Weather Underground had a bomb factory in a townhouse in New York City, from which Ayers courageously ran away when it exploded, leveling the townhouse and killing three of his comrades, where they were making bombs to blow up a dance at Fort Dix and the Detroit police headquarters.
While Holder was the official receiving and reviewing pardon applications, former President Clinton issued pardons to Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, two members of this domestic terrorist organization. Rosenberg was involved in the notorious Brinks robbery in Nyack, New York in 1981 in which two officers were murdered. In 1984 she was caught with explosives. She admitted that she intended to supply explosives to others. She was sentenced to 58 years in jail.
Evans served time in prison for her connection to eight (8) bombings, including the U.S. Capitol bombing, as well as using false identification to buy firearms and harboring a fugitive.
One of the top bundlers for President Obama's campaign was attorney Howard Gutman, who served as Rosenberg's attorney during the pardon process.
Holder was also instrumental in the pardons of 16 members of the terrorist "Armed Forces of National Liberation" (FALN), a violent Puerto Rican independence group. Hillary Clinton, now Secretary of State, was running for Senator from New York at the time and New York has a large Puerto Rican community.
Holder instructed his staff at Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney to effectively replace the department's original report recommending against any commutations, which had been sent to the White House in 1996, with one that favored clemency for at least half the prisoners, according to these interviews and documents.
The 16 members of the FALN and Los Macheteros had been convicted in Chicago and Hartford variously of bank robbery, possession of explosives and participating in a seditious conspiracy. Overall, the two groups had been linked by the FBI to more than 130 bombings, several armed robberies, six slayings and hundreds of injuries. Yet Holder thought they were worthy of clemency.
Then there is Marc Rich, perhaps President Clinton's most famous – and controversial – pardon. Rich didn't even qualify for a pardon under Justice Department guidelines, which specify that no pardons shall be requested until five years after a criminal sentence has been completed. Rich has never served any of his sentence, as he is a fugitive from justice.
Rich has been based in Switzerland since 1983, just before he was indicted in the United States, accused of tax evasion on more than $100 million in income, fraud and participating in illegal oil deals with the terrorist regime of Iran, the same Iranian regime that is sponsoring the insurgency in Iraq, which is killing American troops. President Clinton issued the pardon after his foundation received a large contribution from Rich's ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich.
According to the prosecutors in the Rich case, no one consulted them before recommending a pardon for Mr. Rich. Yet Mr. Holder strongly pushed for the Rich pardon.
This friend of terrorists is President Obama's choice to be the nation's top law-enforcement official and it looks like the Senate will go along. Maybe they're afraid to oppose him because he is African-American. But he is unfit for the office. His nomination is a payoff to the enemies of America. If the Senate had any principles, they would defeat the Holder nomination and tell President Obama to find another Attorney General. That they will not shows the dangerously troubled state into which our country has fallen.
posted by Tim at 4:34 PM
