[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21304]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 PRESIDENT GRANTS CLEMENCY TO THE FALN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, last Friday culminated a very rough week, 
indeed a rough few weeks and a rough 24 years for some families across 
America, because some individuals associated with the FALN, the most 
notorious terrorist group to set foot on American soil, had engaged in 
a reign of terror across America in the 1970's and 1980's and claimed 
responsibility for 130 bombings that killed innocent people, that 
maimed innocent people, that in part had no remorse or offered no 
apologies for the damage that they created or for the victims that they 
made. They were set free on Friday, back into society because our White 
House offered these terrorists clemency, in other words, a get-out-of-
jail-free card.
  So to those families who have had to endure, for example, like Ms. 
Diana Berger of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, whose husband was dining in 
Fraunces Tavern in 1975 like any other American would have been in any 
other bar or restaurant, Ms. Berger was 6 months pregnant with their 
first child when her husband was killed. Or Joseph Connor and Thomas 
Connor. Joseph was 9 years old; his brother was 11. Joseph was 
celebrating his ninth birthday. His father was in that same restaurant, 
again out for a business lunch. He never came home to celebrate 
Joseph's ninth birthday because he was killed by a FALN bomb. Or on 
December 31, 1982, when this same group of terrorists claimed 
responsibility proudly for several bombs in downtown New York. Officer 
Rocco Pascarella of upstate New York lost a leg in that explosion. 
Officer Richard Pastorella in an attempt to respond to officer Rocco 
Pascarella, got another call for a bomb threat. He responded to that 
bomb threat. He tried to diffuse the bomb. He is blinded for life. He 
has lost all his fingers on one hand. He has 22 screws in his head, has 
undergone 13 major surgeries. He will never be the same. His partner 
that night was Officer Anthony Semft from Long Island, New York, who 
was blinded in one eye and who is partially deaf.
  Those are just a few of the victims of this terrorist organization 
known as the FALN. They were serving rightly a long time in prison 
until the President offered them clemency, clemency that they initially 
rejected and finally accepted. I think this is absolutely the worst 
thing that we can be doing to send a signal to anybody contemplating 
terrorism on American soil to set these terrorists free. If anybody 
sitting at home or anybody in this chamber could imagine if in 10 or 15 
years a man by the name of Terry Nichols who is affiliated or 
associated with the Oklahoma City bombing, who many argue was not 
actually at the bomb scene, but clearly involved in the conspiracy to 
kill innocent people, so many families left without children, left 
without fathers, left without mothers, left without grandmothers, if 10 
or 15 years the then President steps forward and offers clemency, can 
you imagine the outrage across America?

                              {time}  1930

  That is the outrage that we are experiencing right here today. That 
is why so many people cannot fathom how the President reached this 
decision. That is why a wide range of law enforcement agencies, 
including the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. attorney's offices 
in Illinois and Chicago, all recommended against granting clemency. 
Why? Because this is a wrong signal to be sending to terrorists but, 
above all, these people killed were part of a killing operation, and to 
this very day, while they are celebrating their release and while there 
are some who are calling them heroes, to this very day show no remorse, 
offer no apologies, offer no contrition for what they did.
  Indeed, what they suggest is that the Connor or the Berger family or 
the Pastarella family or the Pascarella family or the Semft family, 
they were casualties of war. I hope and pray that these people never 
get the opportunity to bomb and kill an innocent person ever again.
  My prayers and thoughts go out to all of the victims associated with 
the terror associated with the FALN and may we rue the day if they ever 
act as they did for 10, 15 and 20 years.

                          ____________________