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Obama’s Final Disgrace
I have been unable to find any conversation on Ricochet about Obama’s commutation of the sentence of a terrorist, the FALN’s Oscar Lopez Rivera, which surprises me. (Perhaps the Search function has failed me.) I find the freeing of Lopez Rivera to be even more disgraceful than the commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence.
In 1981, Lopez Rivera was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes, and he was sentenced to 55 years imprisonment. According to the pre-sentencing report, Lopez Rivera had been
personally involved in bombing and incendiary attacks across the country for at least five years prior to Méndez’s [sic] involvement and knowledge, has been a prime recruiter for members of the underground terrorist group, and has been a key trainer in bombing, sabotage and other techniques of guerilla warfare. He has set up a series of safehouses and bomb factories across the country, the searches of which have uncovered literally hundreds of pounds of dynamite and other forms of high explosive, blasting caps, timing devices, huge caches of weapons and stockpiles of ammunition, silencers, sawed-off shotguns, disguises, stolen and altered identity documents, and the proceeds of the armed robberies of locations such as a National Guard Armory, Chicago’s Carter-Mondale Re-Election headquarters, radio and communications companies, as well as a variety of stolen vehicles. [Source: Wikipedia.]
In 1988, he was convicted of conspiring to escape prison through violent means.
In 1999, he was offered conditional clemency by President Clinton. Lopez Rivera refused to accept it because it required him to renounce terrorism.
In short, he’s a dangerous character who is anti-American and will not renounce the use of terrorist violence against the U.S. For our esteemed president, the important part is that Lopez Rivera is anti-American – and that he is Puerto Rican. Just as the commutation of the sentence of Chelsea Manning was intended – bizarrely – as a favor to the LGBT community (would Manning have received clemency if he hadn’t started identifying as female?), the springing of Lopez Rivera from prison has succeeded in delighting Puerto Ricans such as Broadway superstar Lin-Manuel Rivera, who has shared his ecstasy on Twitter.
In the early part of this century, I went to work for Barclays Capital in the shadow of the World Trade Center. I replaced a man named Tom Connor, who left to join another institution. After about a month, Tom returned to Barclays, after realizing that he wasn’t a good fit at that other bank. To my relief, he did not assume my responsibilities (i.e., his old ones) but rather assumed new ones. Our cubicles were next to each other, and Tom and I became friends. I became acquainted with his young family. I eventually learned that his father, Frank Connor, had been murdered in the FALN bombing of Fraunces Tavern in 1975, when Tom was a young child.
On 9/11/01, Tom and I were together when we saw the planes hit the Twin Towers. Before evacuating the building, I saw an expression on Tom’s face that I will never forget. To me, it said: “This will not happen again. I will not leave my children fatherless.” We evacuated to safety.
Lin-Manuel Miranda may be “sobbing with gratitude [that] OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA IS COMING HOME,” but I wish that the president had taken into account the fact that on January 24, 1975, Frank Connor never came home.
Addendum: See Comment #33. Obama was reportedly considering commuting the Blind Sheik’s sentence.
Published in General
I read this yesterday, thought I had read it here. However is subscribe to so many news sources might have been another.
It was mentioned in a comment:
http://ricochet.com/403903/obama-free-chelsea-manning/comment-page-2/#comment-3670353
I think I saw someone write somewhere that Clinton pardoned cronies and contributors, while Obama pardoned traitors and terrorists.
That’s pretty much consistent with the characters of the two men.
Obama started his political career in the home of one terrorist, and he ended it by freeing another.
He has clinched, in my mind at least, the title of worst president.
Glad to see @scottwilmot also considers it a “disgrace”.
I think it warrants far more discussion. As Bob Dole once said, “Where’s the outrage?”
Even the Left leaning NY Daily News can’t understand why the President would do such a thing. They even quoted your friend’s brother:
I think Frank would have been proud of Tom and Joe. They have been tireless in advocating for justice in this matter.
Leftists love terrorists, because at heart they are them. Watch for tomorrow’s “demonstrations” at the Inauguration.
Yes it is a disgrace, but so is Obama. He spent 8 years publicly despising the USA. He probably commuted the sentence of Mr. Manning so that news would get all the play, hoping no one would notice that another avowed enemy terrorist of the USA was set free.
Thanks for making this a post.
What difference, at this point, does it make?
That may sound harsh to some, but there is much truth in it.
I wish I could remember who wrote this (perhaps Jay Nordlinger?), or what the words were exactly, but a number of years ago I saw a piece by a conservative writer who said, essentially, that many leftists admire the likes of Lopez Rivera and Bill Ayers and Che Guevara because they are really committed to going all the way, to using violence in furthering the cause. I think we might be shocked (or perhaps not) at how many leftists favor violence even as they are too chicken to use it themselves. I suppose you might call them “armchair terrorists”.
Considering that Obama’s friend and mentor is Weather Underground bomb thrower Bill Ayers, I am not shocked. Appalled, but not shocked at all. Birds of a feather….
We are used to leaders who can be described as “all-American”. Reagan the lifeguard. Bush the WWII fighter pilot. Lincoln the country lawyer.
Given Obama’s upbringing, education, friends, writings, and pre-political career, I wouldn’t even describe him as “semi-American” (though I’m not disputing his citizenship).
It’s not “news” if it’s not surprising.
Great post.
Not knowing the details, to me it was just another shake your head moment. I should have known it was worse than that.
Your title, however, jumped out at me: didn’t Clinton’s most egregious pardons basically come as the motorcade was waiting to take him out to W’s inauguration? I truly dread what tomorrow morning brings…
Didn’t Clinton pardon (or commute the sentences of) almost all the FALN members on his way out the door? I guess Obama is just finishing the job.
Shannon would agree. Only surprise coveys information.
Clinton’s pardon was conditional and required that they renounce terrorism. Rivera refuse to do that.
I have been unable to find any conversation on Ricochet about Obama’s commutation of the sentence of a terrorist,
It is called Obama fatigue.
It’s also called being so outraged as to be physically/mentally incapable of responding: There are no words!
Todays not over yet….
To pause and think, then ask yourself, What would Gen. George Washington have done with Bradley Manning or this guy. History is telling.
I didn’t comment because there wasn’t anything I could say without violating the rules.
He’d have been swinging from the closest tree long ago, while he was still a male traitor.
We still have tomorrow morning to find out if there is a final outrage.
And idiot governor Andrew Cuomo pardoned Judith Clark, the Weather Underground member who drove the getaway car in the Brinks robbery in Nyack in 1981. Two cops and a Brinks guard were killed.
I try not to attribute the worst motives to the left, but how can you not? Both of these low lives will probably join the faculty at Columbia next fall.
Tomorrow, maybe Mumia?
Well, the Governor of Pennsylvania is a Democrat but I don’t think he will do anything tomorrow. I could be wrong but I don’t think Obama can pardon a state convict.
But I suppose it wouldn’t shock me if he tried.
Is there anything the new administration could do to ruin this terrorist scumbag’s life?
I just finished Days of Rage, a book in 1970s era American terrorism and was planning to write about this, but have been crazy busy the last few days. I reccomend the book, but recommend this commentary on it even more.
I’m not as reflexively appalled by Obama as some Ricochetti are; I think he’s wrong about most things, but in good faith. I have not so far been able to come up with a rationale on which a decent human being could decide that an unrepentant mass murderer was the most deserving man in America of a pardon.
It is one respect in which I literally cannot imagine Trump being a worse President.
Thank you for writing this post, and I apologize for not writing mine on this issue faster.
I’ve been having recurring fantasies about a Republican winning the NY AG race in the future and convicting Lopez for the homicides that he admits to commissioning.
There will be no final disgrace. He’s a perpetually self-disgracing machine.
Which is significantly different from, say, a Love Removal Machine.