Are There Some Terrorists that are OK by Lieberman? A Call for Senator Lieberman to Recant

Perhaps Senator Joe Lieberman wasn't totally clued in to the crowd he was hanging with, but on July 20th, he agreed to carry to President Bush a "pardon request" for a convicted terrorist that the FBI prosecuted and sent to prison for terror activities aimed against Cuba.

Watch this video (the key part I'm interested in is at about 3 min 30 sec):

What he said was:

It's my responsibility, it's my responsibility. I will carry it [the pardon request] back. I will carry it back. Yeah. I feel...I think of you like you were my family.... I'll bring it back. I'll do my best.

My colleague Patrick Doherty has more -- as does Lexington Institute (and Republican stalwart) Phil Peters who first surfaced this story.

One of the characteristics of real states is that they maintain "a monopoly on the use of force." This is one of our key problems with the Palestinian authority which has been unable to control the variant wings of violent factions within its territories.

But the anti-Castro, violent militias that have set up and trained in Florida over the years for a hoped for invasion of Cuba violate America's responsibilities to maintain control over the violent activities of groups based inside the United States. In fact, the U.S. Southern Command has simulated many war games that posit Fidel Castro's death triggering a Cuba-directed invasion flotilla of many hundreds of small craft filled with anti-Castro violent agitants.

Lieberman may not care that the FBI prosecuted and jailed the terrorist in question, but the US military that he so often speaks in reverential terms about has its own concerns about the brand of radical extremists Joe Lieberman may want to see pardoned.

I don't want to take this criticism of Senator Lieberman too far and want to offer him a chance to recant and take it back. He can't possibly have been endorsing the release of an FBI convicted felon engaged in terrorism!

Or does Joe Lieberman's book allow for this sort of thing?

I still don't believe Lieberman knew what was going on here. I sat next to Lieberman recently at a State Department awards ceremony for Max Kampelman -- who actually is a great American in many ways and deserved his medal -- but I can't imagine for a second that Kampelman would have endorsed the gesture that Lieberman offered in the video.

Here's hoping that Senator Lieberman walks this back.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note

Comments

[research]

Do as I say, Not as I do.

[knowBuddhaU]

Of course there are, don't be silly. It's "war" when we do, "terrorism" if done by Them (whoever they may be).

The world is plagued by "bi-partisan" feudalists who pose as champions of democracy.

And why? We conceive of our selves in terms that end up imprisoning us in CELLVES of our own making. And yet we've been through this debate, during the early Renaissance.

Did you see Scott Horton's recent post titled Cusanus's Human Microcosm?

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/NoComment#hbc-90003163

Scott Horton writes:
At the core of the values of the early Renaissance was the notion of the human individual and the cosmos .... “The wounding recognition that the earth was not the center of the universe was compensated for by the enhanced status of the individual,” Albus writes.... “The equivalence of every point of view corresponds to the continuum of space....”

This is the source of true compassion, the kernel of our more perfect Union.

[knowBuddhaU]

Of course there are, don't be silly. It's "war" when we do it, "terrorism" if done by Them (whoever they may be).

The world is plagued by "bi-partisan" feudalists who pose as champions of democracy.

And why? We conceive of our selves in terms that end up imprisoning us in CELLVES of our own making. And yet we've been through this debate, during the early Renaissance.

Did you see Scott Horton's recent post titled Cusanus's Human Microcosm?

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/NoComment#hbc-90003163

Scott Horton writes:
At the core of the values of the early Renaissance was the notion of the human individual and the cosmos .... “The wounding recognition that the earth was not the center of the universe was compensated for by the enhanced status of the individual,” Albus writes.... “The equivalence of every point of view corresponds to the continuum of space....”

This is the source of true compassion, the kernel of our more perfect Union.

[S1m0n]

The word "terrorist" is an expletive, not a descriptive. There is no definition of it that's capable of sorting our 'friends (or ourselves) from our enemies that doesn't consist of circular reasoning.

[DMM1029]

Dear Steve,

With respect, it is not the FBI which prosecutes or jails anyone. That is a matter for lawyers and courts.

Dave McGlaughlin--Harrisburg, Pa.

[skruff]

Well Dave tell that to the folks who have been sitting in Gitmo and other US sponsored jails for more than five years without access to lawyers, courts, or even contact through red cross (mandated at Geneva) this leaves the arresting officers as judge jury, and occasionally executioner.

[NCRESIDENT]

I see posts blaming Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton been out of the WH over 10 years. Joe Lieberman follows the money trail and the spotlight. I think it's time to put him and his friend John McCain in more senior activities.
I think there should be an age limit on how long you can serve in the congress and senate and also an age limit on how old you can be to become president. I mean damn they have an age limit on federal employees why not seats in congress.

[GnitenGoodLk]

Ya...go ahead...pardon them...once they're back in the saddle in Cuba watch them turn on the U.S. at the 1st hint of trouble. Where have I seen this story before? Our addiction to oil pales in comparison, we've gotta curb this moronic addiction to terrorists.

[Rog49Thomas]

Clearly, you’re one of those folks who believes morality is some sort of absolute.
Equally, clearly, you haven’t been paying attention to our national policy and philosophy – which predates President Pan.

Morality is situational. It is not the “sin” but the “sinner’ that determines whether something is bad.

Many “great” “minds” have come to this conclusion. Trotsky proved with what I suppose could be described as “geometric logic” that the Communists were entitled to use certain means to achieve their noble ends which would be abhorrent if used by capitalists who were working against nature. I’ll admit there has been one small difficulty with this theory. These “great” “thinkers” representing many divergent groups have not been able to reach unanimity on which group is doing “God’s work” or isin harmony with the “historic dialectic”.

And so, Iyad Allawi setting off bombs in Saddam’s Baghdad years ago, the fine folks who brought you Operation Susanah, the Contras, the heroic fellow named here are not terrorists. They are freedom fighers.

And by the same logic, waterboarding when performed by a certain country is not a war crime, while if performed by Japanese or German personnel during WWII,is.

It’s really very simple: God loves us and we are doing God’s work. Therefore, we are always right and without sin.

[arvay]

According to Trotsky's logic, the Nazis could have seen themselves as "God's agents on earth." After all, their belt buckles said "Gott Mit Uns." Trotsky was another mass murderer who used the pseudo-science of "dialectical materialism" to justify his actions.

As an atheist, I lack the convenience and the excuse of a "God" to justify my actions. Since I'm not a psychopath, I have to think about the consequences of my actions. Frankly, I think I come up with better results than many of "God's children."

Humans are social animals, and it's quite within our capacity to figure out a workable morality.

[Rog49Thomas]

In one sense you're correct, each group has seen itself as being able to apply whatever tactics and means it deemed appropriate out of a mistaken belief that it was right and it''s opponents wrong.

However, and as usual, a bit of contrariness ..
Trotsky's argument was not based on theology or God.
His argument said that Communists - but no one else- could engage in abhorrent behaviour because they worked to fulfill the historic dialectic and advance "workers' rights". So Trotsky's logic was clearly limited. Interestingly enough he criticized Stalin for employing certain methods ('cause he wasn't a "good" communist in Trot's view).

The "Gott Mit Uns" belt buckle predates the NSDAP. German troops wore it into battle in WW1. And their opponents had a similar twisted idea that God was on their side. These slogans go back very far - "Dieu and Mon Droit" dates back to Henry IV.

That being said, hopefully you and I share a common view that morality is one and is not dependent on the identity of the person committing the act.

[skruff]

Actually Morality is not situational, it is a semantic game.

I never figured out how we (USA) could believe we were a "moral" entity.

We stole this land from the origional inhabitants committing genocide in the process. We founded a nation based on exploitation; of slaves, resources and workers.

While spouting the words "Freedom" & "Liberty" we have pushed our big fat nose into other countries forcing them to "do it our way" while never really proving "our way"

We've committed assassinations of duley elected people around the world, and have destableized societies from Vietnam to Cuba. We have exported a predatory version of "capitalism" which kills people through starvation and disease. Then we rush in with our capital building programs to "help" (whom?)

We continue to allow our leaders to sell us out through "free trade" "outsourcing" and importation of cheap labor.

Now, of course other countries do this too, BUT they are not as sanctomonious about their "morality".

W

[ICanHasDemocracy]

Word

[Bitsko]

Why oh why do Senators get such long terms in office? I'd bet the house that the voters of Connecticut are dying to get rid of this embarrassment!

[AnnieinOR]

not so much that they get long terms as they keep getting reelected... unlike the presidency, there is no limit on how long they can serve in the congress - perhaps we should have a cap on that as well how many terms they can serve ....

[rainbowblue]

That would take a Consititutional admendment...one not likely to pass, wait for it, the Senate. You, I, and most people on this blog may not like Lieberman, but remember the people of Connecticut voted for this guy and we have to respect that. The same goes with people respecting the wishes of San Francisco who elected Nancy Pelosi. Simple pularistic theory. Often times I wish more people would read Rawls (espically his latter works on pularlism).

[Rog49Thomas]

Intelligent design so they say.

The Founders wanted to have a check on the popular passion (though popular had a more restricted application given the limitationi of the franchise at that time) represented by the House.

So Senators were appointed by state legislatures and not directly eleccted - at first.

A six year term (itself a compromise) was felt to allow Senators to be above the passions of the voters.

As to the desire of the residents of the Constitution State to remove Smokin' Joe, unclear. Alaska seems happy with "Tubes" and Kansas with "Rubes" so who can say?

[Jezreel]

I hope this story gets coverage by the MSM. Lieberman will deny that he tried to get a terrorist set free. But the proof that he agreed to do it is on the video. If MSM covers the story McCain will also be embarrassed.

[HansB]

Here's betting the MSM won't cover it. McClatchy today reports that the US set free one of Bin Laden's top bodyguards... and that story wasn't taken up by the rest of the MSM. It's well known the US funds and aids anti-Iran terror groups like MEK, but that's never reported in the MSM. It's also well known that the US holds prisoner Cuban anti-terror agents (on counts of espionage, of all things... as though spying on terror groups were a crime). That's never covered by the MSM, either.

[Jezreel]

I hope this story gets coverage by the MSM. In the video it certainly appears that Lieberman knew and understood what he was doing and that he intends to speak to Bush about freeing this terrorist. If this story gets coverage it will not only hurt Lieberman it will also affect McCain.

[Berettasskeeter]

I don't know the case of which you speak, but given that the President has the power of the pardon, and given that the Left's hero, Bill Clinton, pardoned Puerto Rican terrorists who killed Americans, I'm not sure I see your point.
Semper fi

[Bitsko]

From Wikipedia:

"All of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House. Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico."

It's not a pretty story, but them's the facts.

[Berettasskeeter]

Yup, them's the facts. But what's your point? That I'm right? That it matters whether its a Cuban being represented and not a Leftist?
Semper fi

[skruff]

"All of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received,"

Excuse me???

They murdered a police officer, conspired to murder more, they killed a (minimum wage) security guard at the old Mobil Oil building . they planted 86 bombs in and around New York City injuring many people and did untold damage to Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan a historical artifact where Washington met with his officers after the Revolution, If the State of New York, or the Federal Government had had a death penalty at the time, none of this scum would have lived to be pardoned.

The argument by the Clinton apologists seems to be that none of the imprisoned FALN pardoned had been directly involved in the actual murders. That is a canard, as under New York Law if I help or assist in the commission of a crime, which results in murder, I become as guilty as the person who did the actual act. At bare minimum these folks (all citizens of the USA) were guilty of treason. and conspiricy to overthrow a duly elected governmental entity. Life without the possibility of parole would be a "typical" sentence for folks "supporting" or "assisting" today... For verification, I suggest a review of Terry Nichols Timmy McVeigh's partner who committed no direct action against the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

[memphispaul]

Joe Lieberman is following the example set forth by Bill Clinton.
Pardons for favors. Nothing new in all this....