Vito Fossella: “last week, as some Members of the body know and many Americans know, a number of terrorists that engaged in a reign of…”

“last week, as some Members of the body know and many Americans know, a number of terrorists that engaged in a reign of terror across this Nation during the seventies and eighties were part of a group known as the FALN, that were responsible and proudly claimed responsibility for 130 bombings, if not more, killing innocent people and maiming innocent people. It became news in the last several weeks because they were offered clemency by the White House. Despite the fact that they rejected the initial offer of clemency because they thought conditions placed upon them were too humiliating, ultimately they agreed and now they are free, with the exception of two, who rejected the offer. At the time, those of us who opposed the offer of clemency objected, for a number of reasons. One, these are evil people. They sought to hurt, kill, and maim innocent people. They sought, in a way, the overthrow of the United States government because they did not get their way through a civilized, normal democratic process known as the rule of law, known as elections. They sought the independence of Puerto Rico. They did not get their way, so they resorted to bombs. They resorted to killing. They resorted to maiming. They were terrorists.”