Vito Fossella: “Mr. Speaker, this is a defining moment for the United States of America as far as I am concerned. The question before us…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is a defining moment for the United States of America as far as I am concerned. The question before us today is going to be what type of signal do we send to terrorists contemplating acts of terrorism against this Nation? Several weeks ago this White House offered clemency to 16 known terrorists, individuals who were part of a group known as the FALN that engaged in a reign of terror across this country, but primarily from New York to Chicago, a group that claims responsibility for 130 bombings, a group that killed innocent people and maimed innocent people during the seventies and eighties, and, if they were not caught, who knows how many more innocent people would have died? Let us put a human face on what this group claims responsibility for. A man by the name of Frank Connor, who in 1975 was having lunch in downtown Manhattan in Fraunces Tavern. Just because he was having lunch, an FALN bomb went off and killed him.”