There are unrepentant people of various stripes in the news these days. Their attitude seems to pay off, in the short term anyway, while the sincere and public remorse of those with lesser faults earns them lashes from the State. I refer to Mr. Clinton’s pardon of sixteen unrepentant FALN (”Armed Front for a Free Puerto Rico”) terrorists and how their release has affected Hillary Rodham-Clinton’s campaign for a US Senate seat in New York.  

As noted in the New York Times last week, Bill Clinton is the least forgiving President in American history, having rejected 3000 pleas for pardon. Pardon requires public statements of contrition by the convicted and a pledge to refrain from similar acts in future. Mr. Clinton ignored the urgings of hundreds of law enforcement officials and victims by releasing FALN terrorists who refused to renounce future meetings and even publicly mocked the conditions of release.

The FALN committed 130 bombings in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s. Scores of Americans were maimed and six were killed. Five members of Congress were physically attacked. So this was a curious choice for pardon by this most unforgiving of Presidents. (more…)