Free Republic

John Kasich is a good man. I appeared on his show Heartland several times when it aired on Fox News. He also interviewed me once when he was filling in for Bill on the O’Reilly Factor. But now that he is running for governor of Ohio he may have a far more serious job in the near future. If elected, he will have to root out terrorist activity that is taking hold in the Buckeye State – activity that is being funded by Ohio taxpayers. If Kasich is elected, his efforts to fight terror will get little assistance from the...

We wonder what Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has to hide. Her confirmation hearing starts Monday, but the White House refuses to turn over boxes of documents for review about her past. Republican senators requested board meeting minutes of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, where Ms. Sotomayor served on the board of directors from 1980 to 1992. White House Counsel Greg Craig contends that all documents deemed "responsive" already were sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Contrary to White House dodging, these board meetings may be important in evaluating Ms. Sotomayor's legal and policy reasoning because the...

As a precondition for any discussions with Cuba, Obama must demand the extradition to America of fugitives receiving safe haven in Cuba, including Armed Forces for National Liberation bombmaker William Morales, Wells Fargo armored-car robber Victor Manuel Gerena and the killer of a New Jersey state trooper, Joanne Chesimard. These violent fugitives have all been provided safe haven in Cuba since the 1980s Americans must be aware of what is at stake here. We can't allow Obama to repeat his recent European tour, when he weakened our country's prestige and received nothing in return. Although I strongly disagree with fostering...

We have plenty of basis and evidence that [Binyam] Mohammed is dangerous. But Holder’s sense of “responsibility ... as attorney general ... for the safety of this nation” did not stop him from agreeing to Mohammed’s release and transfer to England — where he now plots freely while on the British dole. Naturally, having discerned that all the tough talk was just that, talk, British authorities are back on the administration’s doorstep, demanding the release of Shaker Aamer. He’s a bin Laden confidant who trained aspiring terrorists at al-Qaeda camps, met with shoe-bomber Richard Reid, and traveled widely in the...

Americans spelled it out in black and white. The public discourse on race relations rattled with mixed emotions after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s bold assertion that the U.S. is a "nation of cowards" when addressing the realities of the ethnic melting pot.

Three times during his tenure as Deputy Attorney General, Eric Holder was made fully aware that intelligence sharing with the Criminal Division was not taking place. As the officer in charge of day-to-day operations at the Department of Justice, his lack of due diligence ensured that the 'Wall' between the intelligence and criminal divisions of the FBI that Jamie Gorelick had built would remain in place for the foreseeable future. The 'Wall' stood as the Clinton administration and intelligence community saw the rising threat of al Qaeda, Ramzi Yousef was prosecuted for making the bomb used in the 1993 attack...

When Republicans controlled the White House, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee borked Bob Bork, rhetorically lynched Clarence Thomas, shelved Miguel Estrada, disappeared Jim Haynes, and tried to waterboard Michael Mukasey. The Committee’s hearing room remains the place where GOP nominations go to die. But with a Democrat about to move into the Oval Office, it’s apparently time for Change. That should work quite nicely for Eric Holder, President-elect Obama’s nominee for attorney general. It’s a Change in the committee’s basic approach: from trumping up charges to sink impeccably qualified nominees to whitewashing history so a checkered nominee can sail...

In his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, attorney-general nominee Eric Holder responded to the two top criticisms leveled against him by (1) defending clemency for members of a terrorist group and (2) saying, “I will be a better attorney general for having had the Marc Rich experience.” Holder has been criticized for several controversial and suspected politicized decisions he made as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration. Chief among these have been his role, which he says he regrets, in President Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. Rich’s ex-wife, Denise Rich, had made large campaign donations to the Democratic...

The son of a victim of FALN Terrorists is speaking out against the nomination of Eric Holder to be the next Attorney General of the United States. Joseph Connor actually testified on Capitol Hill today against Holder's nomination. He appeared on Hannity & Colmes last month where he made the case against Holder. Video of that appearance is found above. . . . (watch video)

Here video from 1999 when Obama Attorney General nominee Eric Holder was the Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration. He recommended the pardon of 16 FALN ( a Puerto Rican Terror Group) Terrorists to President Clinton. This video shows Sen. Orrin Hatch grilling Holder after the pardons were made about the fact Holder never even bothered to talk with the victims of the FALN attacks before recommending the pardons. Today, the son of one of the five people FALN attacks killed in the United States testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee against the Holder nomination. He also indicated Holder...

Re: Eric Holder, Obama's pick for Attorney General! From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:PROFILE: ERIC HOLDER (note that this is just an excerpt on one issue. The linked piece addresses all of Holder's record) Holder and the Pardon of FALN Terrorists: Holder was also intimately involved in President Clinton's August 11, 1999 pardon of 16 members of the FALN, acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation—a violent terrorist organization (as designated by the FBI) that was active in the U.S. from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s. The FALN was a Marxist-Leninist group whose overriding mission was to secure Puerto Rico's...

Obama pick faces questions over bombers' clemencyBy PETE YOST Associated Press Writer Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 2:05 PM WASHINGTON — New York police detective Anthony S. Senft's life changed forever when a bomb set by Puerto Rican separatists exploded, blowing him 15 feet in the air and blinding him in one eye. Now, he's angry that Eric Holder, who played a key role in awarding clemency to the bombers, is in line to be attorney general. Holder, as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, worked closely with the Justice Department's pardon attorney to raise the possibility of...

Senate Republicans have invited the son of man killed in a 1975 Puerto Rican nationalist bombing as well as a former FBI agent who investigated two violent groups supporting Puerto Rican independence to appear at Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings. In particular, they question Holder’s role in President Clinton’s 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich as well as Holder’s involvement in Clinton’s 1999 decision to grant clemency to 16 violent Puerto Rican nationalists. To drive home those questions, Republicans have arranged for Joseph F. Connor, whose father was killed in the Jan. 24, 1975, bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New...

Despite a huge Democratic Senate majority, Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings are going to be difficult. He has a long record to defend. Whether it is his involvement and inconsistent statements about Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich’s or his pushing Clinton’s clemency of the FALN terrorists or his failure to disclose his work for troubled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich after Blagojevich's legal problems surfaced, he faces tough questions. But Holder’s nomination raises other questions about what President-elect Barack Obama claimed he believed during the campaign. Numerous times he promised that he supported an individual’s right to own guns...

In two days, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) will begin the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Eric Holder, former Clinton deputy attorney general who is President-elect Barack Obama’s highly controversial nominee to the office of Attorney General. Holder, best known for playing a major role in the Clinton pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, will face skeptical Republicans, including ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Specter has run into a Leahy roadblock in his attempts to get some of the background documents on the nomination. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has refused to sign off on document requests by Republicans...

Attorney General nominee Eric H. Holder Jr. repeatedly pushed some of his subordinates at the Clinton Justice Department to drop their opposition to a controversial 1999 grant of clemency to 16 members of two violent Puerto Rican nationalist organizations, according to interviews and documents. Details of the role played by Holder, who was deputy attorney general at the time, have not been publicly known until now. However the new disclosures are of particular interest because Republican senators vow to revisit Holder's role during his confirmation hearings next week.

Reporting from Washington — Attorney general nominee Eric H. Holder Jr. repeatedly pushed some of his subordinates at the Clinton Justice Department to drop their opposition to a controversial 1999 grant of clemency to 16 members of two violent Puerto Rican nationalist organizations, according to interviews and documents. Details of the role played by Holder, who was deputy attorney general at the time, had not been publicly known until now. The new disclosures are of particular interest because Republican senators have vowed to revisit Holder's role during his confirmation hearings next week. Holder had no comment for this article, but...

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "During Barack Obama’s presidential run, Eric Holder, Bill Clinton’s Deputy Attorney General from 1997 to 2001, campaigned heavily for the then-Illinois senator. This past summer, Obama tapped Holder to serve on the vice presidential selection team that ultimately chose Joe Biden to be Obama’s running mate. Now Holder may receive his own position in the Obama administration, which he has been nominated to serve as Attorney General." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Nearly ten years after the FALN pardons, Holder is once again set to enter the Attorney General’s office – this time as its head. But before assuming that important...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday dismissed any concern that Attorney General nominee Eric Holder’s confirmation process would be haunted by the pardon of Marc Rich. Speaking at a press conference to praise President-elect Barack Obama’s nominations, Leahy singled out Holder as “a longtime friend” and an “especially fitting” choice to lead the Justice Department. He predicted Holder’s involvement in the 2001 pardon of Rich — a fugitive commodities trader granted clemency on President Bill Clinton’s last day in office — would play only a minor role in the upcoming hearings. Leahy acknowledged that, while the topic...

November 25, 2008, 9:45 a.m. Opposed to Holder without ApologyThe shameful pardons are disqualifying. By Andrew C. McCarthy I’ll concede this much to Lanny Davis: Last Friday night, during our Hannity & Colmes debate over President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of Eric Holder to be the next Attorney General, Davis said (or I should say, screeched) that I’d soon be apologizing, and he’s right. I am sorry that our discussion degenerated into a screaming match. That’s wince-making television that doesn’t edify anyone. So I do apologize to anyone who had to endure that segment. But Davis’s hysterical suggestion that I...