[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Connect the dots, follow the money

[Brad Haslett]

So who is Howard Gutman?  First, he was the attorney that represented
Susan Rosenberg, a member of the Weather Underground. Little Susan was
just trying to bring about "hope and change" by unloading dynamite and
weapons from a car and served 16 years in prison until she was
pardoned by President Bill Clinton (see attached NYT article).  More
recently, Mr. Gutman has worked as a lobbyist and is one of 35
bundlers that have raised over $500,000 for candidate Barack Obama.
Last Friday, Mr. Gutman said on Laura Ingraham's radio show that Sarah
Palin shouldn't be running for VP because she has a special needs
child (no mention that Todd Palin quit his job at BP to avoid a
conflict-of-interest while his wife was negotiating a pipeline deal
and is available for care). The response from the Obama campaign when
questioned about Mr. Gutman's comments and Sen. Obama's stern warning
that the Palin kids were "off limits" was, "Mr. Gutman does not work
for the Obama campaign"  Dammit Man! I thought for sure we'd found a
half-a-million dollars for charity for a moment there.  Obama's
brother sure could use some dough.  No comment yet from Bill Ayers on
his thoughts.

Brad

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January 22, 2001
Officials Criticize Clinton's Pardon of an Ex-Terrorist
By ERIC LIPTON

An unusual combination of New York political and law enforcement
leaders have condemned former President Bill Clinton's pardon of Susan
L. Rosenberg, a one-time member of the Weather Underground terrorist
group who was charged in the notorious 1981 Brink's robbery in
Rockland County that left a guard and two police officers dead.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, and United States Senator
Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat, were among those who criticized the
pardon, as did Bernard B. Kerik, New York City's police commissioner,
and David Trois, a Rockland County police union official.

''It sickened me,'' Mr. Kerik said yesterday of the pardon, one of 140
granted Saturday, the final day of Mr. Clinton's tenure.

Ms. Rosenberg served 16 years in jail after she was found with a
companion in New Jersey in 1984 unloading 740 pounds of dynamite and
weapons, including a submachine gun, from a car. She admitted her role
in the New Jersey case, in which she had planned to supply others with
explosives for politically motivated bombings.

At the time of her arrest, she was wanted on charges related to the
1981 armed robbery of a Brink's armored car in Nanuet, N.Y., a holdup
that was supposed to raise money for the Weather Underground and other
radical groups. But Ms. Rosenberg denied any involvement in the
Brink's robbery and was never tried on those charges, because Mr.
Giuliani, then the United States attorney in Manhattan, indicated that
given her 58-year sentence on the New Jersey weapons charges, there
was no need to proceed with that case.

She requested a pardon after federal prosecutors in 1999 cited
evidence of her role in the Brink's case as a reason she should not be
paroled on the New Jersey charges. Because she was never tried or
convicted in the Rockland County case, it was unfair to deny her
parole, her lawyer, Howard Gutman, said yesterday.

''I am confident that if each of those officials learned the true
facts of the case, they would applaud the decision and would be
shocked that Susan was incarcerated as long as she was,'' he said,
adding that Ms. Rosenberg, who is about 45, was released from federal
prison on Saturday and moved to her mother's apartment in Manhattan.

Mr. Giuliani, asked yesterday if he regretted not prosecuting Ms.
Rosenberg on the Brink's charges, said he could not recall the details
of the case. But even if she was not tried or convicted in the case,
Ms. Rosenberg did not deserve to be freed, he said. ''She was
convicted of having in her possession 740 pounds of explosives, a
submachine gun, weapons,'' the mayor said. ''She admitted she had
these weapons to give to someone to use in a bombing, and she had been
involved in a significant number of robberies, bank robberies.''

Senator Schumer said that, even 20 years after the Rockland County
robbery, the hardship continues for the families of the men killed, so
Ms. Rosenberg should not have been pardoned.

David Trois, president of the Rockland County Patrolman's Benevolent
Association, said he remained convinced that Ms. Rosenberg played a
role in the Brink's robbery and he called the pardon an insult to all
police officers.

Police Commissioner Kerik had a personal connection to Ms. Rosenberg's
case. As a commander in the Passaic County Sheriff's Department in the
mid-1980's, he was part of the security team that accompanied Ms.
Rosenberg each day to and from her trial at the federal courthouse in
Newark.