Senate Denounces Clemency Deal

The U.S. Senate denounced the Clinton administration’s clemency deal with Puerto Rican separatists, and one Republican accused the administration of blocking FBI testimony at a hearing on the deal. In a 95-2 vote, the Senate criticized the arrangement that allowed 11 Puerto Ricans to leave federal prisons where they had been held for nearly two decades. Most of those offered clemency were members of FALN, which was responsible for about 130 bombings in the late 1970s and early 1980s that left six dead and scores wounded.