Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – 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 Party. Rich was indicted in 1983 by federal prosecutors on 51 counts, including trading with the enemy, fraud and tax evasion.
 
The other controversy regarded Clinton’s pardon of 16 FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) Puerto Rican terrorists in 1999, which Holder said Thursday he did not regret.  The FALN members had, according to the FBI, been linked to "more than 130 bombings, several armed robberies, six slayings and injury to hundreds of others," reported The Baltimore Sun. 
 
Holder faced questions on these matters during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
 
Early in his testimony, Holder seemed to please Democrats by proclaiming that water-boarding is “torture” and for calling for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison. Holder also said that he respected the Supreme Court’s decision confirming an individual’s constitutional right to bear arms, to own a gun for self-defense as well as sporting.
 
In response to a question from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), about interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation, use of dogs and forced nudity, Holder said, “I would not go so far as to say those constitute torture.” But he said they could violate international law standards against humane treatment of prisoners of war.
 
While Democrats repeatedly asked questions about counter-terrorism measures taken by the Bush Administration, the Republicans tried to keep the topic on the Rich pardon and other controversial aspects of Holder’s career.
 
“If you take a look at the hard facts, it’s hard for me to see how you could come to the conclusion you did” about the Marc Rich pardon, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said. “Given your experience and background, how do you explain this beyond simply saying it was a mistake?”
 
Holder said that much of the public information Specter cited came from the investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. He disputed two points about the committee’s report: One, he said he did not recommend lawyer Jack Quinn to represent Rich, and two, he did not tell Quinn to send the pardon request directly to the White House.
 
“I made a mistake in that matter,” Holder told the committee in response to a question from Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). “I was not aware of the political contributions and connections of Mr. Rich’s wife.”
 
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) called the FALN pardon “inexplicable,” and asked him if he believed the decision was correct.
 
Holder said that many distinguished people supported the pardons, including former President Jimmy Carter, members of Congress and clergy.
 
“These were criminals, these were terrorists, these were bad people,” Holder said. “The president’s determination was they did not commit any acts themselves. Given the length of the sentences, 16-to-19 years, given the lengthy sentences, it was his determination that the clemency requests were appropriate. Given all that I’ve described, what the president did was reasonable.”
 
Holder stressed that he would have viewed the matter differently in a post-9/11 world on whether to recommend clemency for the FALN members.
 
“What I did was not a mistake in the same way the Marc Rich pardon was a mistake,” he said.