Bush May Pardon America's Spies

JOSH GERSTEIN
NY Sun
Tuesday December 11, 2007

With talk of a special prosecutor again in the air and the looming prospect of a Democrat taking over the White House, CIA officials involved in prisoner interrogations and the disputed handling of videotapes of those sessions may seek the only ironclad assurance against any criminal prosecution: a presidential pardon.

Such a pardon could come from President Bush as he prepares to leave office or from a new president early in 2009.

"I think there's a real possibility one of President Bush's last acts very well might be granting immunity to certain CIA employees," a defense attorney who has defended military personnel accused of prisoner abuse, Frank Spinner, said. "I think it depends in part on the election."

A critic of the Bush administration's interrogation policies, Thomas Malinowski of Human Rights Watch, said the pardon issue would put the White House in an awkward position as Mr. Bush's term winds down.

(Article continues below)

"It's going to be a dilemma for them, a real dilemma," Mr. Malinowski said. "The problem with a pardon is that it makes it seem that you're admitting that crimes were committed. It has been extremely difficult for this administration to do that. I think they want to go down claiming that what they did wasn't torture and it was perfectly legal. To issue pardons would undermine those claims."

Full article here.

Click here to discuss this story in our forum Yahoo! MyWeb Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Print Email This Page to: