Bush Administration: Torture Pardons "Unnecessary"

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Bush administration isn't planning to pardon officials involved in torture -- because, they believe, memos legalizing the practice makes it "unnecessary."

The White House isn't inclined to grant sweeping pardons for former administration officials involved in harsh interrogations and detentions of terror suspects, according to people familiar with the situation.

Some Republicans have been pushing for President George W. Bush to grant pre-emptive clemency to officials who fear being investigated by Democratic critics. White House officials have countered that such pardons are unnecessary, these people say. The officials point to Justice Department legal opinions that supported the administration's methods of detaining and interrogating terror suspects.

...

Some former Bush administration officials have argued against a blanket pardon for post-9/11 activities, saying it would be tantamount to an admission that the Bush policies weren't legal.

Outside advocacy groups are pushing for investigations.

Liberal groups and some legal scholars say they will push for criminal investigations of former Bush officials. The officials in their sights include Central Intelligence Agency interrogators and lawyers at the Justice Department and the White House who formulated or approved tactics that critics labeled as torture.

President Bush has already pardoned 14 people, for misdeeds including drug offenses, tax evasion, wildlife violations and bank embezzlement.

Comments

[SailFree]

Hmmm...Bush is being logical and reasonable and his critics are...behaving as usual. Reflexively anti-everything he does, which has put them on the wrong side of many issues and caused many of the problems we are currently facing.

[mjb5406]

Huh?

In which country have you been living? Not the U.S.A. obviously!

[timbonotes]

Nothing short of full investigation, indictment, prosecution and conviction of these thugs for war crimes is satisfactory. If Obama does not support this thesis then he will have lost my support!

[Liam]

I doubt this rationale will work, but... I don't think they really think it will. It's a smoke screen.

See, you can't issue a blanket pardon, in order to pardon anyone, you have to explicitly name them and the crime for which you are pardoning. And Bush can't issue a pardon for himself or Cheney. So essentially, in order to pardon the people who DID the torture, he'd essentially give sufficient details of the torture to become verifiable AND remove any real reason for those involved to refuse to testify on the topic...

The idea that he believes they're "already protected" is hoping that those who did the torturing won't feel hung out to dry, he's hoping THEY believe that he believes that they're covered.

At least, that's my take on it.

Liam.

[CostaDelBarto]

A memo can make a crime... legal...

Awesome! There's a few memos I'd like to have out there.

[mjb5406]

That is certainly the logic of our Justice Department!

[madisonhack]

These people cannot get a pass on this...there needs to be an investigation and a prosecution, if it's justified. Nancy Pelosi is the worst possible role model for young women - cowing to male power when she should have leaned hard on impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. If not for these people, then for whom?

[Chip W]

Legislation by memo?

[CostaDelBarto]

Yeah who needs congress?

[irisda]

The people of that administration should have thought hard about the consequences of their actions and opinions. Instead of hoping for pardons. What they did is not okay!

[SpeakSense]

With more than 50 days remaining on his abysmal tenure...I wouldn't count on anything. If it comes out of the mouth of GWB, count on it being a lie. He's going to pardon.

[claudiam]

What do we expect? I am not surprised. I hope that Barack will revisit this soon after his inauguration.
We need to close Gitmo and address the torture issue. claudiatucsonaz

[white mende man]

Way to go George let them suffer the consequences. foe once he is doing the right thing.

[white mende man]

most probably come back to bite him in the butt LOL.

[USMC9298]

There is only one man that needs to be investigated, and prosecuted...George W. Bush. You are the decider, you decided, now you will have to pay the price not just the scapegoats down the pipe.

[Tom Payned]

Oh, you have to add Cheney, Rummie, and Gonzalez. They weren't only following orders they helped to develop the orders.

[Damaven]

He's loose.

[lioness39]

It will be interesting to see how the Bush administration 'defines' torture.

[LemonMeringue]

I do not care if a single person in the Bush administration sees a day of jail time, because there is no amount of suffering on their part that would satisfy justice, and accomplishing that would ensure not much else gets done in th first year.

But...

The Obama administration needs to open and reopen investigations. We need to know what happened. History needs to be accurate on this one. Imagine the holocaust and Vietnam going into the books as nothing but lies. It's enough they lied about who killed Kennedy and why.

INVESTIGATE THE MISTAKES OF IRAQ AND GUANTANAMO AND SPYING

[ObjectiveRealist]

What does he think this is? Poker?