Bush expected to pardon those with torture links

[unhappycamper]

Bush expected to pardon those with torture links
Ewen MacAskill, Washington
January 16, 2009

US LAWYERS battling against torture and other abuses at Guantanamo Bay are braced for George Bush issuing last-minute pardons to protect those in his Administration most closely implicated.

The lawyers' warning came after a senior member of the Bush Administration, Susan Crawford, admitted for the first time that torture had been carried out.

Such pardons could prevent US courts from prosecuting people involved in torture on the Bush Administration's watch, in much the same way that then president Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon in 1974 for crimes he may have committed during his presidency, even though no specific charge had been made against him.

Judge Crawford's admission of torture is in relation to the case of a Saudi national, Mohammed al-Qahtani, 30, accused of involvement in the 9/11 attack. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, tortured for a month and then kept in isolation.

Judge Crawford, a Pentagon official in charge of military commissions that decided whether detainees should be tried, told Bob Woodward of The Wash-ington Post: "We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case (for prosecution) . . . The techniques they used were all authorised, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive."


Rest of article at: http://www.theage.com.au/world/bush-expected-to-pardon-those-with-torture-links-20090115-7i64.html

[lonestarnot]

1. And for a decider serial killer, I would not have expected less.

[panader0]

2. Especially after hearing Holder confirm that waterboarding

is torture.

[spanone]

3. i don't think the world will stand by while bu$h* pardons torturors

[lonestarnot]

4. I was going to say right, but I don't like that word.

:D

[unhappycamper]

7. Use 'correct'. n/t

[lonestarnot]

19. Correct!

:P :patriot:

[Virginia Dare]

17. If the truth behind some of the things that they were doing...

gets out, all hell will break loose. And I believe it probably will. There is no way that Americans will tolerate this. They were doing these things to WOMEN and CHILDREN. It just goes beyond sick and disgusting. This country is about to go into some serious turmoil.

[Hieronymus]

5. I think most of us expected this. At least they will take a chance if they

leave the US.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. Simple. Have the investigations and turn all evidence over to the Hague.

Prisoners in their own country.

[originalpckelly]

8. If it happens, we should not only condemn the President, but the system.

And perhaps, even ourselves.

[zbdent]

9. should dig up all those quotes by Republicans about

how we should be able to overturn Presidential pardons, and how the "ex" president can be re-re-re-re-re-re-impeached ...

[ThomWV]

10. How far down will the Pardons go? My guess is to one level above Susan Crawford.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Yep...It's Too Quiet

I get a feeling next week we'll be throwing around the term "retroactive immunity" a lot around here.

We haven't heard a word about pardons, and you know they're coming. This abuse is just too much for boooshie to ignore. I'll bet he's been thinking about this exit for a long time and the list is just as long. A bunch of us have a pool of names going here...Scooter's ticket is a given, we have even money on George Ryan and Duke Cunningham and 2:1 says Abramaoff gets his silence bought.

I've long expected he'll try some kind of immunity bullshit...and I can't see how it holds up in court, just like his goofy abuse of executive power. He may be able to cover himself and crashcart, but I can't see it going beyond that.

Yep...it's too quiet...expect one final booooosh bomb around midnight Monday...

[originalpckelly]

12. He'll have his little monkey's do it during the inauguration...

that way it won't steal attention and go silently into the day.

[L0oniX]

13. You can't pardon people who have not been convicted ...Bush ...the dumb ass to the end.

[originalpckelly]

14. Nixon.

[Beausoleil]

18. Poppy did it for some Iran/Contra conspirators

Duane R. Clarridge -- Indicted November 26, 1991, on seven counts of perjury and false statements about a secret shipment of U.S. HAWK missiles to Iran. The maximum penalty for each count was five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene set a March 15, 1993, trial date. Clarridge was pardoned December 24, 1992.

Caspar W. Weinberger -- Indicted June 16, 1992, on five counts of obstruction, perjury and false statements in connection with congressional and Independent Counsel investigations of Iran/ contra. On September 29, the obstruction count was dismissed. On October 30, a second indictment was issued, charging one false statement count. The second indictment was dismissed December 11, leaving four counts remaining. The maximum penalty for each count was five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan set a January 5, 1993, trial date. Weinberger was pardoned December 24, 1992.

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm

[surrealAmerican]

15. Thanks again, Gerald Ford.

Way to set a justice-defying precedent.

[Virginia Dare]

16. The next 48 hours should be interesting..

Bush and Cheney may be acting calm and controlled on the outside but inside they're squealing like pigs. Me thinks there are lots of people out there ready to talk. They can't possibly suicide all of them. The house of cards is ready to fall.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. "Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States" - how specific need that be?

Would he have to name the exact charge (and the exact people)? Ford may have given Nixon a 'pardon', but was it actually tested in a court? What if, as in this case, the offense is against international law, on behalf of the US government? Is that still "against the United States"?