Wednesday, January 15, 2003

 
WANTED as "Enemy Combatants": Caspar Weinberger, Elliot Abrams and Robert McFarlane

Yesterday, conservative pundits pounced on the following story:

"A California businessman pardoned by former President Clinton for a 1983 fraud conviction involving a hair-growth product has been arrested on tax evasion charges, authorities said Tuesday. Braswell's pardon became one of the most criticized after it was learned the president's brother-in-law had been paid $200,000 for working on the case. Hugh Rodham later returned the money."

Pretty shocking, eh?

Fair enough. Given the circumstances, Clinton should not have pardoned this guy. Of course, the media will harp on this story for some time to come. In the grand scheme of things, however, this pardon is a relatively unimpressive act of impropriety. In fact, it is about on par with this Bush Sr. Pardon awarded to the son of one of his contributors:

"CNN has learned about a pardon granted by former President Bush to Edwin Cox Jr., whose family contributed nearly $200,000 to the Bush family's campaigns and to Republican campaign committees from 1980 to 2000."

Hmmmm. I guess $200,000 must be some kind of unwritten price for pardons.

But enough of these small potatoes. If the wingers want to take a look at pardons, then let's take a look at some "big gun" pardons. To start, dare I mention the despicable pardon (yes, even more despicable than the Marc Rich pardon) of Richard M. Nixon by Gerald Ford. I dare. But even this pales in comparison to the truly despicable, self-serving, hyper-rationalized pardons of the Bush family.

No. Not Dubya. Not yet. We're of course talking about George H. W. Bush, whose pardons, especially in the light of recent year's events, take the prize for most detestable of all time.

"President [George H. W.] Bush, [on] December 24, [1992] granted pardons to former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five other individuals for their conduct related to the Iran-Contra affair. Bush said Weinberger -- who had been scheduled to go on trial in Washington January 5 on charges related to Iran-Contra -- was a "true American patriot," who had served with "distinction" []"

As a little background, Caspar Weinberger was the Secretary of Defense under Reagan. He was charged with four counts of lying to congressional Iran-Contra investigators in 1987 and 1990. Weinberger had concealed from congressional investigators his personal notes that detailed events related to Iran-Contra and which reportedly undermined what then-President Reagan said about the origins and operations of the covert arms-for-hostages dealings.

Among the other five individuals were:

Robert McFarlane, Reagan's National Security Adviser who pleaded guilty to four counts of withholding information from Congress.

And…

Elliott Abrams, Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State. Abrams pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra hearings. He is currently working for you and me as the National Security Council Director. Not surprisingly, Abrams' post in the George W. Bush Administration did not require Senate approval.

So what did these "true American patriots" do that could possibly compare to Braswell's "false advertising of hair-growth products"? Well, in concert with the rest of the Reagan Administration, they merely:

1) Had "Dealings with the enemy" (Iran), a designated terrorist nation at the time and current member of the "axis of evil".

2) Violated arms-export controls. The Independent Counsel concluded that: "The sales of arms to Iran contravened United States Government policy and [] violated the Arms Export Control Act"

3) Acted as "Enemy-Combatants". (as the Reagan Administration was supporting Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war).

4) Supported terrorism in Nicaragua. The Independent Counsel concluded that: "The provision and coordination of support to the contras violated the "Boland Amendment" ban on aid to military activities in Nicaragua"

Of course, according to George Sr., these activities were "All-American", a prelude of things to come with Bush Jr. He explained the pardons thusly:

"[The] common denominator of their motivation -- whether their actions were right or wrong -- was patriotism.'They did not profit or seek to profit from their conduct', Bush said, adding that all five 'have already paid a price -- in depleted savings, lost careers, anguished families -- grossly disproportionate to any misdeeds or errors of judgment they may have committed.'"

You see, it's O.K. to sell weapons to the enemy of the United States so long as the proceeds go to support terrorists in South America. Administration officials were quick to point out that the arms sales were in exchange for the release of hostages in Lebanon. As though the administration would not have otherwise covertly funded their terrorist friends in Nicaragua with covert weapon sales to Iran if there were no hostages in Lebanon. In addition, negotiating with terrorists (the Lebanese kidnappers) set such a catastrophic worldwide precedent as to be incomprehensible. Not surprisingly, the only "real" mistake that the Reagan Administration thinks they made was getting found out.

Of course we can't blame Bush for pardoning these Iran-Contra criminals. He had to. He was one of them.

"The Independent Counsel concluded that: the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of, among others, President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey, and national security advisers Robert C. McFarlane and John M. Poindexter."

By pardoning these criminals and painting their actions into a portrait of selfless patriotism, Bush was pardoning his own actions and painting himself as a selfless patriot.

The kicker is that although a president has unlimited pardon powers, it is highly unusual to pardon someone before trial and conviction. (The best-known precedent was the Nixon pardon) Indeed, if Weinberger was allowed to stand trail, there is little doubt that Bush and Reagan themselves would have been indicted and perhaps impeached for their brazen usurpation of American and international law.

Luckily, there is still one hope for justice. Let's look at two important facts:

1) The current Bush Administration has set a precedent, freely applying the label of "enemy combatant" to those it feels are working or have worked with the enemy against the United States.

2) The "Patriot" Act has a clause that eliminates the statute of limitations on such matters (USPA: Title VIII, Sec. 809).

Given that evidence already exists that Weinberger, McFarlane and Abrams were involved in "aiding the enemy" it is certainly within recent character and precedent to take them into custody, indefinitely and without being charged, being named or being counseled. In fact, under current definitions and past evidence, the entire Reagan Administration qualifies as "enemy combatants"….but this article is about despicable presidential pardons not despicable presidential administrations.

posted by Thomas Ball 3:10 PM