Wanna Know Who Made Racism ''Acceptable Again'' in the good ol' USA?

[Octafish]

194. Would've outted Poppy Bush's treason, too.

BUSH PARDONS WEINBERGER, FIVE OTHERS TIED TO IRAN-CONTRA

Calls Weinberger "true American patriot"

By Dian McDonald
USIA White House Correspondent, Dec. 24, 1992

Washington -- President Bush December 24 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" in a series of public positions since the late 1960s.

"I am pardoning him not just out of compassion or to spare a 75-year-old patriot the torment of lengthy and costly legal proceedings, but to make it possible for him to receive the honor he deserves for his extraordinary service to our country," Bush said in a proclamation granting executive clemency.

The president also pardoned five other persons who already had pleaded guilty or had been indicted or convicted in connection with the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages investigation. They were Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs; former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane; and Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, and Clair George, all former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Explaining those pardons, Bush said 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."

Asked about the pardons at a news conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, later in the day, President-elect Clinton said he did not have all the details on the matter and would withhold comment until he had had a chance to study the president's statement and related information.

However, Clinton said he was concerned "by any action which sends a signal that, if you work for the government, you're above the law, or that not telling the truth to Congress under oath is somehow less serious than not telling the truth to some other body under oath."

SNIP...

[font color="red"]Bush said the prosecutions of the persons he was pardoning on Christmas Eve represent "what I believe is a profoundly troubling development in the political and legal climate of our country: the criminalization of policy differences."[/font color]

CONTINUED...

http://fas.org/news/iran/1992/921224-260039.htm

Crooked veep would never have become president -- and he never could've pardon Cap Weinberger and the rest of the BFEE pack. He never would've lied America into war on Iraq in 1991 and his idiot son Smirko never would've re-invaded it in 2003. And no one would even be thinking Jebthro in '16!