Akkam’s Razor

The twilight of the Bush Presidency provides many loose threads, with a long list of rogues who may know ‘where the bodies are buried’. I suspect that the Bush legacy will include NOT pardoning the most notorious of his merry band of thieves, such as Scooter, Rummy, and Fredo Gonazalez, in order to preserve his legacy, but also to provide ‘red meat’ for the lunatics to fight over as a Democratic Congress and President attempt to restore order.

That’s why I think Obama should pardon the operators who executed potentially un-Constitutional orders from above – the nameless and faceless non-political law enforcement officials, military personnel, and other career governmental employees. None of them deserve to be haunted with the specter of future prosecution on the grounds of political opportunism, regardless of the party that benefits. But with strings attached.

This brings us to the story of the Family Jewels (via MeFi). In the shadow of Nixon and Watergate, CIA director James R. Schlesinger issued a memorandum [pdf] that asked CIA employees to report any incidents that were examples where the felt the organization had overstepped its legislated charter. I previously blogged a post detailing things I found interesting my first time through the report).

The list eventually was partially disclosed in 1977 and 2007, though heavily redacted [full pdf and 6-page pdf summary]. In it, you can see where the focus and activities of the agency were directed, as well as what the various operators thought was risky to the CIA as institution.

A similar bit of truth telling by individuals would do well to close the book on the Bush years without requiring Reconciliation Commissions, Congressional oversight battles, and Department of Justice subpoenas. I’m not sure of the mechanism for a pardon (or would some sort of transactional or blanket immunity in Congress be the better mechanism), but it seems the neatest, cleanest way to compel volunteer testimony and preserve Executive Privilege.

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