It’s not being called a pardon, but that’s the practical effect of the Obama administration’s Attorney General saying he will not prosecute CIA agents who tortured prisoners at “black sites” around the world under the Bush administration’ “War on Terror”.
It all comes back to the question raised in Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song “Universal Soldier”, which is really the same question that is embedded in the Nuremberg laws … Is a soldier or bureaucrat to be exonerated if he/she was only following orders?
Will John Demjanjukbe freed because of this new precedent? What about Bush and Cheney themselves, who actually demanded that these CIA agents carry out the torture?
You might want to look at this thought-provoking posting (http://sonoran-scrawl.livejournal.com/tag/daniel+brudno) on the subject.