Perverting the quality of mercy

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By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff

 One of my favorite web sites, Power Line, has taken note of a recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times that brought back some memories of the initial conflict in Afghanistan.

The editorial basically tries to make the argument that because President Bush commuted Scooter Libby's jail sentence, he should therefore extend clemency to John Walker Lindh.

If you're wondering who Lindh is, he is the American Muslim convert found at Mazar I Sharif in Afghanistan before and following the uprising of some Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners. He is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence following a plea bargain.

In a detailed Grand Jury indictment, Lindh was facing a likely treason charge for staying with the Taliban group and conducting a betrayal operation that ended with CIA operative Johnny Michael Spann dead.
As the Afghan commander gradually began to quell the uprising, it was Lindh who emerged from the prison basement to negotiate on behalf of the jihadis.

Scooter Libby served honorably as Assistant to the Vice President for national Security. In the words used on Power Line, "He was among those leaders charged with keeping this country safe from the likes of John Lindh after September 11th. He and his colleagues performed that task flawlessly. Yet it is not Libby's public service that merits clemency, in the Time's view; on the contrary! That clemency was misguided at best. In the world of the Los Angeles Times - which I think can be fairly seen as the world of American liberalism - Libby should be fed to the wolves, while mercy should be reserved for the disciple of bin Laden who participated in the murders of an American officer and a number of allied Afghans. This sums up quite well, I think, the perverse world view that contemporary liberalism has become."

Libby contended he had a faulty memory of some events involving former CIA employee Valery Plame - a likely circumstance for someone who was fielding hundreds of conversations every day. My belief is that he was railroaded, in front of a Grand Jury panel, by an over-zealous prosecutor. Ms. Plume and her husband were known to be adversaries of President Bush.

A judge recently threw out a civil case they mounted over this affair. But it's scary to think that political objectives can now be accomplished by using our legal system. The President was obviously correct to commute Libby's unfair sentence. The press went ballistic, but they said not a word when President Clinton, on leaving office, pardoned a fraud felon who was on the lam in Switzerland avoiding extradition. His friend's wife remained in the U.S., contributing heavily to the Clinton war chest.

The Los Angeles Times has regularly carried heavy water for Democrat candidates. But for a major newspaper to, in any way, compare Scoot Libby's service to his country with the murderous activities of John Walker Lindh against his own country men is flat out shameful.

Copyright©2007SheilahPepper

 

Last Updated on Friday, 24 April 2009 15:51