White House asks for mercy on Capitol Hill

Under the heading if they didn't do anything wrong, why are they so nervous, the White House is sending in its minions to plead for after the fact authorization for their illegal acts.

An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions apply to the treatment of detainees in the terrorism fight, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need for such "protections," according to someone who heard his remarks last week.

Gonzales told the lawmakers that a shield is needed for actions taken by U.S. personnel under a 2002 presidential order, which the Supreme Court declared illegal, and under Justice Department legal opinions that have been withdrawn under fire, the source said. A spokeswoman for Gonzales, Tasia Scolinos, declined to comment on Gonzales's remarks.

Right, a shield, otherwise known as covering our ass for flaunting the laws.

I'm not really a vindictive person. Forgiveness generally comes easily to me, but it would make me very happy to see this entire administration do the fabled frog walk for their war crimes. As the Congress considers this plea for mercy from the administration they might want to remember the administration has relentlessly refused to show any mercy itself, to anyone -- ever.