Yes, it's an interesting pair of unusual preemptive pardons. Pardons are usually for people who have been convicted. Here, neither man had been tried, let alone convicted. The pardons basically said, "This person has no legal liability for anything regarding situation X, now or in the future." In Nixon's case the wording was quite broad.
and.. we’ve heard rumors of Obama leaving office granting lots of secret pardons for his admin and their minions..
I’m waiting to hear about those, too.