My point in this was a narrow point, which was that the pardoning of 5 drug convictions over christmas was not germaine to the discussion of pardoning the agents.
That's because Bush wasn't pressured to pardon the drug convictions, they came through channels; the pardons were administrative as they had already served their sentences; and the crimes they committed were non-violent.
If after they serve their sentences, Ramos and Compean want to be BP agents again, they might need a pardon to get the conviction cleared so they can get the jobs, and it might make sense to do so. But that's not the kind of pardon people are calling for here.
So it's clear the point of the post is not to provide enlightenment or add facts to the debate over the guilt or innocence of the agents, but merely to inflame passions and to suggest that Bush loves drug dealers and therefore pressured sutton to believe the drug dealer and not the agents.
When in fact drug dealers are put in jail by the BP all the time, and nobody is trying to prosecute THOSE agents. IN fact, in one other case where a drug smuggler helped put an agent in jail, the smuggler was already in jail and got no reduction of sentence for his testimony.
One thing history teaches us is that, with few exceptions, people, especially government people, do not give up power readily.
How many more cases like Brugman will it take before you "See the light"?? This Justice Department is against border security!! It prosecutes the agents to send a message. Bush is wrong, wrong, wrong on this issue. The Sutton gang will obviously ride roughshod over Americans trying to do their job. If you don't think these cases have a "chilling effect" on border security, you need to be committed.