[GeronL]

Now Bush wants clemency for a communist guerilla, next thing you know he'll be doing things like signing CFR

[ambrose]

But isn't Bush just brilliant?? His support for a commie terrorist must confound and confuse the Democrats!! This is just a head fake!

[piasa]

Sounds more like Powell was saying that if the rights organizations says her rights were somehow seriously violated or she was falsely accused, only then would the US take a second look at the case with Peru to review the other organization's claims... pretty much because we'd be obligated to do so if there was a cause for believing her arrest, incarceration and trial were improper.

Translation: if the rights commission finds nothing, and since we have no reason to think she was railroaded either, then we are going to let her get what she has coming.

Naturally the editor chose to put the more inflamatory comment there because it leads people into hinking the US is going to ask for clemency because it thinks she is innocent, when in fact the US isn't going to do diddly squat if no one else has any objections, so to speak. Even if someone has objections, we are merely going to take a second look at the objector's analysis to see if it holds water or not. If it doesn't, then there is no cause for the US to do anything, and Lori is out of luck.

This comment doen't make for a very exciting headline: "We really have to see that and see what they say about the process, and then we'll see what we might want to say at that point," said Powell, who did not rule out seeking a pardon for the 32-year-old New Yorker.

This is pol-speak for "we don't think she has a case but we will look at any evidence the rights organization might have to see if there is sufficient reason to change our minds that she is in fact a terrorist."