Bush pardons man who helped Israel during wartime

[Truth Teller]

In a gesture of forgiveness for a decades-old offense, President George W. Bush on Tuesday granted a pardon posthumously to a man who broke the law to supply aircraft to Jews fighting in Israel's 1948 war of independence.

Charles Winters, a Miami businessman considered a hero in Israel, was listed in a batch of 19 pardons and one commutation that Bush issued before leaving for Camp David to spend the holidays. No high-profile lawbreakers were on the list.

Winters' son, Jim, had found out about his father's daring missions and imprisonment only after his death in 1984.

"I'm overwhelmed," Jim Winters, a Miami maker of artistic neon signs, said in a telephone interview. "It happened 16 years before I was born. He went to jail and he didn't want his kids to know. He was old-school and proud."

Members of the Jewish community, who adorned his father's funeral with blue and white flowers symbolic of the Israeli flag, filled in details about his father's past. His obituary in The Miami Herald read, "Charles Winters, 71, aided birth of Israel."

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6mH44rWD9yyZf_AZ7YxQDVFL7WwD958N4I03

[dailydave21]

1. best... pardon... ever...

:bounce:

[Truth Teller]

2. By.. .the.. .worst... president... ever!

n/t

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. Doesn't exactly make up for what Grandpa Prescott did

I knew there had to be a story behind that one. I was thinking Winters must have been one of Poppy's CIA drug runners or something. Glad to hear the actual story was different than that!