Bush pardons man who aided Israel in wartime

WASHINGTON — Charlie Winters was an unlikely soldier in the fight for a Jewish state 60 years ago. An Irish Protestant from Boston, he took up the clandestine cause from Miami and helped ferry military planes to Israeli fighters, even flying a B-17 bomber across the Atlantic himself in 1948.

The Israelis have long considered him a hero, with former Prime Minister Golda Meir hailing his efforts. Yet in the United States, he was a criminal, imprisoned for 18 months for violating the 1939 Neutrality Act and breaking an embargo on weapons to Israel.

President Bush pardoned Winters on Tuesday, clearing his name nearly 25 years after his death. In recent months, prominent Jews, including the filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and members of Congress have mounted a quiet campaign for clemency in Winters' memory.

"This is a present for my father," said Jim Winters, 44, a Miami businessman who knew nothing about his father's imprisonment until after his death.

"This was a monumental challenge, but my dad's favorite saying was 'Keep the faith,' and we did," Winters said.

Bush issued 18 other pardons Tuesday and one sentence commutation to people convicted for largely run-of-the-mill crimes such as dealing drugs and forging checks.

One Washington woman, Marie Elena Eppens, of Lynden, in Whatcom County, was among those pardoned. She had been convicted of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

There were no big names on the list, despite speculation the president might consider leniency for prominent figures such as Michael Milken, the financier; Marion Jones, the sprinter; Bernard Ebbers, the former head of WorldCom; or I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former White House aide.

For Winters' survivors and supporters, the unexpected appearance of his name on the pardon list loomed large.

"This is a very good day," said Reginald Brown, a lawyer who represented the family in the clemency petition to the Justice Department. "He did a heroic thing, and, at the time, the law didn't reflect our values."

Winters, who died in 1984 at 71, becomes only the second person on record to be granted a pardon posthumously, administration officials said. In 1999, President Clinton issued a pardon to Lt. Henry Flipper, who was the first black graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1877 and who was convicted of thievery four years later on charges that appeared racially fueled.

Winters was among a group of several hundred Americans and Canadians referred to by the Israelis by the Hebrew acronym of "machal," or "volunteers from outside Israel," who secretly helped in Israel's war of independence in 1948, a year after its creation as a Jewish state. The Israelis recognized Winters' efforts with a formal letter of appreciation from Meir and buried his ashes in the ancient Templars Cemetery in Jerusalem.

With this latest batch, Bush has granted a total of 190 pardons and nine commutations. That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Clinton or Reagan issued.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.