The NYT reports that Attorney General Michael Mukasey does not believe the Bush Administration needs to consider whether to pardon officials who were involved with the development of interrogation policies.

Mr. Mukasey, whose nomination as attorney general last year was threatened by his refusal to say whether he considered waterboarding to be torture, said the lawyers who authorized the surveillance and interrogation programs had done so in the belief that they were following the law.

"In those circumstances," he said, "there is no occasion to consider prosecution, and there is no occasion to consider pardon."

"If the word goes out to the contrary," he said, "then people are going to get the message, which is that if you come up with an answer that is not considered desirable in the future you might face prosecution, and that creates an incentive not to give an honest answer but to give an answer that may be acceptable in the future. It also creates some incentive in people not to ask in the first place."