I would like give the ability to use the permalink token to certain users, but hide the token for others (similar to the edit token).  Is this possible?  Has anyone put in this functionality into their site?

Thanks.

yes it's possible.

Every token looks for a setting in the xml file named "Roles" if found, then only people in the roles will see the token as rendered,

For example: having the setting below in your template.xml file will result in only members of the "Subscribers" role to see the Permalink. You can include multiple roles if you separate them with commas.

Thanks, as always!!