Click at left to Support This Resource!                      A Personal Writing Resource  05/13/2009 11:57:04 AM -0700                    Bookmark  Link Comment         How can we stop these guys?   click to learn more.  We best support our troops by bringing them home.  The misuse of our troops to enforce no-bid, cost-plus corporate giveaways is bad for America.  It's time for accountability.  We must rebid, redeploy, and rebuild using reparations from war profiteers.  One person makes a difference. Ramsey Clark: A decisive moment for impeachment Your help is needed! Now is the time that our actions can prove decisive. Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced 35 articles of impeachment. Please read the important statement released today by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, which is below. As Ramsey Clark makes clear, the impeachment of George W. Bush is the most important task of the moment for the safety and security of the people of the United States, the Middle East and throughout the world. None of us can risk being plunged further into war. More than 1 million people have joined together in support of the impeachment movement launched by Ramsey Clark at ImpeachBush.org. From collecting signatures in towns and cities across the land to letter writing campaigns to direct congressional visits volunteers have forced impeachment "on the table." Now we must act and take the next steps. We are doubling our efforts and we need everyone to pitch in. Please contact your congressional representative and demand they support the 35 Articles of Impeachment, and take a moment to make as generous a donation as you can to support this movement as we make this push. We are printing thousands of leaflets, organizing door-to-door outreach for volunteers, phone banking, and exploring the possibilities for internet advertising and more newspaper ads.  What we can achieve  depends on the level of financial support provided by those who believe that the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is necessary. Click this link to make your donation.   Message from Ramsey Clark Impeachment is not a political question. Impeachment is a constitutional duty. It is the one power and highest duty the Constitution rests in the Congress to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States when the President, Vice President, and other civil officers of the United States commit treason, bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors. George Bush has deliberately, falsely and systematically mislead the Congress and the American people concerning the most criminal, costly and harmful acts of his administration, leading us to war, tragic loss of human life, the devastation of Iraq, military expenses reaching trillions of dollars, disruption of the economy that will take decades to overcome, a contemptuous assault on the Bill of Rights, an international humanitarian disaster, deliberate antagonism and provocation of nations and people, most once friendly, and an enlarging assault on the earth's environment. On June 5, 2008, a long delayed five year U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence study and 170-page report unanimously found President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top officers had made false charges and systematically presented a more dire picture about Iraq than justified by intelligence provided only to them. The Committee included both Democrats and Republicans. Today President Bush is exerting all his power and influence to repeatedly urge Europe, Israel and others to support an attack on Iran which he intends to commence in the remaining months of the presidency. Iran is larger than Iraq and Afghanistan, has millions of people, richer by a multiple, unimpaired by recent war and will fight fiercely if attacked. He is negotiating a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq placing the U.S. on Iran's border. The next several Presidents of the United States will spend their time in office miserably fighting wars started by Bush, as our economy is consumed in military spending. Impeachment, a Constitutional duty, is the only way to prevent George W. Bush and his cabal from vastly enlarging the disastrous wars he has already inflicted on the world and the American people. The House of Representatives must quickly consider Bills of Impeachment long overdue, and the Senate must prepare to sit in judgment of President Bush, Vice President Cheney other officers who are implicated. Ramsey Clark June 10, 2008 It's Time To Now Put Bush Impeachment On The Table Too Impeach Bush Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/impeach_george_bush.php (anyone can use this link) Facebook Version: http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum788 (for this link must be a member of Facebook and logged in.) Major article calling for impeachment in Sunday's Washington Post George McGovern:  Impeach Bush and Cheney AP photo / Doug Dreyer Case in point:  George McGovern (shown above at the 2006 dedication ceremony for the George and Eleanor McGovern Library in South Dakota) says Bush and Cheney are worse than Nixon was. One-time presidential candidate, World War II hero and former Sen. George McGovern penned a bombshell of an Op-Ed piece in Sunday’s Washington Post, trotting out a list of impeachable offenses that he said President Bush and Vice President Cheney have committed and asserting that the case for their impeachment “is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election.”     McGovern in The Washington Post: Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly “high crimes and misdemeanors,” to use the constitutional standard. From the beginning, the Bush-Cheney team’s assumption of power was the product of questionable elections that probably should have been officially challenged—perhaps even by a congressional investigation. In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion—by far the highest in our national history. Read more On the front page of the Outlook section in the Sunday Washington Post (Jan. 6, 2007) is a major article calling for Bush's impeachment written by George McGovern. As we enter the last year of Bush's term as President, the call for impeachment is only becoming stronger. The demand for accountability and the principled insistence that we must Save the Constitution has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people across the United States.  Why I Believe Bush Must Go Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse. By George McGovern Sunday, January 6, 2008; B01 As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president. After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me. Today I have made a different choice. Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians. So the chances of a bipartisan impeachment and conviction are not promising. But what are the facts? Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard. From the beginning, the Bush-Cheney team's assumption of power was the product of questionable elections that probably should have been officially challenged -- perhaps even by a congressional investigation. In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion -- by far the highest in our national history. All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era? How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness? It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an "imminent threat" to the United States. The administration also led the public to believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks -- another blatant falsehood. Many times in recent years, I have recalled Jefferson's observation: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." The basic strategy of the administration has been to encourage a climate of fear, letting it exploit the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks not only to justify the invasion of Iraq but also to excuse such dangerous misbehavior as the illegal tapping of our telephones by government agents. The same fear-mongering has led government spokesmen and cooperative members of the press to imply that we are at war with the entire Arab and Muslim world -- more than a billion people. Another shocking perversion has been the shipping of prisoners scooped off the streets of Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other countries without benefit of our time-tested laws of habeas corpus. Although the president was advised by the intelligence agencies last August that Iran had no program to develop nuclear weapons, he continued to lie to the country and the world. This is the same strategy of deception that brought us into war in the Arabian Desert and could lead us into an unjustified invasion of Iran. I can say with some professional knowledge and experience that if Bush invades yet another Muslim oil state, it would mark the end of U.S. influence in the crucial Middle East for decades. Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies -- especially the war in Iraq -- have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States. Consider the difference between the policies of the first President Bush and those of his son. When the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait in August 1990, President George H.W. Bush gathered the support of the entire world, including the United Nations, the European Union and most of the Arab League, to quickly expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The Saudis and Japanese paid most of the cost. Instead of getting bogged down in a costly occupation, the administration established a policy of containing the Baathist regime with international arms inspectors, no-fly zones and economic sanctions. Iraq was left as a stable country with little or no capacity to threaten others. Today, after five years of clumsy, mistaken policies and U.S. military occupation, Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife. It is no secret that former president Bush, his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, all opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. In addition to the shocking breakdown of presidential legal and moral responsibility, there is the scandalous neglect and mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. The veteran CNN commentator Jack Cafferty condenses it to a sentence: "I have never ever seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans." Any impeachment proceeding must include a careful and critical look at the collapse of presidential leadership in response to perhaps the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot. As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors." I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century. This recovery may take a generation and will depend on the election of a series of rational presidents and Congresses. At age 85, I won't be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I'd like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin. There has never been a day in my adult life when I would not have sacrificed that life to save the United States from genuine danger, such as the ones we faced when I served as a bomber pilot in World War II. We must be a great nation because from time to time, we make gigantic blunders, but so far, we have survived and recovered.

"I ask you to resolve now to resolve to join us and do all you can to create a credible and hopefully irresistible demand for the impeachment of President Bush. To make an urgently needed donation to help build the important work of ImpeachBush in the coming year, click on this link." - Ramsey Clark Ask your senator or representative these critical questions: 1) How can you continue to support an illegal war of invasion and occupation based upon      fabrication, lies, and transnational corporate hubris and adventurism? 2) Despite the seizure of unchecked executive power which is expressly forbidden according to our constitution,      why do you continue the defacto pardon of Cheney and Bush by tabling impeachment?  How can you rationalize      this abrogation of your duty as a member of congress?  Your silence is tacit surrender. 3) What more would Cheney and Bush have to do in order for you to support the constitutionally mandated     articles of impeachment?    If you get the wrong answers, a snow job, or flimsy excuses for cowardice...  work to remove them from office.

YouTube - Bill Maher: Impeach Bush Maher says we should impeach Bush. ... be hung in front of the White House along with Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld,Wolfowitz,Pearle,Silverstein,Powell,Bus hSr. ...

Impeach Bush For Peace Discuss how to Impeach Bush

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Impeaching Dick Cheney [VIDEO] By Adam Howard Democratic Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Maxine Waters speak out in a press conference today about

Conyers Comes Out For Impeachment By David Swanson The House Judiciary Committee chairman breaks with Pelosi and joins the growing list of legislators around

The Impeachment Imperative Huffington Post, NY - 27 minutes ago Impeachment second front must be opened immediately. Remember the Florida robbery of 2000. Consider the over-confidence and Ohio ambush of 2004. ...

Raw Story Seven Congress Members for Impeachment Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand - Jun 9, 2007 The list of state Democratic Parties that have passed resolutions urging impeachment of Bush and Cheney has just grown to 15. ... House Progressive leaders sign on to Cheney impeachment motion Raw Story

13 State Democratic Parties Demand Impeachment Atlantic Free Press - Groningen,Netherlands  In June 2006, the Hawaii Democratic Party voted to call for the impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Gonzales and their prosecution for war ...   See all stories on this topic

Column: The Public Eye: Reconsidering the Need for Impeachment Berkeley Daily Planet - Berkeley,CA,USA   I'm not suggesting that the focus be exclusively on Bush, because I think his whole crew: Cheney, Gonzales, Rice, and Rumsfeld, among others should go down, ...See all stories on this topic

Statement by Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General: “The winds of impeachment are sweeping the country.” The following is a press release sent to the national and international media by www.ImpeachBush.org  The second half of the press release includes a statement from Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General. A nationwide grassroots movement to impeach George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and other high officials was launched on January 18, 2003. Ramsey Clark called for the impeachment of President that day when he addressed a crowd estimated to be nearly a half million strong on the Mall in Washington D.C., in what the Washington Post described as the largest anti-war protest since the end of the Vietnam War. As President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actively deceiving the country with false propaganda aimed at justifying an unprovoked war of aggression, Mr. Clark on January 18 announced the formation of the www.VoteToImpeach.org  and www.ImpeachBush.org web sites He stated that the active preparation for the launch of a war of aggression against Iraq constituted an impeachable offense. He asked people to join an on-line referendum. As of today, nearly 900,000 people have voted for impeachment with ImpeachBush.org web site. The impeachment movement that Mr. Clark started has evolved into one of the most dynamic grassroots movements in recent U.S. history. On April 23, 2007 the Vermont State Senate voted in support of the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. One week earlier, elected officials in Vermont said the impeachment resolution didn’t stand a chance. Then their offices were flooded with emails, faxes, and phone calls, and the tide turned. Scores of cities around the country have witnessed impeachment resolutions carry in the City Council. On April 28, impeachment actions will be taking place from New York City to San Francisco and every place in between. Polls taken by Zogby have indicated that 52% of the American people support the impeachment of Bush if he lied to Congress about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. The ImpeachBush.org movement has placed full page newspaper ads in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe and many other newspapers. When President Bush speaks at the Coast Guard Graduation on May 23 in New London, Ct. there will be a large crowd of protesters calling for his impeachment. When Dick Cheney speaks three days later at the West Point Graduation Ceremony he will be met too by a big crowd calling for his impeachment along with that of President Bush. Today as the rumblings for impeachment are starting to reverberate inside the House of Representatives, the only place where Articles for Impeachment can set the impeachment process into motion, Ramsey Clark issued the following statement. Ramsey Clark's statement to the media “We have seen that Congress can be moved. The Bush Administration is reeling from its own wrongdoing. The horror its war of aggression has wreaked on the people of Iraq and thousands of U.S. service members must trouble the sleep of every sentient American. The Surge is only adding to the death and destruction. “All over the country supporters of impeachment are intensifying their efforts. Our focus must be on Congress, and the priorities of full troop withdrawal and the impeachment of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other culpable officials within the Administration. “In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have sent letters or called their elected representatives in Congress. On the statewide and local level people have been demanding local officials take a stand. Large scale pro-Impeachment demonstrations took place on March 17 at the Pentagon and in more than 1,000 other protests marking the 4th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. “The crimes committed by President Bush and Vice President Cheney are numerous. The Bush Administration’s war of aggression, its assault on human dignity at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, demeaning the Geneva Conventions and Habeas Corpus, invading the privacy of any American it chooses, corrupting the rule of law in the Department of Justice and others. “President Bush and Vice President Cheney should be held accountable as it is proscribed in the Constitution, Article II, Section 4: The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office or impeachment for and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. “The authors of the Constitution were serious about impeachment and intended that the carefully prescribed procedures and principles of impeachment written into the text be faithfully executed. We, the growing impeachment movement that is sweeping this country from one end to the other, will make the members of the House of Representatives become as serious and courageous about impeachment as the Founding Fathers were.”

Congratulations to everyone who made it through the snow and freezing rain to get to Washington and join together in the tens of thousands and March on the Pentagon marking the beginning of the fifth year of the war against Iraq. The Impeachment message was broadcast loud and clear and reached a national and worldwide audience! Click here to read the full report. The impeachment movement needs your help. Your generous donation will allow us to place more impeachment ads, help us cover the cost of impeachment petitions, stickers, placards, and flyers.  Click here to donate today.  2007 is the year for impeachment! The new Impeach Bush ad, pictured to the right, ran in the Friday, January 12, edition of the New York Times! ImpeachBush.org has already placed full-page ads in the New York Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle. Click here to see the full-page ad.

Konopacki and Wilkes: US redemption mandates impeachment of Bush The Capital Times - Madison,WI,USA The world no longer sees America as a defender of human rights See all stories on this topic An excerpt from the Capital Times article...  The Bush regime has severely damaged America's reputation. The world no longer sees America as a defender of human rights, a bastion of freedom; no longer the victim of terrorism, it is the architect of it. Our government - in our name - has lied us into war, tortured innocent people, created chaos and new generations of insurgents and terrorists, and destroyed a sovereign nation of 24 million people. Iraq's civil society and infrastructure are decimated. Unemployment is over 50 percent. Less than 30 percent of Iraqi students can go to school. Most of Iraq's middle class, professionals and their families have fled, leaving behind the poorest of the poor. Fear and violence rule their daily lives. The U.N. estimates that 34,000 Iraqis died in 2006. Iraq Body Count calculates up to 60,000 dead since the war began. In short, Iraq has suffered 20 9/11s. Thousands of Iraqis have been executed for a crime they didn't commit. Stephen Kinzer's book, "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq," observes that the U.S. invasion of Iraq "was the culmination of a 110-year period during which Americans overthrew 14 governments that displeased them for various ideological, political and economic reasons. ... Most of these adventures have brought them, and the nations whose histories they sought to change, far more pain than liberation." And disgrace to Americans. In 1902, William H. Walker's cartoon about hypocrisy during the Philippine-American War showed Americans torturing a Filipino as five European empires stood behind. The caption: "Chorus in Background: Those Pious Yankees Can't Throw Stones at Us Anymore." The end to war - and our disgrace - requires that we first redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world. We must lead our leaders and demand that they stop America's century-old rampage of empire. We must prove that we honor the right of all people to live in peace. And we must, at first and at least, prosecute the Bush regime for its crimes. If we don't, we are no less than accomplices. If we don't, we are no more than "Pious Yankees." Mike Konopacki is a freelance labor cartoonist. Kathy Wilkes is a retired editor. Both live in Madison. Published: February 24, 2000

AfterDowningStreet.org     Impeach Bush and Cheney Now!

"We don't all have to believe what our president believes to be a patriot" Neil Young Neil's new album is entitled Living With War; but if you were to look at the home page of Yahoo!, you'd think it was "Impeach Bush."    Neil Young

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Message "Indict Bush Now" Rings Out from Coast to Coast Now: from Street Action to Legislative Action   The IndictBushNow movement made major headway on Saturday. Thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the country to call for an end to Bush's most criminal legacy: the Iraq war. Many of the participants carried "Indict Bush Now" placards and chanted "Bring the Troops Home -- Indict Bush Now!"     These were terrific first events for the IndictBushNow movement, showing that the people of this country will neither forgive nor forget the disastrous and deadly Bush administration. To help this movement grow, please take a moment and make a generous donation now, so that we can make the case for indictment in the mass media, in the halls of Congress, at every every anti-war demonstration, and in the growing movement for economic justice.   It's time to flood Congress with letters demanding a Special Prosecutor to pursue the indictment of Bush and other high officials from his administration. Over 200 organizations have united to press for a Special Prosecutor. The human misery caused by the economic crisis is only growing and the unimaginable suffering caused by the Bush administration's intentional policies of torture and wars of aggression continues.   We must force the media to report on the culpability of Wall Street's political enablers -- namely, the Bush administration. After charging over a trillion dollars on the nation's credit card -- to go to war and to give kickbacks to his Wall Street friends -- Bush simply jumped the bill. He has to be held accountable.   Now is the time to take a minute and send a letter to your Congressional representatives. Last week a leaked memo from the International Red Cross detailed the barbaric and sadistic acts of torture by the Bush administration. Insist that your Congressional representatives carry out their sworn duty to defend the Constitution by supporting the call for a Special Prosecutor for Bush. There are currently different committees and investigations reviewing the Bush administration's defense of torture and its politically-biased appointees in the judicial branch. But fact-finding missions are not enough. We need prosecution. We need indictment.   Click this link to send a letter to your Congressional representative. It only takes a minute and is very easy to do.   We're on the right path -- now let's keep up the good work.   -- All of us at IndictBushNow.org

Impeachment is Prudent Impeachment Page... I want my Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote to impeach George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald H. Rumsfeld, & Alberto Gonzales for high crimes and misdemeanors, and to have the case prosecuted and tried in the U.S. Senate.   Sign the petition: www.impeachbush.org   Impeachment :  Impeach Bush and his Ilk!

FLASH Bush impeachment petition will be heard by the United States House Judiciary Committee on Friday July 25, 2008.  Watch this announcement by Representative Dennis Kucinich, (D – Ohio), posted July 22 2008, at the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv478I8p3e8&feature=email

July 10, 2008 Pelosi Gives Impeachment Green Light, Call Conyers Filed under: Impeachment Progress News — Mikael @ 1:55 pm Kucinich impeach bill charges Bush 'fabricated threats'; Pelosi hints at possible hearing — TheRawstory,Mike Sheehan — Former Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) held a press conference today in which he presented a single article of impeachment of President George W. Bush. "Yesterday in the House," Kucinich said, according to prepared text, "we had a moment of silence for the troops. Today it is time to speak out on behalf of those troops who will be in Iraq for at least another year, courageously representing our nation while their Commander in Chief sent them on a mission that was based on falsehoods about the threat of WMDs from Iraq." He continued, "Throughout the summer and fall of 2002, the Congress, the media and the American people heard the terrifying drumbeat of fear from the Bush White House in the form of loud, well-advertised and orchestrated chanting by the President and his Administration about 'Weapons of Mass Destruction,' 'Nuclear Threats,' 'Biological Weapons,' 'Chemical Weapons,' 'Threats of Imminent Attack,' all calculated to gain media attention, public support and Congressional support for a war against Iraq. Kucinich is to formally introduce the single article of impeachment to Congress later this afternoon. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), long opposed to the impeachment of the president, today raised eyebrows when she said Thursday that the House Judiciary committee could hold hearings on Kucinich's impeachment articles sometime in the near future, as RAW STORY earlier reported. Kucinich's article is titled, 'Deceiving Congress with Fabricated Threats of Iraq WMDs to Fraudulently Obtain Support for an Authorization of the Use of Military Force Against Iraq' and focuses, as the Ohio Democrat described, on "what the President presented to Congress in the Authorization of the Use of Military Force. It does not address the voluminous evidence of orchestrated deceptions which have been well documented by various governmental, non-governmental and media sources. "I understand that many members of Congress voted in good faith to authorize the use of force against Iraq," Kucinich then said, "and I understand that many in the media supported that action. When the President of the United States makes representations on matters of life and death, we all want to believe him and give him the benefit of the doubt. Trust is the glue which holds the fabric of our nation together. "Those in Congress and in the media who acted on the President's representations of the threat of Iraq WMDs did so trusting that those representations were honest. Unfortunately, they were not. He continued, "We all know the consequences of the war, the loss of lives and injury to our troops, the deaths of innocent Iraqis, the cost to the American taxpayers. There has been another consequence: Great damage to our Constitution through an unnecessary, illegal war and the destruction of the superior role of Congress in the life of this nation. "Congress must," Kucinich asserted, "in the name of the American people, use the one remedy which the Founders provided for an Executive who gravely abused his power: Impeachment. "Congress must reassert itself as a co-equal branch of government; bring this President to an accounting, and in doing so reestablish the people's trust in Congress and in our United States system of government. We must not let this President's conduct go unchallenged and thereby create a precedent which undermines the Constitution. He continued, "In the final analysis this is about our Constitution and whether a President can be held accountable for his actions and his deceptions, especially when the effects of those actions have been so calamitous for America, Iraq and the world. "Unless Congress reasserts itself as the power branch of government which the Founders intended, our experiment with a republican form of Government may be nearing an end," Kucinich said in closing. "But when Congress acts to hold this President accountable it will be redeeming the faith that the Founders had in the power of a system of checks and balances which preserves our republic." Following is a draft of the impeachment article as issued by Kucinich. # AN ARTICLE OF IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH INTRODUCED BY CONGRESSMAN DENNIS J. KUCINICH JULY 10, 2008 Resolved, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following Article of Impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate: An Article of Impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE ONE DECEIVING CONGRESS WITH FABRICATED THREATS OF IRAQ WMDs TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN SUPPORT FOR AN AUTHORIZATION OF THE USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ. In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," deceived Congress with fabricated threats of Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to fraudulently obtain support for an authorization for the use of force against Iraq and used that fraudulently obtained authorization, then acting in his capacity under Article II, Section II of the Constitution as Commander in Chief, to commit US troops to combat in Iraq. To gain Congressional support for passage of the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq, the President made the following material representations to the Congress in SJ Res 45: That Iraq was "continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability…" That Iraq was "actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability…" That Iraq was "continuing to threaten the national security interests of the United States and international peace and security." That Iraq has demonstrated a "willingness to attack, the United States…" That "members of Al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq…" The "attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, underscored the gravity of the threat that Iraq will transfer weapons of mass destruction to international terrorist organizations…" That Iraq "will either employ those weapons to launch a surprise attack against the United States or its Armed Forces or provide them to international terrorists who would do so, …" That an "extreme magnitude of harm that would result to the United States and its citizens from such an attack, …" That the aforementioned threats "justify action by the United States to defend itself; …" The enactment clause of Section 2 of SJ Res 45, the Authorization of the Use of the United States Armed Forces authorizes the President to "defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq…" Each consequential representation made by the President to the Congress in SJ Res 45, in subsequent iterations and the final version was unsupported by evidence which was in the control of the White House. Iraq was not "continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability…" "A substantial amount of Iraq's chemical warfare agents, precursors, munitions and production equipment were destroyed between 1991 and 1998 as a result of Operation Desert Storm and United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) actions… . There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or whether Iraq has–or will–establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." Defense Intelligence Agency. Iraq–Key WMD Facilities–An Operational Support Study. September 2002. Available: link "Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community's uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing." Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq By U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated By Intelligence Information. June 5, 2008. Available: link "In April and early May 2003, military forces found mobile trailers in Iraq. Although intelligence experts disputed the purpose of the trailers, Administration officials repeatedly asserted that they were mobile biological weapons laboratories. In total, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice made 34 misleading statements about the trailers in 27 separate public appearances. Shortly after the (mobile trailers were found, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) issued an unclassified white paper evaluating the trailers. The white paper was released without coordination with other members of the intelligence community, however. It was disclosed later that engineers from DIA who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. A former senior intelligence official reported that "only one of 15 intelligence analysts assembled from three agencies to discuss the issue in June endorsed the white paper conclusion." House Committee on Government Reform- Minority Staff. Iraq on the Record: Bush Administration's Public Statements about Chemical and Biological Weapons. March 16, 2004. Available: link Former chief of CIA covert operations in Europe, Tyler Drumheller, has said that the CIA had credible sources discounting weapons of mass destruction claims, incuding the primary source of biological weapons claims, an informant who the Germans code-named "Curveball" whom the Germans had informed the Bush Administration was a likely fabricator and including the Niger Yellowcake forgery. Two other former CIA officers confirmed Drumheller's account to Sidney Blumenthal who reported the story at Salon.com on September 6, 2007. "In practical terms, with the destruction of the Al Hakam facility, Iraq abandoned its ambition to obtain advanced biological weapons (BW) weapons quickly. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) found no direct evidence that Iraq, after 1996, had plans for a new BW program or was conducting BW-specific work for military purposes. Indeed, from the mid-1990s, despite evidence of continuing interest in nuclear and chemical weapons, there appears to be a complete absence of discussion or even interest in BW at the Presidential level. In spite of exhaustive investigation, ISG found no evidence that Iraq possessed, or was developing BW agent production systems mounted on road vehicles or railway wagons…. ISG harbors severe doubts about the source's credibility in regards to the breakout program." Duelfer, Charles. Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's WMD. Available: link "While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad's desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered." Duelfer, Charles. Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's WMD. Available: link Iraq was not "actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability." The key finding of the Iraq Survey Group's (ISG) Report to the Director of Central Intelligence found that "Iraq's ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively decayed after that date. Saddam Husayn (sic) ended the nuclear program in 1991 following the Gulf war. ISG found no evidence to suggest concerted efforts to restart the program." Duelfer, Charles. Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's WMD. Available: link Claims that Iraq was purchasing uranium from Niger were not supported by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of October 2002. The CIA had warned the British not to claim Iraq was purchasing uranium from Niger prior to the British statement that was later cited by President Bush. George Tenet, July 11, 2003 "One, there is no indication of resumed nuclear activities in those buildings that were identified through the use of satellite imagery as being reconstructed or newly erected since 1998, nor any indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any inspected sites. Second, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import uranium since 1990. Three, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import aluminum tubes for use n centrifuge enrichment. Moreover, even had Iraq pursued such a plan, it would have been — it would have encountered practical difficulties in manufacturing centrifuges out of the aluminum tubes in question. Fourthly, although we are still reviewing issues related to magnets and magnet production, there is no indication to date that Iraq imported magnets for use in a centrifuge enrichment program. As I stated above, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will naturally continue further to scrutinize and investigate all of the above issues." ElBaradei, Mohamed. Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency. Statement to the United Nations Security Council on The Status of Nuclear Inspections in Iraq: An Update. March 7, 2003. Available: link Iraq was not "continuing to threaten the national security interests of the United States." "Let me be clear: analysts differed on several important aspects of [Iraq's biological, chemical, and nuclear] programs and those debates were spelled out in the Estimate. They never said there was an 'imminent' threat." Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Former CIA Director George J. Tenet at Georgetown University. February 5, 2004. Available: link "We have been able to keep weapons from going into Iraq… . We have been able to keep the sanctions in place to the extent that items that might support weapons of mass destruction have had some controls on them … it's been quite a success for ten years." Powell, Colin. Secretary of State. Interview with Face the Nation. February 11, 2001. "[British Secret Intelligence Service Chief Sir Richard Billing Dearlove] reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action… . The Foreign Secretary (of England) said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force." Rycroft, Matthew; Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Memo to British Ambassador to the United States David Manning. July 23, 2002. Available: link Iraq did not have the "willingness to attack, the United States." "The fact of the matter is that both baskets, the UN basket and what we and other allies have been doing in the region, have succeeded in containing Saddam Hussein and his ambitions. His forces are about one-third their original size. They really don't possess the capability to attack their neighbors the way they did ten years ago." Powell, Colin. Secretary of State. Transcript of Remarks made to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. February 2001. Available: link< The October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or [chemical or biological weapons] against the United States, fearing that exposure of Iraqi involvement would provide Washington a stronger case for making war." Available: link Iraq had no connection with the attacks of 9/11, or with al-Qaida's role in 9/11. "The report [of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] documents significant instances in which the Admnistration went beyond what the Intelligence Community knew or believed in making public claims, most notably on the false assertion that Iraq and al-Qaida had an operational partnership and joint involvement in carrying out the attacks of September 11th. The President and his advisors undertook a relentless public campaign in the aftermath of the attacks to use the war against al-Qaida as a justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Representing to the American people that the two had an operational partnership and posed a single, indistinguishable threat was fundamentally misleading and led the Nation to war on false premises." Senator John D. Rockefeller IV. Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Additional Views of Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV. Page 90. Available: link Richard Clarke's memo of September 18, 2001, titled Survey of Intelligence Information on Any Iraq Involvement in the September 11 Attacks found no "compelling case" that Iraq had either planned or perpetrated the attacks, and that there was no confirmed reporting on Saddam cooperating with Bin Laden on unconventional weapons. link (page 334). On September 17, 2003, President Bush said: "No, we've no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th. What the vice president said was is that he (Saddam) has been involved with al-Qaida." Available: link On June 16, 2004, a Staff Report from the 9/11 Commission stated: "There has been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan [in 1996], but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship... . Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq. We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States." Available: link "Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general. "Feith's office 'was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda,' according to portions of the report, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). The inspector general described Feith's activities as 'an alternative intelligence assessment process.'" Pincus, Walter and Smith, R. Jeffrey. "Official's Key Report On Iraq Is Faulted, 'Dubious' Intelligence Fueled Push for War." Washington Post. February 9, 2007. A1. Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction to transfer to anyone. Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction to transfer. Furthermore, available intelligence information found that the Iraq regime would only transfer weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations if under severe threat of attack by the United States: According to information in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq that was available to the Administration at the time they were seeking Congressional support for the authorization of the use of force against Iraq, the Iraq regime would transfer weapons to a terrorist organization only if "sufficiently desperate" because it feared that "an attack that threatened the survival of the regime were imminent or unavoidable..." "Iraq probably would attempt clandestine attacks against the US Homeland if Baghdad feared an attack that threatened the survival of the regime were imminent or unavoidable, or possibly for revenge. Such attacks - more likely with biological than chemical agents - probably would be carried out by special forces or intelligence operatives. "The Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) probably has been directed to conduct clandestine attacks against US and Allied interests in the Middle East in the event the United States takes action against Iraq. The IIS probably would be the primary means by which Iraq would attempt to conduct any CBW attacks on the US Homeland, although we have no specific intelligence information that Saddam's regime has directed attacks against US territory. "Saddam, if sufficiently desperate, might decide that only an organization such as al-Qa'ida - with worldwide reach and extensive terrorist infrastructure, and already engaged in a life-or-death struggle against the United States - would perpetrate the type of terrorist attack that he would hope to conduct. "In such circumstances, he might decide that the extreme step of assisting the Islamist terrorists in conducting a CBW attack against the United States would be his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him." Available: link Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and therefore had no capability of launching a surprise attack against the United States or its Armed Forces or provide them to international terrorists who would do so..." Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction to transfer. Furthermore, available intelligence information found that the Iraq regime would only transfer weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations if under severe threat of attack by the United States: According to information in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq that was available to the Administration at the time they were seeking Congressional support for the authorization of the use of force against Iraq, the Iraq regime would transfer weapons to a terrorist organization only if "sufficiently desperate" because it feared that "an attack that threatened the survival of the regime were imminent or unavoidable..." October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. Available: link "Iraq probably would attempt clandestine attacks against the US Homeland if Baghdad feared an attack that threatened the survival of the regime were imminent or unavoidable, or possibly for revenge. Such attacks - more likely with biological than chemical agents - probably would be carried out by special forces or intelligence operatives." "The Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) probably has been directed to conduct clandestine attacks against US and Allied interests in the Middle East in the event the United States takes action against Iraq. The IIS probably would be the primary means by which Iraq would attempt to conduct any CBW attacks on the US Homeland, although we have no specific intelligence information that Saddam's regime has directed attacks against US territory." "Saddam, if sufficiently desperate, might decide that only an organization such as al-Qa'ida - with worldwide reach and extensive terrorist infrastructure, and already engaged in a life-or-death struggle against the United States - would perpetrate the type of terrorist attack that he would hope to conduct." "In such circumstances, he might decide that the extreme step of assisting the Islamist terrorists in conducting a CBW attack against the United States would be his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him." As reported in the Washington Post on March 1, 2003, in 1995, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, Hussein Kamel had informed US and British intelligence officers that "all weapons--biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed." Lynch, Colum. "Iraqi Defector Claimed Arms Were Destroyed by 1995." Washington Post. A15. March 1, 2003. "A substantial amount of Iraq's chemical warfare agents, precursors, munitions and production equipment were destroyed between 1991 and 1998 as a result of Operation Desert Storm and United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) actions... . There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or whether Iraq has--or will--establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." Defense Intelligence Agency. Iraq--Key WMD Facilities--An Operational Support Study. September 2002. Available: link There was not a real risk of an "extreme magnitude of harm that would result to the United States and its citizens from such an attack" because Iraq had no capability of attacking the United States. "Containment has been a successful policy, and I think we should make sure that we continue it until such time as Saddam Hussein comes into compliance with the agreements he made at the end of the (Gulf) War... . [Iraq is] not threatening America." Powell, Colin. Secretary of State. The aforementioned evidence did not "justify the use of force by the United States to defend itself" because Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, or have the intention or capability of using the non-existent WMD's against the United States. Since there was no threat posed by Iraq to the United States, the enactment clause was predicated on lying to Congress. Congress relied on the information provided to it by the President of the United States. Congress provided the President with the authorization to use military force that he requested. As a consequence of the fraudulent representations made to the Congress, the United States Armed Forces, under the direction of George Bush as Commander in Chief, pursuant to Section 3 of the Authorization for the Use of Force which President Bush requested, invaded Iraq and occupies it to this day, at the cost of 4,116 lives of US service men and women, injuries to over 30,000 of our troops, the deaths of over 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, the destruction of Iraq, and a long term cost over $3 trillion. President Bush's misrepresentations to Congress to induce passage of a use of force resolution is subversive of the Constitutional system of checks and balances, destructive of Congress' sole prerogative to declare war under Article I Section 8 of the Constitution, and is therefore a High Crime. An even greater offense by the President of the United States occurs in his capacity as Commander in Chief, because he knowingly placed the men and women of the United States Armed Forces in harm's way, jeopardizing their lives and their families' future, for reasons that to this date have not been established in fact. In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States and of those members of the Armed Forces who put their lives on the line pursuant to the falsehoods of the President. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office. ——————————————————— So, now it's time to push this movement through the goal line. We need to ensure that Conyers is going to follow through. Let's make sure that Committee Chairman John Conyers grants this request. Phone him now at 202-225-3951.