Readings - Arguing For Impeachment
The case for impeachment of President George
W. Bush
from
SourceWatch
The case for impeachment of President George W. Bush is
outlined below in books, websites, documents, articles, and SourceWatch Resources
related to what are believed to be Bush's impeachable offenses.
Table of contents
1 Constitutional Basis
2 Ramsey Clark's Articles of Impeachment
3 Issues
3.1 George W. Bush's domestic spying
3.2 Hurricane Katrina
3.3 Criminal Offense of Exposing Valerie Plame
3.4 The Global Detention System
3.5 Rendition
3.6 Interrogation Techniques at Guantanamo Bay
3.7 Lying to Congress about need for preemptive war in Iraq
3.8 Pre-Preemptive War in Iraq
3.9 Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign
terrorists
3.10 United States used weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
3.11 Destruction of Evidence from Ground Zero at the World Trade Center
3.12 Coverup of the WTC (9/11) Investigation
3.13 Plundering the Treasury
3.13.1 Social Security Trust Funds
4 Political Will
5 Quotes
6 Books
7 External Links
7.1 Articles & Commentary
7.2 Pro-Impeachment Websites
7.3 Other Websites
7.4 Documents
8 SourceWatch Resources (related to "impeachable offenses" cited
in External Links)
Constitutional Basis
"Bribery is one of two crimes cited in the Constitution
as grounds for impeachment - and the Big Pharma/Medicaid and Big Tobacco/lawsuit
settlement cases may qualify."
[1] (http://www.commondreams.org/
views05/0620-22.htm)
as may off-record settlements with the financial
industry after the Enron collapse.
[edit]
Ramsey Clark's Articles of Impeachment
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark 's Articles of Impeachment
of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John David Ashcroft:
1. Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance
of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law; carrying out
a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening
the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of tens of thousands
of Iraqis, and hundreds of U.S. G.I.s.
2. Lying to the people of the
U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales
for war.
3. Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on
civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were
unavoidable.
4. Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq
by belligerently changing its government by force and assaulting Iraq in a
war of aggression.
5. Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations,
summary executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals,
torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false
statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and
violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents
elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth
and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.
6. Making, ordering and condoning false statements and
propaganda about the conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts
by U.S. government personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments
with false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and
informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts to
obtain weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate of
fear and destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike attacks.
7. Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United
Nations and international law, both a part of the "Supreme Law of the
land" under
Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with
impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and threats
of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping powers of the
United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery, coercion and other
corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations, and frustrating
compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international
law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S.
military and economic power against the international community.
8. Acting
to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering
indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge,
and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge
the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive
of a citizen as an "enemy combatant."
9. Ordering indefinite
detention of non-citizens in the United States and elsewhere, and without charge,
at the discretionary designation of the Attorney General or the Secretary of
Defense.
10. Ordering and authorizing the Attorney General to override
judicial orders of release of detainees under INS jurisdiction, even where
the judicial officer after full hearing determines a detainee is wrongfully
held by the government.
11. Authorizing secret military tribunals and summary
execution of persons who are not citizens who are designated solely at the
discretion of the Executive who acts as indicting official, prosecutor and
as the only avenue of appellate relief.
12. Refusing to provide public
disclosure of the identities and locations of persons who have been arrested,
detained and imprisoned by the U.S. government in the United States, including
in response to Congressional inquiry.
13. Use of secret arrests of persons
within the United States and elsewhere and denial of the right to public trials.
14. Authorizing the monitoring of confidential attorney-client
privileged communications by the government, even in the absence of a court
order and even where an incarcerated person has not been charged with a crime.
15. Ordering and authorizing the seizure of assets of persons
in the United States, prior to hearing or trial, for lawful or innocent association
with any entity that at the discretionary designation of the Executive has
been deemed "terrorist."
16. Institutionalization of racial and
religious profiling and authorization of domestic spying by federal law enforcement
on persons based on their engagement in noncriminal religious and political
activity.
17. Refusal to provide information and records necessary
and appropriate for the constitutional right of legislative oversight of executive
functions.
18. Rejecting treaties protective of peace and human rights
and abrogation of the obligations of the United States under, and withdrawal
from, international treaties and obligations without consent of the legislative
branch, and including termination of the ABM treaty between the United States
and Russia, and rescission of the authorizing signature from the Treaty of
Rome which served as the basis for the International Criminal Court.
Source: Impeach Bush, 2003 (http://www.impeachbush.org/).
Issues
George W. Bush's domestic spying
Hurricane Katrina
Criminal Offense of Exposing Valerie Plame
The Global Detention System
Rendition
Interrogation Techniques at Guantanamo Bay
ABC News
reported June 15, 2005,
[2] (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=852458)
that "interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center
in 2002 triggered concerns among senior Pentagon officials that they could
face criminal prosecution under U.S. anti-torture laws ...
"Notes
from a series of meetings at the Pentagon in early 2003 -- obtained by ABC
News -- show that Alberto Mora, general counsel of the Navy, warned his superiors
that they might be breaking the law.
"During
a January 2003 meeting involving top Pentagon lawyer William Haynes II and
other officials, the memo shows that Mora warned that 'use of coercive techniques
... has military, legal, and political implication ... has international implication
... and exposes us to liability and criminal prosecution.'
"Mora's
deep concerns about interrogations at Guantanamo have been known, but not his
warning that top officials could go to prison.
"In
another meeting held March 8, 2003, the group of top Pentagon lawyers concluded
-- according to the memo -- 'we need a presidential letter approving the use
of the controversial interrogation to cover those who may be called upon to
use them.'
"No
such letter was issued."
On June 15,
2005, "the White House insisted that tactics used at Guantanamo Bay are
now -- and have been -- legal.
"'All
interrogation techniques that have been approved are lawful and consistent
with our obligations,' said White House press secretary Scott McClellan."
[edit]
Lying to Congress about need for preemptive war
in Iraq
* "To initiate a war of aggression,
therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international
crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself
the accumulated evil of the whole." --Judgement of the Nuremberg War Trial (http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/nuremberg/
judgement-nazi-regime.html#supreme-intl-crime).
* "To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken
Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked.
Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if
proven, could be 'a high crime' under the Constitution's impeachment clause.
It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal
anti-conspiracy statute (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/
scripts/ts_search.pl?title=18&sec=371),
which renders it a felony 'to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof
in any manner or for any purpose.'" --John W. Dean
* Justifications for the US-Iraq 2003 war: "preemption" or "preemptive
war".
* The secret Downing Street memo, July 23,
2002.
* Letter to George W. Bush Signed by 88 Members
of Congress
(http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/
letters/bushsecretmemoltr5505.pdf),
May
5, 2005, re the "troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times
apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly
agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before
you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action."
* The leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper,
July 21, 2002: "Iraq: Conditions for Military Action".
* Downing Street Memo Campaign.
* George W. Bush: The War President.
[edit]
Pre-Preemptive War in Iraq
Tom Regan wrote in the June 30, 2005, Christian Science Monitor that
the U.S. and Britain commenced a secret air attack campaign in Iraq as early
as mid-2002, which documents such as the Downing Street memo may show. [3] (http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/2005/0630/dailyUpdate.html)
"Michael Smith, defense writer for the Sunday Times of London
wrote (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
article/0,,2087-1669640,00.html)
this past Sunday [June 26, 2005] that 'The American general who commanded allied
air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American
and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq
from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.' (This bombing
capaign is referred to in the Downing Street memo.)," Regan stated.
The Raw Story reported June 27, 2005, that "A U.S. general who
commanded the U.S. allied air forces in Iraq has confirmed that the U.S. and
Britain conducted a massive secret bombing campaign before the U.S. actually
declared war on Iraq. ... While the Downing Street documents collectively raise
disturbing questions about how the Bush administration led the United States
into Iraq, including allegations that 'intelligence was being fixed,' other questions
have emerged about when the US and British led allies actually began the Iraq
war." [4] (http://rawstory.com/news/2005/
The_unofficial_war_U.S._and_Britain_led_massive_air_campaign_before_Iraq_war_be_0627.html)
[edit]
Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign
terrorists
United States used weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
Destruction of Evidence from Ground Zero at the World Trade Center
Coverup of the WTC (9/11) Investigation
Plundering the Treasury
Social Security Trust Funds
Political Will
Nothing happens in politics without a "political will" to make it
so. Political will to question George W. Bush is not going to come from his partisan
legislators on the hill, or from his benefactors in corporate media, but there
are other sources available for garnering a momentum
Quotes
* "All public policy should revolve around the principle that individuals
are responsible for what they say and do." --George W. Bush, 1994. [5] (http://g0lem.net/vortal/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9)
* "Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a
President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who has
acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution,
its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes
of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no
removal." --Ramsey Clark, July 18, 2003.
[6] (http://www.votetoimpeach.org/)
* "Impeachment appears six times in the U.S. Constitution. The Founders
weren't concerned with anything more than with impeachment because they had lived
under King George III and had in 1776 accused the king of all the things that
George W. Bush wants to do: Usurpation of the power of the people; Being above
the law; Criminal abuse of authority." --Ramsey Clark, July 18, 2003. [7] (http://www.votetoimpeach.org/)
* "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now
I intend to spend it. It is my style. That's what happened in the -- after the
2000 election, I earned some capital. I've earned capital in this election --
and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on." --George
W. Bush, November 4, 2004.
Books
John Bonifaz, Warrior King: The Case for Impeaching George
Bush (2003 book)
(ISBN 1560256060).
* Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America's
War on Terror (2004 book) (ISBN 0743260244).
John W. Dean, Worse Than Watergate:
The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (2004 book).
Paul O'Neill, The Price
of Loyalty. George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill (book 2004).
Joseph C. Wilson IV, The Politics of Truth: Inside the
Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity (2004 book).
Bob Woodward, Plan
of Attack (2004 book).
External Links
Articles & Commentary
[edit]
Pro-Impeachment Websites
Bush Occupation (http://www.bushoccupation.com).com.
CODEPINK4PEACE (http://www.codepink4peace.org/
article.php?list=type
Impeach Bush (http://www.impeachbush.tv/).tv.
Impeach Bush Now (http://www.impeach-bush-now.org/).org.
Impeach Central (http://elandslide.org/elandslide/
petition.cfm?campaign=impeach&refer=home)
website.
Impeach George W. Bush Petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/
ddc12/petition.html), petitiononline.com.
"Stop the War. Impeach Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & Ashcroft! (http://www.rise4news.net/impeach.html), rise4news.net.
The Four Reasons (http://www.thefourreasons.org/).org; The Four
Reasons for Responsible Citizenship website.
Topple Bush (http://www.topplebush.com/index.shtml).com.
Vote to Impeach (http://www.votetoimpeach.org/).org. |