Commentary
Bush and Cheney lied to Congress and committed other impeachable offences
By Dan Merica
Online Journal Guest Writer & Cartoonist


Jul 13, 2007, 00:28

Never before has there been such a compelling case for impeachment and removal from office of the president and vice president of the United States. Bush and Cheney have committed the most serious crimes known to law and history. Nothing in the experience of the impeachment power under the US Constitution compares.

Of course, the first and foremost reason to impeach Bush and Cheney is their pack of lies to Congress and the American people depicting an "all-powerful" Saddam Hussein being an imminent threat to the US in order to justify an illegal preemptive attack on Iraq. By lying to Congress, Bush violated US laws related to fraud and false statements (Title 18, Chapter 47, Section 1001) and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The truth is that while these two liars were still in the process of whipping up their climate of fear and hate to discourage dissent to their war goals, 30,000 US troops had already secretly fought their way in and took control of 15 percent of an impotent Iraq.

Bush and Cheney repeatedly spewed out the big lie that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction and that they knew where they were. They falsely claimed that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program for which it was importing aluminum tubes and yellowcake uranium and warned of seeing mushroom clouds. They made the bogus charge that Iraq had produced thousands of tons of chemical agents and used mobile weapons labs. They fabricated the tale that the secular Saddam had ties with the al-Qaeda religious extremists. And, they mislead the public with mind-blurring rhetoric that implied Iraq had indirectly caused 9/11.

The many individual members of Congress, state legislatures and city councils calling for impeachment have cited a long list of other potential impeachable offences:

• Willfully violated their oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
  
  
• Ordered the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [50 U.S.C. Chapter 36], a felony, specifically authorizing the agency to spy on American citizens without warrants.
  
  
• Committed war crimes as a result of new and unorthodox measures used by the Bush administration in the "war on terrorism."
  
  
• Exempted detained Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.
  
  
• Authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded as supreme law by the United States Constitution.
  
  
• Retaliated against critics.
  
  
• Held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without formal charges, trial or legal representation.
  
  
• Leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert United States intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter.
  
  
• Authorized, ordered and condoned attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties are unavoidable.
  
  
• Violated international law by threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently proclaiming his personal intention to change its government by force.
  
  
• Authorized, ordered and condoned violations of rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eight Amendments to the Constitution and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international protections of human rights.
  
  
• Authorized, directed and condoned bribery and coercion of individuals and governments to obtain war ends.
  
  
• Was negligent in responding to the victims of hurricane Katrina.
  
  
• Demonstrated a pattern of abuse of office and of executive privilege and contempt for the Constitution and our democratic ideals while seeking to expand the powers of the presidency (imperial presidency).
  
  
• Illegally used government funds for domestic political propaganda related to the administration's Medicare package, paying commentator Armstrong Williams, etc.
  
  
• Used uniformed military personnel for Republican party political purposes.
  
  
• Obstructed and hindered the work of congressional investigative bodies.
  
  
• Failed to take responsibility for, investigate or discipline those responsible for an ongoing pattern of negligence, incompetence and malfeasance to the detriment of the American people.
  
  
• Violated the letter and spirit of laws and rules of criminal procedure used by civilian and military courts, and violated or ignored regulatory codes and practices that carry out the law.
  
  
• Failed to supply our troops in Iraq with adequate war materials such as body armor, armored vehicles and other equipment.
  
  
• Allowed our maimed and injured troops to be subjected to abhorrent medical care at Walter Reed Hospital.

Why would it be worth impeaching Bush and Cheney at this late date?

Our present national emergency must be ended post haste. Corruption is running rampant with Bush and Cheney covering their connection to it with subterfuge such as commuting the sentence of a convicted crony. Under this regime, America is turning fascist, seeking war and not peace and losing its moral authority in the world. Incompetent political appointees are in charge, profit-driven contracted corporations are doing the work of government (privatization), elections are being stolen by vote rigging and our welfare safety net is being dismantled. Thousands of soldiers are being killed and maimed while the war industry is reaping huge profits. Of course, impeachment would prevent any further crimes by these two men as well as their appointment of another extremist jurist to the Supreme Court.

Bush and Cheney are lawless, dangerous men with war in their hearts. Despite their war in Iraq going way wrong, Cheney's "PNAC" stated goal of turning Iraq into a base of operations to control the oil reserves in the Middle East and Central Asia for privatization by the oil companies is right on track. The construction of permanent military instillations is moving forward.

They are now beating the drums for war against Iran in order to get their hands on its oil reserves, which are easily accessible on a small strip along the Iraq border. Many believe that such an attack would spark WWIII. In fact, the two men have promised a multi-generational "long war."

With their USAPATRIOT Act, Military Commissions Act, and other laws and proclamations, they have set up the mechanics for martial law and turning America into a dictatorship. With their lack of respect for the Constitution and hunger for power, it wouldn't be surprising that they went for it by orchestrating another 9/11 type of disaster rather than leaving office after 2008. Could their contracting Halliburton to erect hundreds of interment camps throughout the US be a forewarning?

Moreover, Congress is bound by law to force accountability for Bush and Cheney's impeachable offenses. Giving them a pass would destroy the Constitution, the rule of law and a chance for peace. Also, impeachment now would make future leaders think twice about taking a similar lawless and dictatorial path to destroy our democracy.