A Case for Impeachment of President Bush

Bodies Count has organized three "Beach Impeach" events in San Francisco, CA. This event involved 1500 people. They then spelled out, "Peace Now!" Photo: www.bodiescount.org

…Impeachment and removal from office, a vital protection against evisceration of the balance of power among the three branches of government and against betrayals of trust and abuses of power injurious to our nation, should be pursued when, as in the case of George W. Bush, a president misleads Congress and the American people in taking our nation towar; authorizes and supports the kidnapping, incarceration without charge, and torture of human beings; demonstrates contempt for the rule of law and for specific laws passed by the United States Congress; and violates fundamental constitutional protections afforded citizens of the United States.

President Bush's Fraud Concerning the Supposed Imminent Nuclear Threat Posed by Iraq

On September 7, 2002, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush met with members of the press at Camp David. President Bush referred to a "new"report from the International Atomic Energy Agency allegedly stating, according to President Bush, that Iraq was "six months away"from building a nuclear weapon. "I don't know what more evidence we need,"stated the President. He was lying. There was no such report.

In fact, numerous IAEA reports consistently denied any indication that Iraq had any nuclear capability. As Joseph Curl reported in the Washington Times, "'There's never been a report like that issued from this agency,' Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria."Curl's report continues, "'He's referring to 1991 there,' said Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan. 'In '91, there was a report saying that after the war they found out they were about six months away.' Mr. Gwozdecky said no such report was ever issued by the IAEA in 1991."

President Bush's Misleading Accusation That Iraq Had Sought to Purchase Uranium From an African Nation

Just as an issuer of stock defrauds investors by withholding material information about a corporation, so too did President Bush defraud our Congress, our country, and much of the international community by failing to disclose information that was provided to him and which was contrary to his representations about Hussein's supposed efforts to build nuclear weapons.

In his January 28, 2003, State of the Union message, President Bush stated: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."He obviously limited his statement to what "the British government"supposedly had learned because he knew, but did not disclose, that our own intelligence services disagreed with the statement. CIA Director Tenet convinced the White House to delete the Niger uranium claim from a speech Bush gave three months earlier.

In an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), presented at a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, "Key Judgments"included an assessment "that Saddam does not yet have nuclear weapons or sufficient material to make any."President Bush failed to disclose that assessment to Congress and the American people.

To make matters worse, he did not disclose theState Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) conclusion in the October 2002 NIE, that: [T]he claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment, highly dubious. The failure by President Bush to disclose that conclusion to Congress and to the American people rendered his statement about Hussein seeking to purchase uranium from an African country materially misleading. That is clearly an impeachable offense.

James Iredell argued in the North Carolina ratifying convention that the withholding of material information from Congress in a matter that causes injury to the nation would be an impeachable offense: "The President must certainly be punishable for giving false information to the Senate. He is to regulate all intercourse with foreign powers, and it is his duty to impart to the Senate every material intelligence he receives. If it should appear that he has not given them full information, but has concealed important intelligence which he ought to have communicated, and by that means induced them to enter into measures injurious to their country, and which they would not have consented to had the true state of things been disclosed to them, in this case, I ask whether, upon an impeachment for a misdemeanor upon such an account, the Senate would probably favor him. With respect to the impeachability of the Senate, that is a matter of doubt."

President Bush's Dishonest Claim That Saddam Was Purchasing Aluminum Tubes to Make Nuclear Weapons

The fraud about Hussein building up a nuclear capability did not stop with the phony Niger story. During September 2002, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush represented to the public that Hussein was purchasing aluminum tubes to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. The next month, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was delivered to the President.

The report said, "INR (State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research) accepts the judgment of technical experts at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make the case that they are intended for that purpose. INR considers it far more likely that the tubes are intended for another purpose, most likely the production of artillery rockets. The very large quantities being sought, the way the tubes were tested by the Iraqis, and the atypical lack of attention to operational security in the procurement efforts are among the factors, in addition to the DOE assessment, which lead INR to conclude that the tubes are not intended for use in Iraq's nuclear weapon program."

That did not stop President Bush, however, from stating in a major speech the next month, on October 7, 2002, that "Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."President Bush, in his State of the Union Message on January 28, 2003, claimed, "Our intelligence sources tell us that [Saddam] has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."No greater cause for impeachment can be imagined than misleading our Congress and misleading the American people about whether we are facing a nuclear threat while leading our nation to a tragic, illegal war of aggression.

Unconstitutional Warrantless Wiretapping of US Citizens

Following September 11, 2001, President Bush illegally authorized the National Security Agency to wiretap American citizens' telephones without a warrant, in clear violation of the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Two years later, President Bush misled the public by stating that "any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order."It was not until a New York Times reporter broke the story in December 2005, that Bush admitted he had authorized wiretapping through the National Security Agency.

He also claimed, in complete disregard of the US Constitution and relevant domestic law, that what he was doing was legal. Last August, a US District Court judge declared that Bush has violated First Amendment rights. Impeachment and removal from office is the only appropriate remedy for a President who asserts such abusive, totalitarian power, in contravention of fundamental rights and liberties embodied in the US Constitution - and it is the only means by which we can make it clear that in the future no President can so casually override our precious freedoms.

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a January 2007 Zogby International poll (www.democrats.com/bush-impeachment-poll-2).

Engaging in Kidnapping, Incarceration-Without-Charges, and Torture of Human Beings through "Extraordinary Renditions"

Approximately 150 foreign nationals have been victims of "extraordinary rendition."Under this CIA program, begun by the Clinton administration, intelligence agents kidnap people and send them to secret sites abroad for interrogation. Numerous people detained under this program have experienced severe physical and psychological torture, and inhumane and humiliating treatment.

The practice of sending a person to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing he or she will be tortured is clearly prohibited by the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, which, as an international treaty to which the US is a party, is the "supreme law of the land."A separate federal statute also prohibits the practice. The CIA's role in kidnapping and imprisoning people without charges in countries infamous for torturing detainees, such as Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, and Uzbekistan, constitutes a clear violation of US and international law.

At least one document exists that would allow Congress and the American people to ascertain the extent of President Bush's direct, affirmative involvement in the program of extraordinary rendition. The CIA has verified the existence of a fourteen page memorandum dated September 17, 2001 from President Bush to the Director of the CIA "pertaining to the CIA's authorization to detain terrorists."The CIA refuses to release the document. It is imperative that Congress and the public obtain access to the document, to determine how and in what way President Bush has been involved in this program, which is still occurring in blatant defiance of US and international laws and treaties.

(Editor's note: Please also see Barbara Jordan's case for impeaching Nixon on page 18. To get involved, see the coalition of groups and info at www.afterdowningstreet.org.)