CONGRESS SHOULD BEGIN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF BUSH AND CHENEY

From: Daven (daven_at_priest.com)
Date: 04/20/04

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    Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 03:49:08 GMT

    Nader: Iraq an Unconstitutional, Illegal War

    Based on Five Falsehoods:
      CONGRESS SHOULD BEGIN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF BUSH AND CHENEY

    "All public policy should revolve around the principle that individuals
    are responsible for what they say and do." -- George W. Bush, 1994.

    Washington, DC:
      Building on his call for the impeachment of President
      Bush and Vice President Cheney, Independent Presidential candidate Ralph
      Nader today is calling on Members of the House of Representatives to
      begin an impeachment inquiry to investigate two distinct impeachable
      offenses.

    An Impeachment Inquiry is the first step toward considering Articles of
    Impeachment. During an Impeachment Inquiry the House would investigate
    whether there are potential impeachable offenses.

    Impeachment Inquiry and the Process of Impeachment

      While the Constitution is clear in granting the impeachment power to the
      House, it leaves the development of mechanisms for exercising the power
      to the House. As noted by the Association of the Bar of the City of New
      York in "The Law of Presidential Impeachment By the Committee on Federal
      Legislation" (see: http://www.abcny.org/presimpt.htm):

        "A variety of methods have been employed to institute impeachment
        proceedings: Charges may be made orally on the floor by a Member of the
        House; a Member may submit a written statement of charges; one or more
        Members of the House may offer a resolution and place it in the
        legislative hopper; a presidential message to the House may initiate
        proceedings. The House has also received charges from a state
        legislature, from a territory, and from a grand jury. Finally, there may
        be a report of a committee of the House which may submit facts or
        charges that will lead to impeachment. Under the rules governing the
        order of business in the House a direct proposition to impeach is a
        matter of highest privilege and supersedes other business. Similar
        privileged treatment is given to propositions relating to a pending
        impeachment."

      The purpose of the Impeachment Inquiry is to have a Committee develop a
      report for the House which then can be considered for the purpose of
      determining whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings. The House
      determines whether to impeach based on a majority vote. It is important
      to remember that impeachment does not mean conviction - that is left to
      the Senate. Impeachment is the equivalent of an indictment, making
      formal charges, which the Senate then considers. Conviction requires
      two-thirds of the Members present in the Senate to vote for conviction.

    Two Potential Articles of Impeachment that Should be Part of an Impeachment Inquiry

    The Impeachment Inquiry should focus on two areas involving President
    Bush and Vice President *** Cheney.

    The unconstitutional war in Iraq.

      "The Inquiry should examine whether President Bush and Vice President
      Cheney have gone beyond the bounds of the Constitution, defied the rule
      of law, and if so, whether impeachment is the appropriate constitutional
      punishment," said Nader. The United States Congress never voted for the
      Iraq war. Congress voted for a resolution in October 2002 which
      unlawfully transferred to the President the decision-making power of
      whether to launch a first-strike invasion of Iraq. The United States
      Constitution's War Powers Clause (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11) vests
      the power of deciding whether to send the nation into war solely in the
      United States Congress. This can only be changed by a constitutional
      amendment.

      "Our founders had seen what could occur when the power to declare war
      was vested in one person, a King or a Queen, so they took clear steps to
      ensure no one person could declare war for the United States. As James
      Madison wrote: "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be
      found, than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace
      to the legislature, and not to the executive department," noted Nader.

    Five Falsehoods that Led to the Iraq Quagmire:

      Making matters worse in this situation, the illegal first-strike
      invasion and occupation of Iraq was justified by five falsehoods. Nader
      calls for a second area for Impeachment Inquiry to examine: the "five
      falsehoods that led to war." In 1994 George W. Bush said: "All public
      policy should revolve around the principle that individuals are
      responsible for what they say and do." In 2000, he ran as the
      "responsibility " candidate. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of
      national security intelligence data, if proven, would be "a high crime"
      under the Constitution's impeachment clause. Article II, Section 4 of
      the Constitution provides: "The President, Vice President and all civil
      Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on
      Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high
      Crimes and Misdemeanors."

    WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

      The weapons have still not been found. Nader emphasized, "Until the 1991
      Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was our government's anti-communist ally in the
      Middle East. We also used him to keep Iran at bay. In so doing, in the
      1980s under Reagan and the first Bush, corporations were licensed by the
      Department of Commerce to export the materials for chemical and
      biological weapons that President George W. Bush and Vice President ***
      Cheney later accused him of having." Those weapons were destroyed after
      the Gulf War. President Bush's favorite chief weapons inspector, David
      Kay, after returning from Iraq and leading a large team of inspectors
      and spending nearly half a billion dollars told the president :We were
      wrong."

                See: David Kay testimony before Senate Armed Services Committee,
                     January 28, 2004.

    IRAQ TIES TO AL QAEDA:

      The White House made this claim even though the CIA and FBI repeatedly
      told the Administration that there was no tie between Saddam Hussein and
      Al Qaeda. They were mortal enemies - one secular, the other
      fundamentalist.

    SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES:

      In fact, Saddam was a tottering dictator, with an antiquated, fractured
      army of low morale and with Kurdish enemies in Northern Iraq and Shiite
      adversaries in the South of Iraq. He did not even control the air space
      over most of Iraq.

    SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO HIS NEIGHBORS:

      In fact, Iraq was surrounded by countries with far superior military
      forces. Turkey, Iran and Israel were all capable of obliterating any
      aggressive move by the Iraqi dictator.

    THE LIBERATION OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE:

      There are brutal dictators throughout the world, many supported over the
      years by Washington, whose people need "liberation " from their leaders.
      This is not a persuasive argument since for Iraq, it's about oil. In
      fact, the occupation of Iraq by the United States is a magnet for
      increasing violence, anarchy and insurrection.

    Nader urges the Congress to investigate the illegal nature of the war,
    and how the five falsehoods became part of the Bush Administration's
    drum beat for war, in a formal Inquiry of Impeachment. 

    --
For further information, contact: 
Kevin Zeese 
1-202-265-4000 
--
peace, yet it is involved - directly as
well as indirectly - with terrorist organizations and anti-American
propaganda campaigns headed by fanatical Communist and Muslim groups. NION
has cemented alliances with bona fide radical organizations like the
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom and the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Not In Our Name:  What is IFCO?
Not In Our Name (NION) requests donations on its website, yet on this site
donors are asked to make checks payable to NION/IFCO. IFCO is the acronym
for the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. NION states
that the " Interreligous Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO). is
our fiscal sponsor." Fiscal sponsorship by IFCO means Not In Our Name
receives donations that are tax deductible because of IFCO's 501c(3)
(charitable, federal tax-exempt) status. IFCO charges a fee for this
service.
Why is NION not a 501c(3)?
Donations to NION/IFCO are then mailed to the Women's International League
for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which is located at 339 Lafayette Street in
New York City. The address is the same as NION's. The intimate nature of a
financial partnership shows how closely aligned these two organizations are.
And that's scary, because the Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom has been associated with Communist causes since its inception. Molly
Klopot of the WILPF is a NION organizer. The WILPF is related to IFCO as
well as NION. Marilyn Cleme
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