[NV Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Impeach Bush & Cheney (Ralph Nader & Kevin Zeese, Boston Globe)

Sun Jun 5 15:59:37 PDT 2005

>
>
>The 'I' word
>
>By Ralph Nader and Kevin Zeese
>The Boston Globe
>May 31, 2005
>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/31/the_i_word/
>
>
>THE IMPEACHMENT of President Bush and Vice
>President Cheney, under Article II, Section 4 of
>the Constitution, should be part of mainstream
>political discourse.
>
>Minutes from a summer 2002 meeting involving
>British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveal that the
>Bush administration was "fixing" the intelligence
>to justify invading Iraq. US intelligence used to
>justify the war demonstrates repeatedly the truth
>of the meeting minutes -- evidence was thin and
>needed fixing.
>
>President Clinton was impeached for perjury about
>his sexual relationships. Comparing Clinton's
>misbehavior to a destructive and costly war
>occupation launched in March 2003 under false
>pretenses in violation of domestic and
>international law certainly merits introduction
>of an impeachment resolution.
>
>Eighty-nine members of Congress have asked the
>president whether intelligence was manipulated to
>lead the United States to war. The letter points
>to British meeting minutes that raise "troubling
>new questions regarding the legal justifications
>for the war." Those minutes describe the case for
>war as "thin" and Saddam as "nonthreatening to
>his neighbors," and "Britain and America had to
>create conditions to justify a war." Finally,
>military action was "seen as inevitable . . . But
>the intelligence and facts were being fixed
>around the policy."
>
>Indeed, there were no weapons of mass destruction
>in Iraq, nor any imminent threat to the United
>States:
>
>The International Atomic Energy Agency Iraq
>inspection team reported in 1998, "there were no
>indications of Iraq having achieved its program
>goals of producing a nuclear weapon; nor were
>there any indications that there remained in Iraq
>any physical capability for production of amounts
>of weapon-usable material." A 2003 update by the
>IAEA reached the same conclusions.
>
>The CIA told the White House in February 2001:
>"We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has
>. . . reconstitute[d] its weapons of mass
>destruction programs."
>
>Colin Powell said in February 2001 that Saddam
>Hussein "has not developed any significant
>capability with respect to weapons of mass
>destruction."
>
>The CIA told the White House in two Fall 2002
>memos not to make claims of Iraq uranium
>purchases. CIA Director George Tenet personally
>called top national security officials imploring
>them not to use that claim as proof of an Iraq
>nuclear threat.
>
>Regarding unmanned bombers highlighted by Bush,
>the Air Force's National Air and Space
>Intelligence Center concluded they could not
>carry weapons spray devices. The Defense
>Intelligence Agency told the president in June
>2002 that the unmanned aerial bombers were
>unproven. Further, there was no reliable
>information showing Iraq was producing or
>stockpiling chemical weapons or whether it had
>established chemical agent production facilities.
>
>When discussing WMD the CIA used words like
>"might" and "could." The case was always
>circumstantial with equivocations, unlike the
>president and vice president, e.g., Cheney said
>on Aug. 26, 2002: "Simply stated, there is no
>doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
>destruction."
>
>The State Department in 2003 said: "The
>activities we have detected do not . . . add up
>to a compelling case that Iraq is currently
>pursuing . . . an integrated and comprehensive
>approach to acquire nuclear weapons."
>
>The National Intelligence Estimate issued in
>October 2002 said "We have no specific
>intelligence information that Saddam's regime has
>directed attacks against US territory."
>
>The UN, IAEA, the State and Energy departments,
>the Air Force's National Air and Space
>Intelligence Center, US inspectors, and even the
>CIA concluded there was no basis for the
>Bush-Cheney public assertions. Yet, President
>Bush told the public in September 2002 that Iraq
>"could launch a biological or chemical attack in
>as little as 45 minutes after the order is
>given." And, just before the invasion, President
>Bush said: "Facing clear evidence of peril, we
>cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking
>gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom
>cloud."
>
>The president and vice president have artfully
>dodged the central question: "Did the
>administration mislead us into war by
>manipulating and misstating intelligence
>concerning weapons of mass destruction and
>alleged ties to Al Qaeda, suppressing contrary
>intelligence, and deliberately exaggerating the
>danger a contained, weakened Iraq posed to the
>United States and its neighbors?"
>
>If this is answered affirmatively Bush and Cheney
>have committed "high crimes and misdemeanors." It
>is time for Congress to investigate the illegal
>Iraq war as we move toward the third year of the
>endless quagmire that many security experts
>believe jeopardizes US safety by recruiting and
>training more terrorists. A Resolution of
>Impeachment would be a first step. Based on the
>mountains of fabrications, deceptions, and lies,
>it is time to debate the "I" word.
>
>
>Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate. Kevin Zeese
>is director of DemocracyRising.US.
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand