Washington For Impeachment2008-05-22T19:56:47ZWashington for ImpeachmentCopyright 2008, Washington for ImpeachmentSPHPBLOGAction item: Please contact these members of the Judiciary CommitteePosted by Linda Boyd CONTACT THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE -- Urge them to begin impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney Representatives Conyers, Lofgren, Nadler, Delahunt, Lee, Schiff, Meehan, Sherman, Wasserman, Shultz Contact Judiciary Committee Staff (202) 225-3951 Congressional Switchboard (800) 828-0498 toll-free
SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT of George Bush Urge Rep. Kucinich to rise with Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush now. Call (800) 828-0498.
As a supporter of impeachment:
"You proudly support our long-held constitutional principles.
You are speaking out to reaffirm our democracy.
You demand accountability for those in our government who have disregarded our Constitution, violated statutory law, or engaged in immoral human-rights abuses." -- Rocky Anderson
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080519-1529552008-05-19T00:00:00Z2008-05-19T00:00:00ZAll the President's Nazis: An Open Letter to Bush by Larisa AlexandrovnaAll the President’s Nazis: An Open Letter to Bush
May 15, 2008
by Larisa Alexandrovna ————————
Dear Mr. Bush,
Your speech on the Knesset floor today was not only a disgrace; it was nothing short of treachery. Worse still, your exploitation of the Holocaust in a country carved out of the wounds of that very crime, in order to strike a low blow at American citizens whose politics differs from your own is unforgivable and unpardonable. Let me remind you, Mr. Bush, of your words today:
“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said at Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.
“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Bush said in remarks to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”
Well Mr. Bush, the only thing this comment lacked was a mirror and some historical facts. You want to discuss the crimes of Nazis against my family and millions of other families in Europe during World War II? Let me revive a favorite phrase of yours: Bring. It. On!
The All-American Nazi
Your family’s fortune is built on the bones of the very people butchered by the Nazis, my family and the families of those in the Knesset who applauded you today:
WASHINGTON — President Bush’s grandfather was a director of a bank seized by the federal government because of its ties to a German industrialist who helped bankroll Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, government documents show.
Prescott Bush was one of seven directors of Union Banking Corp. (search), a New York investment bank owned by a bank controlled by the Thyssen family, according to recently declassified National Archives documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
Fritz Thyssen was an early financial supporter of Hitler, whose Nazi party Thyssen believed was preferable to communism.
Both Harrimans and Bush were partners in the New York investment firm of Brown Brothers, Harriman and Co., which handled the financial transactions of the bank as well as other financial dealings with several other companies linked to Bank voor Handel that were confiscated by the U.S. government during World War II.
Union Banking was seized by the government in October 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
Oh, but there is much more too:
The two Holocaust survivors suing the US government and the Bush family for a total of $40bn in compensation claim both materially benefited from Auschwitz slave labour during the second world war, Kurt Julius Goldstein, 87, and Peter Gingold, 85, began a class action in America in 2001, but the case was thrown out by Judge Rosemary Collier on the grounds that the government cannot be held liable under the principle of “state sovereignty”.
I cannot think of one Democrat who can boast this kind of lineage. Can you? No, I don’t think so. But you can lie brazenly and attack a sitting US Senator on foreign soil by comparing him to Nazi sympathizers? Let us continue down memory lane to help those who applaud you understand just what it is they are celebrating.
The All American Traitor
You family did not stop with supporting fascists and Nazis abroad, did they Mr. Bush? Surely you must know of your grandfather’s role in the treasonous plot of 1933 to overthrow democracy in America? Let me remind you.
Grandpa Bush - that is to say, your grandfather - wanted fascism imported into the United States, or as you now call this type of transformation, “exporting democracy.” Prescott went so far as to subsidize a coup attempt in order to achieve his dream of a fascist America (see BBC report below):
Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American
In other words, not only was your grandfather a self-professed fascist, he was a Nazi sympathizer and a war profiteer who should have stood trial at the Hague instead of buying his way into the US Senate. He was also a traitor, twice over.
Now clearly the crimes of Prescott Bush are not your fault, Mr. George W. Bush. Let us therefore judge your actions and words on their own merit.
Iraq is your Poland
Your reminiscence today about the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany should have been seen as your own condemnation of your own abhorrent actions against Iraq. The morbid irony of what you said will likely never register with your or your speechwriter. To truly grasp the grotesqueness of what you said requires that you have both a conscience and some understanding of history. We know you possess neither.
I will therefore make your history lesson brief, but to the point. The unprovoked attack on Poland by Germany was a war crime just as your attack against Iraq - based on lies - is a war crime. This is not my opinion. This is not a political attack. This is a fact. Consider the words of the esteemed former chief prosecutor in the Nuremburg trials, Benjamin Ferencz, regarding your war of aggression against Iraq:
“…Prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.”
Moreover, your reckless verbiage and partisan pandering using something as tragic and criminal as Germany’s war of aggression against Poland is an insult to all victims of those atrocities.
My grandfather’s sister and parents were having supper in their Warsaw home when a German bomb erased them from this planet. Your evoking the German atrocities against Poland in order to play dirty politics against Democrats is as offensive to me as if you had pinned a swastika onto your lapel.
Even your own words appear to be penned by Hitler’s ghost all the while you imply that Democrats are Nazis and/or terrorists - something you have done over and over. Your lies and Hitler’s lies even have the same purpose.
When you, Mr. Bush, said “see in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda,” were you aware of Adolph Hitler’s eerily similar statement? Hitler said “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
Yet if words alone were your only weapon and words strung together into lies your only crime, you might be seen as simply the loathsome, unethical dilettante and despot that you are. Unfortunately, your crimes are many and so similar to those of the Nazi regime that at times one wonders if you are not yourself reenacting that very history you used today as an insult against a political opponent.
Your very own concentration camps
You ordered the creation of secret camps all over the world and on US territory where you also authorized the torture of countless men, women and children is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, international law, and domestic law. In other words, you authorized war crimes.
We don’t know the number of people you have had disappeared, tortured, and possibly murdered. Although we have some idea of what these numbers may be, I doubt the full truth of it all will ever be known.
In 2005, I had a CENTCOM document leaked to me illustrating that since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, more than 70,000 men, women, and children have been detained at one of your various camps Mr. Bush. We don’t know what happened to them, if they were tortured, raped, or murdered. What we do know is that less than 2% of those 70,000 had any sort of charge brought against them in a court of law. None of those alleged crimes, by the way, were acts of terrorism. We don’t know if that 70,000 figure was the actual and full count of detainees in US custody around the world in 2005. But it is safe to say that in the last 3 years since this document was published, the number of detainees has likely grown.
What we also now know, in great horror, is that at least one of your camps had a crematorium in it, which some of the US soldiers stationed there suspected was used for burning bodies:
“We had some kind of incinerator at the end of our building,” Specialist Megan Ambuhl said. “It was this huge circular thing. We just didn’t know what was incinerated in there. It could have been people, for all we knew–bodies.” Sergeant Davis was not in doubt. “It had bones in it,” he said, and he called it the crematorium. “But hey, you’re at war,” he said. “Suck it up or drive on.”
What we also now know is that Dick Cheney and senior members of your administration carried out a plan of torture and abuse that violated international and domestic law with regard to human rights, down to the type of torture tactics that would be used against prisoners in our custody. This plan, we now know, was approved by you.
Has the mirror cracked yet from this much fact or are you still peering into the political sphere hoping to ascribe your own crimes to others? It won’t work. It never has and it certainly won’t work now. We know far too much about you and yours.
I could continue listing the litany of your crimes, both against the United States and against foreign nations. I won’t. We know what you are and what you have done. Having roughly 1,000,000 dead Iraqis under your belt should have shamed you into the parasitic hole you came out of, attaching yourself to the blood of this nation and sucking it dry. Instead, you parade around, the globe-trotting horror show and anti-Semite that you are.
Yes, you are an anti-Semite
Would you say no, you are not an anti-Semite? Consider your own words when you thought no one was keeping score:
“You know what I’m gonna tell those Jews when I get to Israel, don’t you Herman?” a then Governor George W. Bush allegedly asked a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman.
When the journalist, Ken Herman, replied that he did not know, Bush reportedly delivered the punch line: “I’m telling ‘em they’re all going to hell.”
Only an anti-Semite would think this type of humor is acceptable. Did you tell the Jews of Israel they were going to hell? No, instead, you told them that American Democrats are Nazi sympathizers and in an act of sheer indecency, the right wing Likud party orchestrated the greatest applause you ever got. For shame!
What this blind adoration finally proves to me is that the right-wing regime that has overtaken Israel cares nothing for its people, its heritage, and the tragic history that they now honor by applauding a man whose family-fortune was built on the bodies of their loved ones. Like their Republican (and Lieberman) counterparts in the United States, Likud does not represent its people, rather, it represents its owners. Likud has traded Israel, its Jews, their heritage and history for the same golden calf purchased and sold by the far-right wing in the United States.
I am ashamed of you Mr. Bush. I am ashamed of those who applauded your political porn played out against the hallowed backdrop of the Holocaust. I am ashamed of those reporters with you, who between them could not muster the moral courage to call you out on your ugly rhetoric and ask you about your own family Nazi ties. You are, sir, the most abhorrent human being of my lifetime. I dare say, in the lifetime of this nation.
Source: HuffingtonPost.com
Editor’s Note: I say, let’s skip the impeachment process and go straight to war crime trials for George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Condoleeza Rice, Rumsfeld, Miers, Gonzales, Bolton, Libby and the rest of them. These heinous crimes mirror those that the Germans commited under Hitler. Any Representatives or Senators who support them should be removed from office. Any White House staff or government agent who have broken national or international laws should also go to trail for treason or war crimes. Not in our name - unless we do not prosecute them as the international criminals that they are.]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080517-0954162008-05-17T00:00:00Z2008-05-17T00:00:00ZMohammed Al Qahtani's Military Commission Charges Dismissed -- IMPEACH FOR TORTUREFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 13, 2008 3:58 PM
CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Jen Nessel, press@ccrjustice.org
Mohammed Al Qahtani's Military Commission Charges Dismissed CCR Attorneys Demand He Be Sent to Saudi Arabia
NEW YORK - May 13 - Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys learned last night that Military Commission charges against their client, Mohammed al Qahtani, were dropped. He had originally been charged as one of six in a 9/11 conspiracy where the government was seeking the death penalty.
Mr. al Qahtani, who has been at Guantánamo for almost six years, was subject to the ‘First Special Interrogation Plan,’ which consisted of a regime of ‘aggressive interrogation methods’ that constitute torture personally approved by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. These techniques were revealed in a leaked government interrogation log.
The Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:
"The government is finally admitting what we have been saying all along, that the government’s claims against our client were based on unreliable evidence obtained through torture at Guantanamo. Using torture to string together a web of so-called evidence is illegal, immoral and cannot be the basis for a fair trial.
Mr. al Qahtani never made a single statement that was not extracted through torture or the threat of torture. The unconscionable techniques used on him are well-documented and were authorized directly by the White House. His torture log is a shameful window onto the depravity of this administration and the depths to which they have been willing to sink.
Mr. al Qahtani should be returned to the custody of the Saudi government, where they have a system in place to maintain custody of any former Guantanamo detainee who presents a danger, as well as a strong rehabilitation program supervising those that are released.
The Military Commissions are sham political show trials designed to do nothing but obtain convictions for the government. Col. Moe Davis testified to that effect in the Hamdan proceedings, and the presiding judge removed the legal advisor to the Commissions, Brigadier General Hartmann, just this week for undue political influence. The Military Commissions allow secret evidence, hearsay evidence, and evidence obtained through torture, which violates every international and domestic legal principle of due process and fair trials. They are designed to hide the criminal conduct of U.S. personnel and to obtain nothing but convictions.
The White House will face the same legal and moral questions with any trial under this system.
We call on the government to send Mr. al Qahtani to Saudi Arabia, where he belongs, and end the failed experiment that is Guantanamo."
The torture techniques approved by the White House and Donald Rumsfeld for use on Mr. al Qahtani include • Beatings • Severe sleep deprivation combined with 20-hour interrogations for months at a time • Threats of rendition to other countries that torture • Explicit threats made against his family, including female members of his family • Strip searches, body searches and forced nudity, at times in the presence of female personnel • Sexual humiliation • Humiliation by forcing him to bark like a dog, dance with a mask on his face, and pick up piles of trash with his hands cuffed while he was called “a pig” • Denial of the right to practice his religion, including prohibiting him from praying for prolonged times and during Ramadan • Threats to desecrate the Koran in front of him • Attacks by dogs • Forcible administration of frequent IVs by medical personnel during interrogation • Being placed in acute stress positions for hours at a time • Being placed in tight restraints repeatedly for many months or days and nights • Exposure to low temperatures for extended periods of time • Exposure to loud music for prolonged times • At least 160 days of severe isolation CCR has been representing Mohammed al Qahtani since 2005 and has led the legal battle over Guantanamo for the last six years – sending the first ever habeas attorney to the base and sending the first attorney to meet with a former CIA “ghost detainee.” CCR has been responsible for organizing and coordinating more than 500 pro bono lawyers across the country in order to represent the men at Guantanamo, ensuring that nearly all have the option of legal representation. CCR represented the detainees with co-counsel in the most recent argument before the Supreme Court on December 5, 2007.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
##]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080514-2341432008-05-15T00:00:00Z2008-05-15T00:00:00ZBush admits he approved torture by Helen Thomashttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/3 ... mas02.html
Bush admits he approved torture Last updated May 1, 2008 4:32 p.m. PT
By HELEN THOMAS HEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The American people have heard President Bush and his spokespeople say many times that the U.S. government does not engage in torture.
Whether Bush was believed or not is another story -- especially in light of the photographic evidence of the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. It's understood that many of the photos are too sadistically graphic to be made public.
Still, the official U.S. denials of torture continued until earlier this month when Bush acknowledged in an interview with ABC-TV that he knew about and approved "enhanced interrogation" of detainees, including "waterboarding" or simulated drowning.
"As a matter of fact," Bush added, "I told the country we did that. And I told them it was legal. We had legal opinions that enabled us to do it."
The president added, "I didn't have any problems at all trying to find out what Khalid Sheik Mohammed knew."
"He was the person who ordered the suicide attack -- I mean, the 9/11 attacks," Bush said. "And back then, there was all kind of concern about people saying, 'Well, the administration is not connecting the dots.' You might remember those -- that period." Bush said.
Bush also said in the interview that he had been aware of several meetings his national security advisers held to discuss "enhanced interrogation" methods.
Surely he is aware of the U.S. commitment to international treaties barring "cruel and inhumane" treatment of prisoners.
What is startling is that he feels no remorse about the cruel image he has created for us -- and the damage done to our credibility and probity.
In referring to the legality of torture, Bush apparently was thinking of a 2002-2003 memo by John Yoo, a Justice Department official who argued military interrogators could subject detainees to harsh treatment as long as it didn't cause "death, organ failure or permanent damage." The memo was rescinded.
Bush, who has insisted "we do not torture," also recently vetoed legislation that explicitly banned torture. Sen. John McCain, whose whole political persona has been defined by the fact that he had been tortured while a prisoner of war during the Vietnam era, supported Bush's veto.
For both Bush and McCain, I recall the words of Joseph Welch, the special counselor for the Army during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings when Welch asked Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis.: "Sir, have you no sense of decency?"
We expected the usual cast of characters including Vice President Dick Cheney to be in on the sinister torture-planning sessions.
But it came as a shock that Gen. Colin Powell, then secretary of state, sat in on the meetings and went along with the planning. Powell had been on record warning against U.S. torture policies on the basis that if we mistreat our prisoners, foreign countries will feel no qualms about abusing American captives in wartime.
Once revered for his integrity, Powell has lost his halo.
Now we have this week's testimony of Air Force Col. Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor, who took the witness stand at Guantanamo Bay on behalf of a prisoner. Davis told how top Pentagon officials had pressured him on sensitive prosecutorial decisions for political reasons. He said he was told that the charges against well-known detainees "could have real strategic value" and that there could be no acquittals.
Davis also testified Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann reversed a decision he made and insisted prosecutors proceed with evidence they obtained through waterboarding and other methods of torture.
Davis also testified he was told to speed up the cases to give the system legitimacy before a new president takes over in January.
Is Congress so cowed that it accepts the statements of a president who has little regard for the truth?
Is there no lawmaker who is appalled about the tarnishing of our image in world opinion? And where are the voices of the other presidential candidates who will inherit the Bush legacy of torture? Why the silence?
I count on the American people to refuse to be shamed any more.
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com. Copyright 2008 Hearst Newspapers.
There is a widespread myth that an impeachment cannot happen in the space of the nine months Bush and Cheney are scheduled to remain in office. But I'm unable to find any past impeachment that took as long as nine months. It's messy comparing one impeachment to another, as they are complicated and varying processes. But a few things are clear: most impeachment efforts achieve important results quickly, without actually achieving impeachment (think Elliot Spitzer or Alberto Gonzales); it is not uncommon for impeachment efforts to begin later in an administration than where we are now (think Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman); while preliminary investigations of the sort that have been done on Bush and Cheney for the past year and a half can be dragged out for months, impeachments tend not to last long; and while Senate trials can be delayed and dragged out for many months, impeachments in the House tend to be short-lived events.
An impeachment of Bush and/or Cheney for an indisputable offense (refusing subpoenas, refusing to enforce contempt citations, rewriting laws with signing statements, openly violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, etc.) could take literally one day. Such a thing would not be unprecedented. President Andrew Johnson was impeached three days after the offense for which he was impeached. Senator William Blount was impeached four days after the offense for which he was impeached.
There is no reason impeachment hearings on Cheney or Bush should be limited to the simplest crimes or rushed through at top speed. Public education might benefit from a slower process. My point is only that it is possible to impeach rapidly. A senate trial can also serve as an educational forum. Below are some of the dates I've been able to find on how long past impeachments have taken. A better researcher might add to this collection. In several cases, I have dates for the duration of the Senate trial, but not for the House impeachment, the duration of which may in fact have been negligible.
A Senate trial can also be completed quickly, and there is no requirement or precedent for including every obvious impeachable offense. (In fact, there is no precedent for elected officials being guilty of so many obvious impeachable offenses or for the public being so aware of impeachable offenses prior to an impeachment.) The Senate expelled Blount the day after he was impeached. Judge Halsted Ritter's Senate trial took 11 days. Judge John Pickering's trial took nine days. Judge James Peck's trial took three days. Judge West Humphreys' trial took one day.
Two presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
Johnson was impeached three days after committing the offense for which he was impeached, and prior to drafting articles of impeachment. Within a week, a committee drew up charges, and 11 days after the offense, the House delivered the charges to the Senate. The trial process began the next day, and in under three months it was over.
The House began impeachment procedures for Bill Clinton on October 8, 1998, and impeached him on December 19th. The Senate trial lasted from January 14, 1999, to February 12, 1999. The whole four-month farce took less than half the time remaining to Bush and Cheney.
Of the presidential impeachment movements that did not reach impeachment, the most well-known is that against Richard Nixon. The House began impeachment on May 9, 1974, and passed the first of three articles of impeachment on July 27, 1974. Nixon resigned on August 8th. Of course there were lots of preliminary investigations, but those have already been done for Bush and Cheney.
Most impeachments have not been against presidents, but rather judges, cabinet officers, senators. These impeachments seem to take about as long as presidential impeachment do, and offer no support to the myth of long impeachments. In addition, much other business has been accomplished at the same time as these impeachments.
On July 3, 1797, evidence of an offense by Senator William Blount became known. Four days later, the House impeached him and the next day the Senate expelled him.
Evidence of an offense by Judge John Pickering became known on February 4, 1803, and the House voted to impeach him on March 2, 1803. The Senate didn't try him for another year, but spent 9 days on it when it did so.
Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase was impeached in late 1804 (I don't know how long the impeachment took) and 30 days later he was tried in the Senate, which completed the trial on March 1, 1805.
Judge James Peck was impeached on April 24, 1830, a month after the Judiciary Committee recommended it. The Senate took up the trial the following January and spent three days on it.
Judge West H. Humphreys was impeached on May 19, 1862. The Senate tried and convicted him in one day on June 26, 1862.
Secretary of War William W. Belknap was impeached on March 2, 1876, and the Senate trial was completed on August 1, 1876.
Judge Charles Swayne was impeached on December 14, 1904, and his trial was over on February 27, 1905.
Judge Robert W. Archbald was impeached on July 13, 1912, and the Senate trial was over on January 13, 1913.
Judge Harold Louderback resigned before his impeachment went to trial.
Judge Halsted L. Ritter was impeached on March 2, 1936, and the 11-day Senate trial ended on April 17th of the same year.
Judge Harry E. Claiborne was impeached on July 22, 1986, and the trial ended on October 9, 1986.
Then Judge and now Congressman Alcee L. Hastings, was impeached on August 3, 1988, and the Senate trial was over on October 20, 1988.
Judge Walter L. Nixon was impeached on May 10, 1989, and the Senate trial was completed on November 3, 1989.
There are nine months remaining to Bush and Cheney. If you think that is a short time, you are not a mother.]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080430-2233002008-05-01T00:00:00Z2008-05-01T00:00:00ZAction Item: Sat. April 26, 12-2 Honk to impeach, Honk NO IRAN WAR -- 12-2 p.m., NE 8th and Bellevue Way Dear Friends,
When opposition and dissent seems tiring, remember what you are for.
We are for: peace; closing Gitmo; ending war; stopping torture; troops coming home; education for all; healthcare for all; US budget surplus; clean water; civil rights; a healthy earth -- for humanity.
Please join us for a "HONK TO IMPEACH" roadside blogging event for peace and impeachment on Saturday, April 26, 12-2 p.m., Bellevue Way and NE 8th Street in downtown Bellevue. We will provide flyers and postcards to hand out.
A compassionate heart aroused requires a commitment to effective action. Linda Boyd Washington For Impeachment
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080425-2300112008-04-26T00:00:00Z2008-04-26T00:00:00ZSpringtime for Bushies: Torture, torture, torture!Please see link below to see pictures -- LB
Americans are paying for it, literally, with their tax dollars, and symbolically, diplomatically and politically, too, since now, human-rights-abusing governments around the world are simply ignoring their calls for justice against whomever they may apply their heavy-handed crackdowns. And someday, somewhere, if the news ever emerges that American civilians or military personnel have been tortured by another country's troops or by terrorists, and perhaps even photographed and mocked in their humiliation as detainees were by giggling U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, what will the American government say? Will it whine, "Hey, that's not fair!"?
The United States under the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Powell-Ashcroft-Tenet political machine is and has been in the torture business - and American taxpayers who are funding it don't even know where some of the secret facilities are where the abuse is taking place in their names.
Brennan Linsley/AP In an undated photo, a shackled detainee is transported to an interview with U.S. officials at the prison at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba An editorial in Switzerland's Le Temps looks forward to the forthcoming, presidential-election change that will sweep the White House clean of its current occupants, who have done so much in such a short time to deplete the United States' once considerable resources - including its credibility on the world diplomatic stage - destroy its political institutions and weaken its military. Meanwhile, France's Le Monde wonders if "Bushism, after George [W.] Bush" can ever effectively be cleaned up by a new White House leadership team.
Legalized torture maybe one of the most damning, lingering stains of "Bushism." Will a new American president be quick - and have the courage - to step in and abolish the ugly policy immediately after taking office? Notes an opinion article in Saudi Arabia's Arab News: "Career military commanders and lawyers have consistently opposed the White House lead on reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions. Most of them are old enough to remember that it was President Ronald Reagan and his conservative counterpart in Britain, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who led the way in asking their legislatures to ratify the [United Nations] Convention Against Torture in 1988. These leaders were not so naive as to think that Western civilization would never face again unscrupulous opponents but they became convinced, as Professor Steven Ratner eloquently put it in Foreign Policy magazine, that without these legal protections the West would 'invite a world of wars in which laws disappear. And the horrors of such wars would far surpass anything the war on terror could deliver.' What argument could the Bush principals advance in their defense? Do they know how isolated they are? Britain and Spain have had to deal with the trials of those accused of major bombings. The prosecutors have managed to win convictions without abrogating the tough European human-rights treaties, which constrain them even more than the Geneva Conventions. Can [Bush and his minions] even prove torture works?"
Brendan McDermid/Reuters January 2008: In a protest against the U.S. government's torture practice known as "water-boarding," demonstrators simulated the procedure in a demonstration in New York's Times Square History lesson: Britain's Guardian has published a summary of Bush gang's torture policy. The paper notes: "Between 2002 and 2003, the U.S. Justice Department issued several memos from its office of legal counsel seeking to justify interrogation tactics that are deemed by critics to be torture. The notorious March 2003 memo, written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel, said Bush's wartime authority had priority over any international ban on torture. 'Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion,' Yoo wrote. The 81-page memo was rescinded nine months after it was sent to the Pentagon's top lawyer, William Haynes. The memo had to be withdrawn as it was so shaky legally, critics contend."
In Britain, the well-known human-rights lawyer Philippe Sands has penned Torture Team, a new book that will be published next week; it is a detailed history of the Bush gang's torture policy - just what it consists of, how it evolved, who developed it, who approved it and how it has been applied. Sands, a professor of law at University College London, writes that, on December 2, 2002, then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "signed a piece of paper that changed the course of history. That same day, President Bush signed a bill to put the Pentagon in funds for the next year. The U.S. faced unprecedented challenges, Bush told a large and enthusiastic audience, and terror was one of them. The U.S. would respond to these challenges, and it would do so in the 'finest traditions of valor.'...Elsewhere in the Pentagon, an event took place for which there was no comment, no fanfare. With a signature and a few scrawled words, Rumsfeld reneged on the tradition of valor to which Bush had referred. Principles for the conduct of interrogation, dating back more than a century to President Lincoln's famous instruction of 1863 that 'military necessity does not admit of cruelty,' were discarded. [Rumsfeld] approved new and aggressive interrogation techniques that would produce devastating consequences."
The memo Rumsfeld signed off on called for the carrying out of so-called interrogation techniques that would be better-known as torture in the real world outside the Pentagon. "Category I" cited by the memo "comprised two techniques, yelling and deception. Category II included 12 techniques, aiming at humiliation and sensory deprivation [of prospective detainees], including stress positions, such as standing for a maximum of four hours; isolation; deprivation of light and sound; hooding; removal of religious and all other comfort items; removal of clothing; forced grooming, such as shaving of facial hair; and the use of individual phobias, such as fear of dogs, to induce stress."
Jason Reed/Reuters At the White House, October 5, 2007: Bush claimed the U.S. was not practicing torture The techniques cited in "Category III" of the Rumsfeld-approved memorandum "were to be used for only a very small percentage of detainees - the most uncooperative...and exceptionally resistant individuals - and required approval by the commanding general at Guantánamo." Lawyer Sands notes that, in this category "were four techniques: the use of 'mild, non-injurious physical contact,' such as grabbing, poking and light pushing; the use of scenarios designed to convince the detainee that death or severely painful consequences were imminent for him or his family; exposure to cold weather or water; and, finally, the use of a wet towel and dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation. This last technique came to be known as water-boarding, described on a chat show by the [U.S.] vice president, Dick Cheney, as a 'dunk in the water'...." On the December 2002 memo, "Rumsfeld signed his name next to the word 'Approved' and added his comment at the bottom of the page: 'I stand for eight to 10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?'" (Excerpts from Sands's book in the Guardian.)
The lead editorial in the New York Times last Sunday ("The Torture Sessions") noted that, as Americans now know, it was with George W. Bush's "clear knowledge and support" that "some of the very highest officials in the land not only approved the abuse of prisoners, but participated in the detailed planning of harsh interrogations and helped to create a legal structure to shield from justice those who followed the orders." The paper's editorial added: "We have long known that the Justice Department tortured the law to give its Orwellian blessing to torturing people, and that...Rumsfeld approved a list of ways to abuse prisoners. But recent accounts by ABC News and The Associated Press said that all of the president's top national security advisers at the time participated in creating the interrogation policy: Vice President Dick Cheney;...Rumsfeld; Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser; Colin Powell, the secretary of state; John Ashcroft, the attorney general; and George Tenet, the director of central intelligence. These officials did not have the time or the foresight to plan for the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq or the tenacity to complete the hunt for Osama bin Laden. But they managed to squeeze in dozens of meetings in the White House Situation Room to organize and give legal cover to prisoner abuse, including brutal methods that civilized nations consider to be torture."]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080423-1321102008-04-23T00:00:00Z2008-04-23T00:00:00ZAction: Please contact these members of the Judiciary Committee Action: Please contact these members of the Judiciary Committee
CONTACT THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE -- Urge them to begin impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney Representatives Conyers, Lofgren, Nadler, Delahunt, Lee, Schiff, Meehan, Sherman, Wasserman, Shultz Contact Judiciary Committee Staff (202) 225-3951 Congressional Switchboard (800) 828-0498 toll-free
SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT of George Bush Urge Rep. Kucinich to rise with his 50 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush now. Call (800) 828-0498.
As a supporter of impeachment:
"You proudly support our long-held constitutional principles.
You are speaking out to reaffirm our democracy.
You demand accountability for those in our government who have disregarded our Constitution, violated statutory law, or engaged in immoral human-rights abuses." -- Rocky Anderson
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080418-2300042008-04-19T00:00:00Z2008-04-19T00:00:00ZImpeach Bush and Cheney for Torture -- sign the petition On 4/11/08, George Bush told ABC News he personally approved of the approval of torture - including waterboarding - by Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and George Tenet. "Yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved." In the wake of this shocking and appalling confession, we've come to a historic moment where every American - and every Member of Congress - must take a stand. Either you're for torture or you're against it. And if you're against it, you must support the only Constitutional remedy: impeachment. We don't need a Special Prosecutor when the President has publicly admitted to approving war crimes! It's no excuse to say, "we can't impeach Bush because President Cheney would be worse." We know that Cheney directly approved torture, so they must be impeached together. If they were convicted by the Senate (or resigned to avoid impeachment), Speaker Pelosi would become President, as prescribed by the Constitution. It's no excuse to say, "we don't have the votes to impeach Bush and Cheney." Democrats didn't have the votes to impeach Nixon when they started, but when the House Judiciary Committee reluctantly adopted Articles of Impeachment, Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment. Nor is it an excuse to say, "we don't have time to impeach Bush and Cheney." Bush admitted both his own and Cheney's guilt, and Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and George Tenet are witnesses. There's no need for impeachment hearings - an impeachment resolution based on Bush's confession could go straight to the floor for a vote, just as they did on 11/6/07 when Dennis Kucinich introduced H.Res. 799, Articles of Impeachment for Vice President Cheney. And finally, it is utterly immoral for Democrats to say, "we shouldn't impeach Bush and Cheney because it would hurt the chances of electing a Democrat in November." Simply stated, politics should never come before torture. Dr. Martin Luther King famously said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam." Thanks to Bush's admission that he approved torture, that time has come for us in relation to impeachment.
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080417-2136372008-04-18T00:00:00Z2008-04-18T00:00:00ZIMPEACHMENT ACTION ITEM: Please help New Hampshire pass their Resolution to impeach Bush & Cheney.The New Hampshire Legislature will vote on HR24 on Wednesday, April 16, 10:00 a.m. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends,
Representative Betty Hall of New Hampshire introduced HR24, the resolution to impeach Bush and Cheney, to the State Legislature and has led the campaign to impeach with courage and conviction. HR24 will come to a vote on Wednesday, April 16, 10:00 a.m. It could pass with a simple majority, and would not require the approval of the governor. Please help New Hampshire achieve a significant victory for all of us by contacting the entire legislature. You do not need to be a New Hampshire resident to urge support.
A simple, direct message is most appropriate:
Honorable Representative,
I urge you to vote yes on HR24. New Hampshire has the opportunity to defend the US Constitution and represent the will of the majority of Americans by supporting the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Please direct Congress to initiate impeachment procedures by voting in favor of HR 24.
Thank you, name city, state
You can also email support to Representative Betty Hall:i.support.HR24@gmail.com Phone numbers of NH Legisators linked here: http://www.neimpeach.org/wp/?p=76
THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION TODAY! Linda Boyd Washington For Impeachment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you, Susan C. Serpa, Director of Northeast Impeachment Coalition, for providing this email list for all New Hampshire Legislators. Northeast Impeachment Coalition
Email your support of NH HR24 to impeach Bush and Cheney (copy and paste the emails listed below, in groups of about 30 each, in the BCC to BLIND copy the representatives)
Below are the email addresses (I broke them up to avoid spam filers):
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080415-0243512008-04-15T00:00:00Z2008-04-15T00:00:00ZAction: Please contact these members of the Judiciary CommitteeRepresentatives Conyers, Lofgren, Nadler, Delahunt, Lee, Schiff, Meehan, Sherman, Wasserman, Shultz Contact Judiciary Committee Staff (202) 225-3951 Congressional Switchboard (800) 828-0498 toll-free
SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT of George Bush Urge Rep. Kucinich to rise with his 50 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush now. Call (800) 828-0498.
As a supporter of impeachment:
"You proudly support our long-held constitutional principles.
You are speaking out to reaffirm our democracy.
You demand accountability for those in our government who have disregarded our Constitution, violated statutory law, or engaged in immoral human-rights abuses." -- Rocky Anderson
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080413-2224172008-04-14T00:00:00Z2008-04-14T00:00:00ZBy John Nichols, The Nation - The Constitution of the United States is absolutely clear when it comes to matters of torture. The Constitution of the United States is absolutely clear when it comes to matters of torture.
Amendment 8 specifically states that,"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
Acts of torture are by definition and common understanding -- certainly at the time of the drafting of the nation's essential document and arguably even in this less-enlightened era -- cruel and unusual punishments
Vice President Dick Cheney, when he assumed the second most powerful office in the land after the disputed election of 2000, swore an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same."
Any reasonable reader of that oath would conclude that Cheney bound himself to abide by the Constitution -- and thus to avoid any involvement with the promotion of acts of torture upon detainees of the United States government.
Yet we now know from revelations made by former senior intelligence officials to ABC News and the Associated Press that Cheney and other members of the administration -- who apparently took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods were discussed -- authorized the use of waterboarding and other generally recognized torture techniques.
There is no question that Cheney violated his oath of office, which bound him to support and defend a Constitution that he disregarded.
The question is: How will responsible Americans respond?
The power to hold Cheney to account rests with Congress.
The power to get Congress to act rests with the American people.
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a respected lawyer who has been working with a number of other Constitutional experts and activists, has responded -- not just to Cheney's trashing of the Constitution but to the long list of Bush administration wrongs.
Anderson is circulating a letter that reads:
As patriotic Americans, we believe in knowing the truth about our government. Regardless of political affiliation, we believe in our constitutional democracy. We believe in the rule of law – that no person, regardless of position, is above the law.
We believe in respecting basic human rights – and have been proud to distinguish our nation from those countries where people are kidnapped, disappeared, and tortured.
We believe that in a democracy likes ours, citizens are entitled to know whether government officials are living up to their oaths to defend and preserve the Constitution, and whether they are abusing the human rights of people here or elsewhere in the world.
This is not a partisan matter. It is a matter of responsible citizenship.
Recently, several conscientious members of the House Judiciary Committee, including the Chair, Congressman John Conyers, have indicated support for public hearings to investigate and disclose the facts concerning claims of illegal conduct and other abuses of power by members of the Executive Branch. If misconduct has occurred, the American people are entitled to know. If misconduct has not occurred, hearings will determine and disclose that as well.
By showing that the American people – without political partisanship – support the disclosure of the truth through public hearings, we can make a difference, together standing up for the truth, the rule of law, and our Constitution.
• We are entitled to know whether members of the Executive Branch misrepresented the facts and withheld crucial information, thereby deceiving our nation and the international community before the invasion of Iraq.
• As American citizens who value the system of checks and balances among the three branches of government, we are entitled to know whether that system has been seriously undermined. We are entitled to know whether the courts and Congress have fulfilled their important constitutional roles in investigating and disclosing the misuse of Executive power.
• Our nation has engaged in the unprecedented, illegal, and immoral kidnapping, disappearance, and torture of human beings around the world (some of whom have been proven to be innocent of any wrongdoing), with no due process, in complete secrecy, and with no accountability. Even US citizens have been held in prisons indefinitely, with no legal counsel, no trial, and no charges filed against them. As Americans, we are entitled to know what has occurred in connection with these human rights abuses. In our democratic system of government, there must be full accountability.
Speaking out together, as concerned, patriotic Americans, we can send a clear message to Congress: In the United States, the rule of law must prevail, our Constitution cannot be disregarded, and the fundamental morality to which our nation has always laid claim will be restored.
Anderson asks that Americans who support the principles outlined in this letter -- as I do -- go to his Restore the Rule of Law website and sign on.
Signing this letter, says Anderson, who has opened an important dialogue about the Constitution and White House accountability with Conyers and other key players on the Judiciary Committee, "indicates to Congressman Conyers, other members of the House Judiciary Committee, and Congress as a whole that you support efforts to investigate and disclose any illegal acts and abuses of power by the President and others in his administration. Declare to the world, and to our posterity, that, as a US citizen:
• You proudly support our long-held constitutional principles.
• You are speaking out to reaffirm our democracy.
• You demand accountability for those in our government who have disregarded our Constitution, violated statutory law, or engaged in immoral human-rights abuses."
Anderson's is an authentic patriotic response to the latest revelations about Dick Cheney's disregard for the Constitution.
Go to the Restore the Rule of Law website and sign on and do what Cheney did not: support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080413-1242272008-04-13T00:00:00Z2008-04-13T00:00:00ZRay McGovern on Geneva Convention, Military Commissions and War Crimes- (coming to a capitol near you)Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2008-04-10 19:25. Criminal Prosecution Evidence By Ray McGovern, www.consortiumnews.com
Is it because John Yoo, the former Justice Department's hired hand, is such an easy target? Is it because of the cheeky, in-your-face way in which Yoo argues that the president has the authority to have your eyes poked out and your sons' testicles crushed, because we are "at war" and he is commander in chief?
Or is it because our press is STILL reluctant to go after Yoo's guys – first and foremost his ultimate client – President George W. Bush? Oh, but that would be hard, you say.
Nonsense.
Available on the Web, in its original format, is a 7 Feb. 2002 action memorandum that the president signed to implement the dubious advice he was getting from Yoo and those at Justice who hired Yoo – and from the vice president's office which guided Yoo.
**Here's the memorandum:http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/torture/bybee20702mem.html
Yoo did their dirty work (and now he takes the rap).
Weren't Yoo's co-conspirators careful to keep their fingerprints off the more blatantly offensive memoranda? Sure they were.
But there was one problem. Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then-CIA Director George Tenet could not get their people to torture folks without written, signed authorization by the president.
And we have a copy of that authorization? Yes, it's been available for years. You have to download it to believe it.
In his Feb. 7, 2002, memorandum, Bush wrote: "I determine that common Article 3 of Geneva does not apply to either al Qaeda or Taliban detainees." (Common Article 3 bans "torture [and] outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.")
Then, drawing on the lawyerly legerdemain, Bush did something really dumb. Using words drafted by Vice President Dick Cheney's lawyer, David Addington, for a memo dated Jan. 25, 2002, signed by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, the president ordered that detainees be treated, "humanely ... to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity."
Tacked onto the end of that sentence is a classic circumlocution: "in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva." But that is not what Geneva says, and there is no way to square that circle.
This is the giant loophole through which Rumsfeld and Tenet drove the Mack truck of torture ... yes, signed by the president. The rotten apples were – demonstrably – at the very top of the barrel.
Typical of the timid treatment accorded this issue is what initially seemed to be a straightforward article by Don Eggen in Sunday's Washington Post. It spotlighted scapegoat-of-the-hour Yoo, noting that he advised that in time of war the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief trumps laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators.
In focusing on Yoo's legal advice, however, Eggen joined his "mainstream" journalist colleagues in omitting the smoking gun – Bush's implementing memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002. That document already had cleared the way for waterboarding, stress positions, forced nudity and other abuse of detainees – as well as for further legal musings about the unlimited powers of a wartime president, like Yoo’s newly disclosed March 14, 2003, memo.
The omission was all the more conspicuous in that a listing of nine memoranda relevant to the story sits side by side with Eggen's article. Guess which memo did not make it onto that list?
Again, I urge you to download the president's Feb. 7 smoking gun from the Web and read it yourself. The Jan. 25, 2002, memo bearing Gonzales's signature is also available – in its original form.
Supreme Court Has a Problem
On June 29, 2006, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that Geneva DOES apply to al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees.
One senior Bush administration official is reported to have gone quite pale at the time, when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy raised the ante, warning that "violations of Common Article 3 are considered 'war crimes,' punishable as federal offenses."
That threw a real scare into Bush as well, who pressed Congress hard to give administration officials retroactive immunity from prosecution. That came just three months later when Congress passed the "Military Commissions Act."
Ironically, the fact that those violating Geneva have been granted immunity within the U.S. makes it easier for foreign courts to prosecute for torture.
Remember how former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had to sneak out of Paris last October? He was not about to wait until a Paris prosecutor decided how to handle a fresh criminal complaint against him.
That complaint cited the failure of U.S. authorities to investigate the role of Rumsfeld and other top officials in torture, despite a documented paper trail of official memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility.
The complaint argued that countries like France have a legal obligation to prosecute under the 1984 Convention Against Torture, approved by 145 nations, including the United States.
The Convention states that "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."
It also provides for “universal jurisdiction,” meaning that every signing country has a duty to prosecute torturers who are found in their territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution.
One of the Bush administration's favorite slogans is that evildoers must be "brought to justice." It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out in the months and years to come.
[For more on Yoo’s memos and Bush’s powers, see Consortiumnews.com’s “All Power to the President” and “Yoo’s Memo Hints at Bush’s Secrets.”]
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army infantry/intelligence officer in the early sixties, then a CIA analyst under seven presidents. He is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080410-2150352008-04-11T00:00:00Z2008-04-11T00:00:00ZImpeachment hearings for Cheney may be our last hope to prevent a war with Iran.-- message from Code Pink Impeachment hearings for Cheney may be our last hope to prevent a war with Iran. General Petraeus' upcoming testimony is meant to prepare the American people for an attack on Iran: http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e19684.htm Admiral Fallon has been retired as the head of the Persian Gulf's Central Command. He had said there would be no war with Iran on his watch. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/12/7627/ Israel will simulate missile strikes from Iran, Lebanon and Syria to test the emergency response and evacuation of its citizens:http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_israel0010_04_01.asp Israel will distribute gas masks to its entire population. Gas masks were also distributed before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-02-voa27.cfm A Saudi council is discussing how to deal with sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards following a possible attack on Iran's nuclear reactors. http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=19881 Two guided-missile ships, the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea and the destroyer USS Ross, are currently patrolling off the coast of Lebanon. They have the fire power to shoot down planes and missiles over Israel. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=45 ... =351020203 Cheney has returned from his tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Occupied Territories and Turkey. They are key US allies in the region and would play a critical role in an attack on Iran. http://www.countercurrents.org/symonds260308.htm
What you can do: 1. Call Senator Biden (202-224-5042) and ask him to subpoena Admiral Fallon so the American people can find out why he was retired. 2. Call Congressman John Conyers ((202-225-5126) and ask him to start impeachment hearings for Cheney. He and Nancy Pelosi are responsible for stone-walling these hearings and may be our last chance to prevent a war with Iran. Don't waste your time on Nancy Pelosi ... she has too much to hide.
Please call the following Judiciary Committee Democrats ... ASK THEM TO ENDORSE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS FOR CHENEY! http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32443 If three of them sign on, the pro-impeachment forces will become the majority and Chairman Conyers will feel pressured to reconsider his "neutral" position. Better yet, start your own "National Conversation" in your district office.
Lofgren, (D) California (202) 225-3072 - fax202-225-3336 Scott, (D) Virginia (202) 225-8351 - fax202-225-8354 Davis, (D) Alabama (202) 225-2665 - fax202-226-9567 Watt, (D) North Carolina (202) 225-1510 - fax202-225-1512 Sherman, (D) California (202) 225-5911 - fax202-225-5879
Because I believe that there is such a thing as being too late, and that hour is almost upon us. Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace and Freedom, Jes & Leslie
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080407-2315022008-04-08T00:00:00Z2008-04-08T00:00:00ZAction Item: Sat. April 5, 12-2 Honk to impeach, Honk NO IRAN WAR -- 12-2 p.m., NE 8th and Bellevue Way When opposition and dissent seems tiring, remember what you are for.
We are for: peace; closing Gitmo; ending war; troops coming home; education for all; healthcare for all; US budget surplus; clean water; civil rights; a healthy earth -- for humanity.
Please join Washington For Impeachment, Federal Way Matters, Eastside Fellowship of Reconciliation and many others for a "HONK TO IMPEACH" roadside blogging event for peace and impeachment on Saturday, April 5, 12-2 p.m., Bellevue Way and NE 8th Street in downtown Bellevue. We will provide flyers and postcards to hand out.
WOULD YOU STAND ON A CORNER TO PREVENT AN ATTACK ON IRAN? ...TO SUPPORT CIVIL RIGHTS? ... TO GIVE YOUR CHILDREN A LAW ABIDING, PEACEFUL GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE??
Peace and impeach, Linda Boyd Washington For Impeachment Eastside Fellowship of Reconciliation]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080403-1610272008-04-03T00:00:00Z2008-04-03T00:00:00ZSaturday March 29, 12-2:00 p.m. HONK TO IMPEACH/ Honk to get out of Iraq/ Honk to stay out of Iran Got Dick Cheney prowling around the mideast looking for a place to put his bunker busters?
Get out your winter coat and join Washington For Impeachment, EFOR and the patriotic rabble on the corner of NE 8th and Bellevue Way, in downtown Bellevue TODAY 12:00 - 2:00 p.m., Saturday, March 29, 2008.
Peace and impeach, Linda Boyd Director, Washington For Impeachment
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080329-0120092008-03-29T00:00:00Z2008-03-29T00:00:00ZAction items for Impeachment Friends,
Now that the huge distraction created by the primaries is past, it's time to put a stop to the crimes of the Bush Administration. Every day that Bush and Cheney are in office is a danger to us.
Please help:
CONTACT REP. KUCINICH TO THANK HIM FOR HIS LEADERSHIP AND URGE HIM TO RISE TO IMPEACH BUSH IMMEDIATELY. Rep. Kucinich prepared 50 Articles of Impeachment, but postponed reading them on the House floor during the primary. Tell him that NOW is the time. Toll free Congressional switchboard will connect you: 1-800-828-0498
PUT PRESSURE ON MEMBERS OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO COMMENCE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, of CA. is geographically the closest to us and has moved slightly in favor of commencing hearings. Please phone her office regularly. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, she represents all of us. For a list of numbers: http://www.impeachbush.tv/impeach/judiciary_house.html Toll free: 1-800-828-0498
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATORS TO URGE THEM TO SUPPORT THE “NIXON FLOODING PLAN.” THEY CAN RISE WITH THEIR OWN ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT, WRITE A RESOLUTION URGING THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE AN OFFENSE, drop a bill to investigate in the hopper. (It worked for Nixon!) http://www.democrats.com/node/15873
PLEASE JOIN WASHINGTON FOR IMPEACHMENT AND EFOR ON SATURDAYS 12-2:30 p.m. ON THE CORNER OF NE 8TH AND BELLEVUE WAY, or support another ongoing 'honk to impeach' vigil. We have been getting very enthusiastic responses to our huge "Honk to Impeach" signs. Bring NO IRAN WAR, OUT OF IRAQ signs too.
BIRD DOGGING OUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: Please speak out about the need for impeachment at every opportunity. Please contact WFI if any member of Congress is to appear in public. We LOVE to talk to our delegation to Congress in public. Ask them if they think the occupation of Iraq is legal. Ask if they are defending the US Constitution.
DON’T GET MAD, GET EVEN. Please support candidates who support impeachment and accountability. Even a small donation helps them speak for us: CHERYL CRIST and PAUL RICHMOND in WA., CINDY SHEEHAN, MARK LAWRENCE, BARBARA BOXER, and others: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/2008candidates
Newsflash from Democracy Now: Supreme Court Rejects World Court Jurisdiction
Back in the United States, the Supreme Court has ruled the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction over the US judicial system. In a six-to-three decision, the Court said neither President Bush nor the World Court can order Texas to reopen the death penalty case of a foreign national. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer said the decision contradicts the Constitution, which calls international treaties “the supreme law of the land.”
Let's bring impeachment home -- Linda Boyd Director, Washington For Impeachment]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080328-1050082008-03-28T00:00:00Z2008-03-28T00:00:00ZAn Impeachment Ad Congress Will Read! An Impeachment Ad Congress Will Read!
We want to run this Impeachment ad on Tuesday, April 29 in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill paper ALL members of Congress and their staffs read avidly.
The ad answers House Speaker Pelosi’s argument—echoed by many House members (perhaps your Representative)—that President Bush and Vice President Cheney will be out of office by January 30 “so why bother with impeachment?”
If House members don’t “bother” with impeachment, they are permitting all the “high-crime precedents” that Nixon and Bush and Cheney have put in place to be used by future presidents. And those “Presidential Precedents” will nullify Congress, overthrow the Constitution and democracy—and set up a “unitary executive” dictatorship.
Impeachment NOW will stop these high-crime precedents—cold!!
This 1/4th page ad emphasizes “Presidential Precedents” to Congress. But it will cost $3,715 to appear in Roll Call. We need contribution NOW to cover that cost so your Congressional Representative will see it on Tuesday, April 29.
Make your contribution through Paypal.com to this email address: DemocracyforOregon@gmail.com for credit charge or bank account transfers. To give by check, make it payable to Democracy for Oregon at 6428 SE 15th Ave, Portland, OR 97202.
“We the People” National Coalition for Impeachment For More Information, Click on: http://www.Impeachbush.tv ]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080319-2200542008-03-20T00:00:00Z2008-03-20T00:00:00ZOpen letter to Congress: Impeach or else OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS IMPEACH OR ELSE
I hereby pledge that for the rest of my life I shall not vote for any member of the Senate or House of Representatives, Democrat or Republican, for any future public office if they have not taken a public stand for impeachment of the Bush-Cheney gang before these war criminals have left office. All of our elected Representatives and Senators have taken an oath of office that they will defend the Constitution against both foreign and domestic enemies. Under these circumstances, with the crimes committed by this group against our Constitution and crimes against innocent civilians, not to bring impeachment proceeding borders on traitorous action. When our very form of government and our Constitution are under threat, there can be no more important business for the Congress to attend.
The crimes of Bush and Cheney in the abuse of human rights and international crimes of torture, murder, and illegal detainment are well known. They have manipulated our country into a war under false pretenses that has cost thousands of lives, those of our own citizens as well as innocent civilians of other countries. They have alienated our allies by spurning international law. The Republican Party must bear responsibility for the actions of this administration and the Democratic Party has become complicit in these crimes by their continued financial support of the war and their failure to institute impeachment proceedings. All who do not make a stand for our Constitution, that so many brave Americans have given their lives to defend, should be voted out of office as unworthy to serve. If our elected representatives do not act on this critical matter they leave an indelible stain on the American psyche and our reputation among the family of nations that time will not wash away. The Constitution does not say MAY be impeached, but Article II, Section 4 says, “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. Therefore, I cannot vote for those who do not uphold their oath of office. Their failure to uphold the Constitution for which they took an oath borders on treason. If any of these people, who have failed to fulfill their duty to protect our Constitution, choose to run for public office again, I shall not vote for them, but will vote for the best qualified independent who pledges to truly represent the people and I encourage others to do the same.
Copyleft 2008 J. Glenn Evans (Feel free to copy and distribute as broadly as possible)
If you likewise are alarmed at the trashing of our Constitution and appalled at our elected representative’s reluctance to act in fulfilling their oath of office and wish to make the same pledge, please list your name and email address below and forward on to your contacts and post copies to your elected representatives.
NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have neither recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President. REMEMBER THE CONSTITUTION and 1776 Earth rights—Human Rights—Peace
Public funding of private militias is the knife that will cut the throat of the Republic—J. Glenn Evans—24Nov2007
J. Glenn Evans Native of Oklahoma and former stockbroker and investment banker. Poet, author, historian and founder of PoetsWest and Activists for a Better World. Widely published in journals and anthologies. Produces and hosts weekly radio show of poetry, music and stories on KSER 90.7 FM.
]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080319-1255172008-03-19T00:00:00Z2008-03-19T00:00:00ZAction Item: The Nixon Plan -- Flood Congress with Impeachment Resolutions The impeachment of Richard Nixon in 1974 provides an excellent model for impeaching Bush and Cheney. Members of Congress submitted nearly 100 resolutions in 1973 and 1974 calling for impeachment or related investigations of Richard Nixon. The House Judiciary Committee voted on Articles of Impeachment but Nixon resigned before the full House could vote on them.
The National Coalition of "We The People" is urging members of Congress to follow a similar plan to impeach Bush and Cheney. Several members of the coalition flew to Washington DC in February of 2008 and met with members of Congress and their staff. There was interest from several members but they said they needed to hear from their constituents before they would act. Please contact your Representative and ask them to "flood congress with Impeachment resolutions".
The group distributed a packet to members of Congress. Those documents are available for download here:
Title Contents Link Cover Sheet List of representatives visited PDF Cover Letter Sample letter to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren PDF Nixon Flooding Plan White Paper containing a history of the Nixon Impeachment by Barbara Ellis PDF Why Follow Nixon Plan One pager listing reasons to follow this plan. PDF Reasons to Impeach Two page list of impeachable offenses by Bush and Cheney DOC Basis for Impeachment Bush crimes presented in the form of the Declaration of Independance DOC Is Impeachment a Waste? Article by Ruth Conniff from The Progressive DOC Kucinish Impeachment Resolution Text of HRes 799 submitted by Dennis Kucinich. This group is proposing smaller resolutions. PDF Appendix I and II Partial list of impeachment resolutions from 1973 and 1974 with sample text and cosponsors. PDF All of the above in one convenient ZIP file. ZIP Contacts
Marcia Meyers - Oregon - 503-665-3957 Michael Greenman - Ohio - mgreenma 'at' columbus.rr.com Carl McCargo Barbara Ellis - Oregon Resources
3/3/08 - "Nixon, Cheney and Le Deluge" by David Swanson]]>http://www.washingtonforimpeachment.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080306-1600402008-03-07T00:00:00Z2008-03-07T00:00:00Z