1. Deceiving Congress and the people in taking the country to war in Iraq.
2. Directing an illegal domestic wiretapping program and other surveillance of Americans.
3. Permitting and condoning the use of torture or cruel treatment of detainees.
4. Showing reckless indifference to human life in the face of Hurricane Katrina, in inadequately equipping U.S. Soldiers, and insufficiently planning for the occupation of Iraq.
5. Covering up his war deceptions with the leak of misleading classified information, an act that became entangled with the outing of a CIA agent, a possible crime.
Perhaps another article of impeachment will be added in the near future. A special prosecutor has just been named to look into the disappearance of the the CIA Torture Tapes . Many commentators and bloggers seem to think that the order to destroy came from the White House high command. The New York Times via Glenn Greenwald in Salon.com has reported that the CIA and the White House are at least guilty of obstruction in the matter.
(Greenwald) The bipartisan co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, jointly published an Op-Ed in today's New York Times which contains some extremely emphatic and serious accusations against the CIA and the White House. The essence:
"[T]he recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those videotapes -- and did not tell us about them -- obstructed our investigation."
(Greenwald) More strikingly still, they explicitly include the White House at the top of their list of guilty parties:
"There could have been absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone at the C.I.A. -- or the White House -- of the commission's interest in any and all information related to Qaeda detainees involved in the 9/11 plot. Yet no one in the administration ever told the commission of the existence of videotapes of detainee interrogations."
(Greenwald) To underscore the seriousness of their accusations, Kean and Hamilton end with this:
"What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the (sic) greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction."
Once again President Bush has declared himself King. He has shown that he considers himself above the law and is willing and able to exert his imperial power without and consideration of the Constitution, the Congress, or the American people. Impeachment is a necessary power of the people to check the power of the executive branch. So far, the Congress has shown no courage in standing up to King George.
The constitution is clear. Impeachment proceedings can be brought at any time. The bar is high. The Bush Administration has brazenly fallen far below any standard of acceptable performance for an executive branch of government.
Elizabeth Holtzman , former four-term member of Congress, has written about the impeachment process:
The question of impeachment does not rest on "high crimes and misdemeanors" only, but also to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States; preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; and take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."
In addition, "high crimes and misdemeanors" are not limited only to criminal acts, but also applies to conduct that is "a grave abuse of power or a subversion of the Constitution."
Our silence has given President Bush our consent. Impeachment proceedings should start NOW. At the very least, President Bush would be distracted into defending himself rather than leading our nation into further catastrophe.
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