OntheWilderSide

Greens: 2008 is Congress’s last chance to assert the rule of law and impeach Bush and Cheney for high crimes and abuses of power

Greens encourage passage of a New Hampshire House bill endorsing impeachment, citing widespread Bush Administration war crimes, deception and misinformation, torture, warrantless surveillance, 9/11 cover-up

Green Party leaders and candidates called on Congress to use the remaining months of the Bush Administration to impeach and remove President Bush and Vice President Cheney from office for massive abuses of power and violations of the law.

“This is Congress’s last chance to show that presidents are not above the law, and that grave abuses of power will not go unpunished,” said John M. Wages, Jr., Mississippi Green candidate for the US House (1st District) in an April 22 special election and the November 4 general election (http://www.VoteJohnWages.com).

Greens across the US are encouraging passage of a New Hampshire House of Representatives bill on
impeachment. NH House Bill 24, which was introduced by State Rep. Betty Hall and will come to a floor vote on April 16, is similar to one passed in Vermont in November, 2007.

Harold Burbank, Connecticut Green candidate for the US House (District 5), is helping to organize a major rally to promote the impeachment bill on Monday, April 14, (3 pm to 11 pm) at the Capital Center for the Arts, 44 South Main Street in Concord, New Hampshire  (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8480).

“Dan Ellsberg, Ramsey Clark and Bob Bowman, all supporters of my campaign, responded immediately to my request of them to speak at Betty Hall’s Impeach Bush-Cheney Rally. An aircraft carrier task force organized around the Abraham Lincoln is steaming to the Persian Gulf as we speak to engage Iran. New Hampshire can help prevent World War III if it passes HR 24 on April 16, and it should,” said Mr. Burbank, who is also a member of Veterans For Peace.

The four candidates seeking the Green presidential nomination — Jesse Johnson, Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, and Kat Swift — have all strongly supported the Green Party’s call for impeachment. Ms. McKinney introduced a motion for impeachment in December, 2006, her final month as US Representative from Georgia.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, other top Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and the leading Democratic and Republican candidates have dismissed impeachment.

The refusal of Republican and Democratic leaders (and the two Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator running for president) to seek impeachment is a sign that if the Democrats or Republicans win the White House, they wish to enjoy the same unrestrained executive power and impunity. If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or John McCain are elected in November, some of the worst Bush policies will remain in place. Both Mr. McCAin, Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton have supported and voted for the US Patriot Act, and both intend to continue the occupation of Iraq in some form.

Green Party leaders listed impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors” committed by the Bush White House:

• manipulation of intelligence and numerous deceptions to persuade Congress, the public, and other countries to support an illegal war, including fraudulent allegations about Iraqi WMDs, collusion between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and attempts by Saddam to obtain nuclear weapons materials; Vice President Cheney continued to repeat some claims publicly after the White House had conceded that they were not true
• cover-ups of the administration’s knowledge of information about the impending 9/11 attacks, including Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s recent claim about a pre-9/11 phone call from Afghanistan about the impending attacks, the Bush Administration’s failure to pass this information on to the 9/11 Commission, and Mr. Mukasey’s misleading statement about FISA restraints and the administration failure to investigate the call (see article links below)
• encouragement of torture, ‘extraordinary rendition’ of prisoners to exact information, denial of habeas corpus and due process, in blatant violations of the Nuremberg and UN Charters as well as the US Constitution
• warrantless surveillance of US citizens
• hundreds of ‘signing statements’ meant to exempt the Bush Administration from executing over 1,000 federal laws passed by Congress
• censoring and tampering with scientific research to conceal the seriousness of global warming
• threats to attack Iran despite Iran’s lack of any real threat to the US Greens noted the special role that Bush Attorneys General John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey have played in advocating and defending many of the above abuses, including Mr. Mukasey’s recent lack of objection to water-boarding.

The effects of these crimes and abuses of power include:

• the deaths of more than 4,000 US service members and possibly one million Iraqi citizens, as well as countless more maimed because of the US invasion and occupation; displacement of possibly two million Iraqi civilians
• anger and hostility towards the US and US citizens throughout the world, especially in Muslim nations
• broken treaties and alienation of US allies
• damage to US democracy and entrenchment of the administrations’ unconstitutional doctrine of ‘unitary executive power’
• danger to captured US military personnel and citizens in retaliation for torture committed at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and other sites
• a possible regional or global conflict if the US attacks Iran
• plunder of taxpayers’ money for the benefit of arms makers, oil companies, and other corporate profiteers like Halliburton and Blackwater
• severe threat to public health and the environment in coming decades because of the
  White House’s failure to address climate change
• cost of the war to US taxpayers, through 2007: $456,000,000,000
  $4,100 for every American household
  $1,500 for every American
  $3,400 for every taxpayer
  $11 million per hour
  $275 million per day
  (http://www.nationalpriorities.org/cms/publications/local_cost_of_the_iraq_war_through_fy2007)

Greens noted that some of the Bush  Administration’s offenses were carried out with the cooperation of Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

The Green Party of the United States passed a resolution in July, 2003, urging impeachment of President Bush (http://www.gp.org/position/st_2003_07_impeach.shtml).  Greens have maintained an impeachment page  (http://www.gp.org/impeachbush) and a petition for impeachment (http://www.gp.org/action) on the party’s web site.

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Articles on Attorney General Mukasey’s testimony on a pre-9/11 call from Afghanistan on the
attacks and the Bush Administration’s powers of surveillance under FISA:  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
Same article posted at
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/03/8071/
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/04/doj/index.html
http://citmedia.org/blog/2008/04/03/a-lie-or-terrifying-negligence-why-wont-journalists-demand-an-answer/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/28/BA69VROE9.DTL

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