[southnews] ... and missing the point
Dave Muller
strategy. It is a political problem. It stems from the hostility between
Sunni and Shiite forces, from the weakness of the Iraqi government - and
from the inability of the U.S. to address either. Without a political
solution, there can be no military solution.
... and missing the point
The Baltimore Sun | January 24, 2007
President Bush's message on Iraq last night was that Congress and the
nation should give American troops the chance to win. The new general in
charge of the Iraq effort, the well-regarded David H. Petraeus, told a
Senate committee yesterday he believes he can find a way to make the
small-scale American escalation work.
But this misses the essential point: The mess in Iraq is not the
consequence of an ineffective military strategy. It is a political
problem. It stems from the hostility between Sunni and Shiite forces,
from the weakness of the Iraqi government - and from the inability of
the U.S. to address either. Without a political solution, there can be
no military solution.
A lid can be clamped down, a neighborhood can be cleared and held - but
the effort will be in vain as long as sufficient numbers of Iraqis are
determined to advance their respective causes through violence instead
of politics. And it's worse than useless to keep calling this part of
the "war on terror," as the president did last night.
By invading Iraq, the United States set the stage for this political
problem. Honor and decency would suggest that it is up to the United
States to help solve it. But over four years, there has been no sign
whatsoever that either American might or American benevolence can be
wielded to bring about a better Iraq.
The country is already in a Lebanese-style civil war. The terrible truth
is that war will inevitably rage on until exhaustion finally sets in.
American soldiers and Marines have no business being in the middle of it.
Disconcertingly, Mr. Bush acts as though reality doesn't pertain to him.
He seems to believe he can safely ignore the results of the November
election - but that vote was a reality that is going to catch up with him.
If it were sensible, the administration would deliver a message, both to
the factions in Iraq and to the governments of Iraq's neighbors - and
very definitely including Iran and Syria. It would be this: The United
States is redeploying its combat troops out of Iraq, and what will your
response be? The answers would help Washington then decide how to go
about such a redeployment.
The wrong approach is to threaten a unilateral attack on Iran, as the
administration's surrogates have been doing. The president made several
hostile references to Iraq's eastern neighbor last night. The
consequences of a foolhardy expansion of this failed war would be
immensely damaging - for both the Middle East and the United States.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.iraq24jan24,0,927877.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines
____________________________________________________
REMARKS ON H. RES. 1106 -- (Extensions of Remarks - December 27, 2006)
SPEECH OF HON. CYNTHIA McKINNEY OF GEORGIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2006
Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, I wish to enter the following into the
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:
ADDENDA TO A RESOLUTION INTRODUCING ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST
GEORGE WALKER BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND OTHER
OFFICIALS: FURTHER ACTIONS BY THE PRESIDENT THAT WARRANT FURTHER
INVESTIGATION AS POSSIBLE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT AS IDENTIFIED BY MANY
SCHOLARS, LAWYERS AND CONCERNED CITIZENS
I. FAILURE TO ENSURE THE LAWS ARE FAITHFULLY EXECUTED
(1) Self-Exemption from Laws upon Signing.
(2) Suspension of Basic Legal Proceedings.
(3) Promoting Illegal War.
(4) Promoting Torture.
(5) Promoting Kidnappings and Renditions for Torture.
(6) Use of Illegal Weapons.
II. ABUSE OF OFFICE AND OF EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
(1) Obstructing Inquiry and Detection.
(2) Replacing the Veto with Signing Statements.
III. FAILURE TO PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION
(1) Suspension of Due Process.
(2) Unreasonable Searches and Seizures.
(3) Non-Cooperation with Congress.
(4) Establishment of an Unconstitutional, Parallel Legal System.
I. FAILURE TO ENSURE THE LAWS ARE FAITHFULLY EXECUTED
Under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States of
America, the President has a duty to ``take Care that the Laws be
faithfully executed.'' George Walker Bush, during his tenure as
President of the United States, has repeatedly violated the letter and
spirit of laws and rules of criminal procedure used by civilian and
military courts, and has violated or ignored regulatory codes and
practices that carry out the law, has contravened the laws governing
agencies of the executive and the purposes of these agencies, and in
conducting the foreign affairs of the United States of America has
proceeded in flagrant violation of the core body of international laws,
to which the United States of America is bound by treaty.
With respect to domestic law, this conduct has included one or more of
the following:
(1) Self-Exemption from Laws upon Signing. Since assuming the office of
President of the United States, George Walker Bush has attached signing
statements to more than one hundred bills before signing them, within
which he has made over eight hundred challenges to provisions of laws
passed by Congress, a figure that exceeds the total number of such
challenges by all previous presidents combined, and has used this
practice to exempt himself, as President of the United States, from
enforcing or from being held accountable to provisions of the said laws.
(2) Suspension of Basic Legal Proceedings. In dereliction of his duty to
uphold the law, George Walker Bush has systematically violated basic
legal and criminal procedures that require any search, seizure, arrest
or detention to be non-discriminatory, based on probable cause and
sufficient evidence to warrant a stated charge, that provide access to
legal counsel, arraignment and the option of bail within a period of
days, and that require reasonable and non-coercive interrogations,
rights of silence, as well as privy communications with counsel and with
others, pending an outcome of either release or a speedy and public
trial, conducted in accord with federal and state statutes on criminal
and court process, the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military
Justice, applicable international law, or appeals to higher courts that
apply. By ordering mass arrests and indefinite detentions based on
indiscriminate profiling of specific populations, George Walker Bush has
also systematically violated laws prohibiting harmful extraditions,
secret arrest and custody, and denial of defined and legal periods of
detention or incarceration.
With respect to international law, this conduct has included one or more
of the following:
(3) Promoting Illegal War. Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1848, ``Allow the
President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it
necessary to repel an invasion and you will allow him to do so whenever
he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you
will allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to
say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from
invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, `I see no
probability of the British invading us,' but he will say to you, `Be
silent; I see it, if you don't.' '' In direct violation of Articles 41
and 42 of the United Nations Charter, a treaty ratified by the United
States Senate in 1945 and therefore the supreme law of the land as
according to Article VI of the Constitution, George Walker Bush has
advanced and executed a policy based on so-called pre-emptive or
preventive war, whereby the United States of America claims the right to
unilaterally assault, invade or occupy other nations without first
engaging in collective measures with other member states of the United
Nations or first gaining the prior assent of the United Nations Security
Council, and whereas George Walker Bush did apply this doctrine by
launching a war of aggression against the sovereign nation of Iraq,
resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and
thousands of United States military personnel, without United Nations
Security Council authorization, whereby said George Walker Bush, as
President of the United States, by advancing a doctrine of preventive
war and initiating and continuing the invasion and occupation of Iraq by
United States forces did commit and was guilty of precisely such abuses
as Abraham Lincoln foresaw.
(4) Promoting Torture. In direct violation of, and as part of a pattern
of consistent attempts through executive orders, legal memoranda and
alterations to regulations such as the Army Field Manual, to undermine
the Federal Torture Statute [18 USC Sec. 2340A]; the Third Geneva
Convention banning torture and abuse of Prisoners of War, as well as
non-combatants and unarmed (``enemy'') combatants held in detention; and
Articles 4 and 32 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which expressly
prohibit not merely torture but physical abuse of any kind being
inflicted upon ``persons protected by the Convention,'' defined as
``those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find
themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party
to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals,''
this language being written as a precaution against and in anticipation
of alternate definitions of torture, these declarations and treaties
being ratified by the United States Senate and therefore the supreme law
of the land as according to Article VI of the Constitution, George
Walker Bush, as President of the United States of America, has condoned
and presided over a vast expansion of the use of torture against unarmed
combatants and civilian non-combatants, both foreign and domestic,
detained or kidnapped by forces or agents of the United States, leading
to extreme pain, psychological trauma, disfigurement and in some cases,
death. By signing a legal memorandum on February 7, 2002 (declassified
on June 17, 2004), in which he wrote that ``The war on terror ushers in
a new paradigm,'' one which requires ``new thinking in the law of war,''
and decreeing that, contrary to all past military practices of an
official nature, the United States would no longer be constrained by the
laws of war presently in force in its treatment of those captured during
its invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and subsequently detained, a
legal opinion which the Supreme Court struck down on June 29, 2006
(Hamdan v. Rumsfeld) by its ruling that the Third Geneva Convention did
apply to detainees in the custody of the United States, George Walker
Bush, President of the United States, by his concerted efforts to
undermine any legal limits on the use of torture by United States
personnel, did commit and was guilty of high crimes against the United
States of America.
(5) Promoting Kidnappings and Renditions for Illegal Torture. In direct
violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, Article 3,
which states that ``No State party shall expel, return or extradite a
person to another state where there are substantial grounds for
believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture,''
and the Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 31 and 45, the said
conventions having been ratified by the United States Senate and
therefore the supreme law of the land as according to Article VI of the
Constitution, George Walker Bush, as President of the United States of
America, did sign, on September 17, 2001, an executive order (still
classified) granting unilateral authority to the Central Intelligence
Agency to render detainees to countries where torture is routinely
practiced for the express purpose of interrogation, thereby subverting
an established program of rendering detainees to justice by bringing
them to the United States or to a country in which they were wanted to
face criminal charges in a court of law. And whereas the Central
Intelligence Agency did thereafter carry out this order not only by
rendering hundreds of detainees to countries where they were
subsequently tortured, but also in many cases first illegally kidnapping
the detainees, and did subsequently establish secret detention centers,
operating outside any known laws, for the express purpose of
circumventing all legal protections to which the said detainees were
entitled under international law.
(6) Use of lllegal Weapons. In violation of multiple and diverse tenets
of international law, George Walker Bush, as President of the United
States, has authorized or sanctioned the use of illegal weapons,
including but not limited to the following:
(a) land mines, deployed by United States forces in Afghanistan and
Iraq, which indiscriminately injure and kill combatants and innocent
civilians alike, and which are therefore illegal under Geneva
Conventions Protocol I, Article 85, which states that it is a war crime
to launch ``an indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian population
in the knowledge that such an attack will cause an excessive loss of
life or injury to civilians,'' and which are banned under the Protocol
II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which forbids the
deployment of any ``mine, booby-trap or other device which is designed
or of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering;''
(b) cluster bombs, including those which upon explosion project lethal
plastic fragments not detectable by X-ray, deployed by United States
forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, which leave unexploded ordnance known to
maim and kill innocent civilians and which are therefore also illegal
under Geneva Conventions Protocol I, Article 85, as well as under
Protocol I of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which bans
the use of ``the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to
injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by
X-rays,'' and under Annexed Articles 22 and 23 of the Hague Convention
IV, which states that ``It is especially forbidden to kill treacherously
individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;''
(c) depleted uranium munitions, being radiological weapons used
extensively by United States Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, in
violation of Geneva Conventions Protocol 1, Articles 35.2, 35.3, 48 and
55.1, which prohibit the use of ``projectiles and material and methods
of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary
suffering'' or weapons ``which are intended, or may be expected, to
cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural
environment'' or damage to ``the health or survival of the population,''
and which have been classified as ``weapons of mass destruction'' by the
United Nations Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities;
(d) napalm, a weapon widely used in Vietnam, an upgraded kerosene-based
version of which has more recently been used by United States forces in
Iraq, being dubbed the ``Mark 77 firebomb'', in violation of the
Chemical Weapons Convention, Article II.1.b, which expressly prohibits
``Munitions and devices, specifically designed to cause death or other
harm through the toxic properties'' of the device when used as a weapon;
(e) white phosphorous, which Defense Department spokesman
Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Venable confirmed on November 15, 2005 was
deployed ``as an incendiary weapon'' in urban areas of Fallujah, Iraq,
where there were high concentrations of civilians, during Operation
Phantom Fury (November 2004-January 2005), making the said deployment of
white phosphorous a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention,
Article II.1.b;
(f) BLU-82B/C-130 ``daisy cutter'' bombs, being massive incendiary bombs
deployed by United States forces in Afghanistan, and which upon
detonation create a firestorm the size of five football fields or
greater, and a vacuum pressure capable of collapsing internal organs, in
violation of Geneva Conventions Protocol I, Articles 35, 48, 51 and 55,
which expressly forbid such indiscriminate destruction of civilian life
and the environment;
In all of this, George Walker Bush's conduct has followed a pattern of
not merely failing to uphold the laws he took an oath to defend as
President of the United States, but of flouting such laws with the
impunity of a dictator. Indeed, on numerous occasions, George Walker
Bush has openly expressed his desire to become a dictator, as he did
while President-Elect on December 18, 2000, when he stated: ``If this
were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier ..... just as long
as I'm the dictator .....''
This arrogant posture has also been typical in foreign affairs where he
has made concerted efforts to undermine international law and
international treaties, including his termination of the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty without the assent of the legislative branch, his
decision to rescind the authorizing signature of the United States from
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, his willingness to
offend the 152 nations who are signatories to the Ottawa Treaty by
refusing to sign and continuing the use of land mines by the world's
most powerful military rather than asserting America's moral leadership,
his willingness to offend the 93 nations who are parties to the
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Protocol III by refusing to
sign and continuing the use of incendiary weapons against civilian
targets, his defiance of the United Nations Security Council by
launching a unilateral war of aggression against the government and the
people of Iraq, and in general showing little remorse over or regard for
the tens of thousands of innocent civilians and American service
personnel who have perished as a direct or indirect result of his
foreign policy.
II. ABUSE OF OFFICE AND OF EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
In taking his oath of office, the President swore to ``faithfully
execute the office of President of the United States.'' George Walker
Bush, in his conduct while President of the United States, has
consistently demonstrated disregard for that oath by obstructing and
hindering the work of investigative bodies, by seeking to expand the
scope of the powers of his office, by failing to ensure a swift response
to a natural disaster where lives were in the balance, and by failing to
appoint competent officials or to hold those whom he appoints or those
to whom the government grants contracts accountable in cases of
dereliction of duty, abuse and outright fraud.
(1) Obstructing Inquiry and Detection. At the Virginia Convention on
ratification of the Constitution, George Mason argued that the President
might usurp his powers to ``pardon crimes which were advised by
himself'' or prior to indictment or conviction ``to stop inquiry and
prevent detection,'' to which James Madison responded that if he did so,
``the House of Representatives would impeach him.'' In an effort to
conceal the high crimes and misdemeanors here mentioned, George Walker
Bush, in his conduct as President of the United States of America, has
presided over the most secretive Presidency in this nation's history,
and an administration which actively interferes with the free flow of
information by manipulating the press and frustrating its ability to
provide an oversight function by being actively hostile to questioning
from the press, by placing imposters posing as agents of the press at
press conferences, by threatening reporters with prosecution under
espionage laws, and by purchasing television segments and placing
newspaper stories falsely posing as unbiased reporting in an effort to
promote Administration policies. The conduct of this Administration
follows a pattern of seeking to hush ``whistleblowers'' who come forward
to share potentially incriminating information with the public, rather
than investigating the alleged crime. This Administration has also
refused to provide key information to Congressional investigations, and
to prosecutors investigating the outing of a Central Intelligence Agency
Officer in an apparent act of retribution, or to actively pursue the
identity of the guilty informant, despite the President's public pledge
to fire the guilty party once discovered, and even after one
Administration official was charged in the case with obstruction of
justice. George Walker Bush has abused his office by consistently
invoking executive privilege in order to shelter his office and his
appointees from both Congressional oversight and judicial accountability.
(2) Replacing the Veto with Signing Statements. By declining to veto
even one bill, and instead attaching signing statements challenging
hundreds of laws passed by Congress, thereby seeking to exempt the
executive branch from accountability to said laws,
George Walker Bush has subverted the very nature of his office by
seeking to add to his office extraordinary and unconstitutional powers
and privileges.
III. FAILURE TO PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION
At the Constitutional Convention, James Madison argued that ``high
Crimes and Misdemeanors'' intentionally included ``[a]ttempts to subvert
the Constitution.'' In taking his oath of office, the President swore to
``preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States''
to the best of his ability, which includes the duty not to abuse his
powers or transgress their limits, the duty not to violate the rights of
citizens, including those guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and not to
act in derogation of powers vested elsewhere by the Constitution, George
Walker Bush, in his conduct while President of the United States has not
only failed in this regard, but has demonstrated a pattern of disregard
or contempt for the Constitution itself, as he clearly demonstrated in
November 2005 when he shouted at a group of Republican lawmakers, ``Stop
throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a [expletive] piece of
paper!''
This conduct has included one or more of the following:
(1) Suspension of Due Process. In direct dereliction of his duty to
defend the Constitution, George Walker Bush has systematically deprived
citizens and residents of the United States of their constitutional
rights to due process under the law, by sanctioning or ordering, at the
discretion of the executive, their detention without charge and without
trial, a fundamental right to which they are entitled under habeus
corpus and the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights; by denying the
right to a fair and speedy trial and blocking access to counsel for the
defense, both of which are rights guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment
in the Bill of Rights; by denying those so illegally detained the
opportunity to appear before a judicial officer that they might
challenge the legal grounds of their detention; by sanctioning and
ordering mass arrests and detentions which inevitably involve all of the
above named abuses; and by refusing to disclose the identities and
locations of those detained.
(2) Unreasonable Searches and Seizures. In violation of the Fourth
Amendment to the Constitution, George Walker Bush did clandestinely
direct the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to
conduct electronic surveillance, including a new form of spying using
sophisticated software to track internet usage, of citizens of the
United States on U.S. soil without seeking to obtain, before or after, a
judicial warrant, including spying on groups and individuals who had
committed no illegal acts, involving penetration, entrapment and
provocation, thereby reviving practices previously discontinued after
they were deemed prejudicial to justice by the United States Senate
Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities, chaired by Senator Frank Church.
(3) Non-Cooperation with Congress. In derogation of the legislative
functions of the Congress, granted under Article I, Section 1 of the
Constitution, and the implied power to see that the laws made by
Congress are faithfully executed, George Walker Bush, in his conduct as
President of the United States, has engaged in a consistent pattern of
obstructing and frustrating Congressional investigations. George Walker
Bush opposed and delayed the formation of a commission to investigate
the attacks of September 11, 2001, and once it was formed, refused to
turn over key documents and information in compliance with subpoenas,
and also sought and gained exemption from testifying under oath for all
but one top administration official. (Condoleezza Rice). He refused
requests from the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the
Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina and requests from the
9/11 Commission to turn over key documents and information. Under his
administration the Justice Department made it official policy to refuse
cooperation with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, to refuse
the release of records or testimony, central to informing government
decisions, to re-classify previously unclassified records and to
withhold even non-secret documents. These actions severely restrict the
ability of the people and their representatives in Congress seeking to
hold government officials accountable for their decisions to have access
to a record of how official decisions were reached, or even to know what
the official polices are. Wherefore, George Walker Bush, by obstructing
the work of the Congress, did commit and was guilty of high misdemeanors
against the United States of America.
(4) Establishment of an Unconstitutional, Parallel Legal System. Edmund
Randolph stated at the Constitutional Convention that: ``The Executive
will have great opportunitys [sic] of abusing his power, particularly in
time of war when the military force, and in some respects the public
money will be in his hands.''
In direct dereliction of his duty to defend the Constitution, George
Walker Bush has, during his tenure as President of the United States of
America, sanctioned the establishment of a parallel legal system
operating outside the scope of the Constitution under which the
participants would not be bound by due process or basic rights of the
accused to speedy and fair trials, access to counsel, or even the right
to know the charges and evidence against them, by replacing these
measures with a new form of law involving: secret and indefinite
detention without trial or hearing; renditions to other countries
outside the reach of law and justice; the use of military tribunals to
replace civilian courts; detentions outside normal writ of habeas rules
and without access to effective counsel, unmonitored conversations or
judicial attention and review; exclusion of the accused from portions of
the trial and from access to evidence used against them; acceptance of
hearsay, including testimony gained under torture or duress; and a lack
of independent judiciary or appeal of conviction. An unknown number of
individuals, many of whose names the Administration has refused to
release, have already been held in undisclosed locations or secret
prisons, and mass arrests have been accompanied by deportations. By
failing to conduct timely status review hearings, as required under
Article 5 of the Geneva Convention, the Bush Administration has made it
effectively impossible to determine the status and the rights of those
held in secret detention. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that the
denial of rights under the Geneva Accords is illegal [Hamdan vs.
Rumsfeld], new proposals from the Bush Administration expand the
definition of those who can be detained as ``enemy combatants'' as no
longer limited to aliens abroad, and assert that neither the Uniform
Code of Military Justice alone, nor federal criminal procedures will
guide the functions of these new courts. George Walker Bush, as
President of the United States of America, in defiance the Supreme
Court, and in keeping with a pattern of conduct seeking to exempt
himself from its rulings and from constitutional law, did commit
violations of domestic law and was guilty of war crimes.
In all of this, George Walker Bush has sought to arrogate unprecedented
power to his executive office and to undermine the system of check and
balances established by the Founders, by using war and national
emergency as the basis for his claims in support of a unitary presidency.