CONGRESS SHOULD BEGIN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF BUSH AND CHENEY

Based on Five Falsehoods:
  CONGRESS SHOULD BEGIN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF BUSH AND CHENEY "All public policy should revolve around the principle that individuals are responsible for what they say and do." -- George W. Bush, 1994.

Washington, DC:
  Building on his call for the impeachment of President   Bush and Vice President Cheney, Independent Presidential candidate Ralph   Nader today is calling on Members of the House of Representatives to   begin an impeachment inquiry to investigate two distinct impeachable   offenses.

An Impeachment Inquiry is the first step toward considering Articles of Impeachment. During an Impeachment Inquiry the House would investigate whether there are potential impeachable offenses.

Impeachment Inquiry and the Process of Impeachment

  While the Constitution is clear in granting the impeachment power to the   House, it leaves the development of mechanisms for exercising the power   to the House. As noted by the Association of the Bar of the City of New   York in "The Law of Presidential Impeachment By the Committee on Federal   Legislation" (see: http://www.abcny.org/presimpt.htm):

    "A variety of methods have been employed to institute impeachment     proceedings: Charges may be made orally on the floor by a Member of the     House; a Member may submit a written statement of charges; one or more     Members of the House may offer a resolution and place it in the     legislative hopper; a presidential message to the House may initiate     proceedings. The House has also received charges from a state     legislature, from a territory, and from a grand jury. Finally, there may     be a report of a committee of the House which may submit facts or     charges that will lead to impeachment. Under the rules governing the     order of business in the House a direct proposition to impeach is a     matter of highest privilege and supersedes other business. Similar     privileged treatment is given to propositions relating to a pending     impeachment."

  The purpose of the Impeachment Inquiry is to have a Committee develop a   report for the House which then can be considered for the purpose of   determining whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings. The House   determines whether to impeach based on a majority vote. It is important   to remember that impeachment does not mean conviction - that is left to   the Senate. Impeachment is the equivalent of an indictment, making   formal charges, which the Senate then considers. Conviction requires   two-thirds of the Members present in the Senate to vote for conviction.

Two Potential Articles of Impeachment that Should be Part of an Impeachment Inquiry

The Impeachment Inquiry should focus on two areas involving President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The unconstitutional war in Iraq.

"The Inquiry should examine whether President Bush and Vice President
  Cheney have gone beyond the bounds of the Constitution, defied the rule   of law, and if so, whether impeachment is the appropriate constitutional   punishment," said Nader. The United States Congress never voted for the   Iraq war. Congress voted for a resolution in October 2002 which   unlawfully transferred to the President the decision-making power of   whether to launch a first-strike invasion of Iraq. The United States   Constitution's War Powers Clause (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11) vests   the power of deciding whether to send the nation into war solely in the   United States Congress. This can only be changed by a constitutional   amendment.

"Our founders had seen what could occur when the power to declare war
  was vested in one person, a King or a Queen, so they took clear steps to   ensure no one person could declare war for the United States. As James   Madison wrote: "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be   found, than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace   to the legislature, and not to the executive department," noted Nader.

Five Falsehoods that Led to the Iraq Quagmire:

  Making matters worse in this situation, the illegal first-strike   invasion and occupation of Iraq was justified by five falsehoods. Nader   calls for a second area for Impeachment Inquiry to examine: the "five   falsehoods that led to war." In 1994 George W. Bush said: "All public   policy should revolve around the principle that individuals are   responsible for what they say and do." In 2000, he ran as the
"responsibility " candidate. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of
  national security intelligence data, if proven, would be "a high crime"   under the Constitution's impeachment clause. Article II, Section 4 of   the Constitution provides: "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."

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.   The weapons have still not been found. Nader emphasized, "Until the 1991   Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was our government's anti-communist ally in the   Middle East. We also used him to keep Iran at bay. In so doing, in the   1980s under Reagan and the first Bush, corporations were licensed by the   Department of Commerce to export the materials for chemical and   biological weapons that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick   Cheney later accused him of having." Those weapons were destroyed after   the Gulf War. President Bush's favorite chief weapons inspector, David   Kay, after returning from Iraq and leading a large team of inspectors   and spending nearly half a billion dollars told the president :We were   wrong."

            See: David Kay testimony before Senate Armed Services Committee,
                 January 28, 2004. 

IRAQ TIES TO AL QAEDA:   The White House made this claim even though the CIA and FBI repeatedly   told the Administration that there was no tie between Saddam Hussein and   Al Qaeda. They were mortal enemies - one secular, the other   fundamentalist.

SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES:   In fact, Saddam was a tottering dictator, with an antiquated, fractured   army of low morale and with Kurdish enemies in Northern Iraq and Shiite   adversaries in the South of Iraq. He did not even control the air space   over most of Iraq.

SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO HIS NEIGHBORS:   In fact, Iraq was surrounded by countries with far superior military   forces. Turkey, Iran and Israel were all capable of obliterating any   aggressive move by the Iraqi dictator.

THE LIBERATION OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE:   There are brutal dictators throughout the world, many supported over the   years by Washington, whose people need "liberation " from their leaders.   This is not a persuasive argument since for Iraq, it's about oil. In   fact, the occupation of Iraq by the United States is a magnet for   increasing violence, anarchy and insurrection.

Nader urges the Congress to investigate the illegal nature of the war, and how the five falsehoods became part of the Bush Administration's drum beat for war, in a formal Inquiry of Impeachment.

--

For further information, contact: 
Kevin Zeese 
1-202-265-4000 

--
the
Coalition Against the "Counter Terror" Act. He distributes its flyers and
has appeared in a video for the group, which may be purchased for $15 a
copy - from IFCO.

Apparently someone is buying. According to a New York Post report, "the most
recent IRS records available for IFCO, from the year 2000, show that the
foundation took in $1,119,564 in contributions. A Not In Our Name statement
report that they have taken in more than $400,000 in recent months for the
purpose of publishing their statement."

NION and Narco-terrorism

As disturbing as NION's relationships with IFCO and Muslim organizations
are, just as disturbing is its relationship to the Revolutionary Communist
Party (RCP). Not In Our Name's administration cadre comes from the
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), through such luminaries as C. Clark
Kissinger and Mary Lou Greenberg, both of whom are Directors of NION and
members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Clark Kissinger,
co-director of NION and the RCP, was quoted as saying that when the RCP took
over, "it would be necessary to shoot everyone who didn't agree with them."

The RCP is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group that practices Lenin's "vanguard"
philosophy, which states that a vanguard of intellectuals is needed to lead
the proletariat in establishing a worker's utopia. It fosters the worldwide
revolution through its membership in the Revolutionary International
Movement (RIM). It is through this affiliation that the RCP is related to
two organizations listed by the State Department as terrorist organizations;
the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path/Sender Luminoso) and the Kurdish
Workers Party (PKK) are are closely associated with RIM. (The PKK is no
longer a formal member of RIM; however, it was one of RIM's founde