Click here High Crimes and Misdemeanors
A compilation of the Bush administration's impeachable criminal acts and other questionable doings
As the bloody war in Iraq, based on false claims of weapons of mass destruction continues ... as the world is outraged by the torture and murder of prisoners in U.S. custody ... as hundreds of detainees in American detention camps are held without charge, trial or access to attorneys in violation of international law ... as the president's friends and business cronies profit off the war in Iraq with no-bid contracts ... as questions about the legality of warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens go unanswered... as our government failed to offer basic assistance to tens of thousands devastated by Hurricane Katrina ... more and more Americans are asking in disbelief: What's happened to our country?
A Zogby poll conducted in June 2005 found that 42 percent of respondents said they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found that President Bush misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq. Another Zogby poll conducted in Jan. 2006 found that 52 percent of those surveyed supported impeachment if President Bush engaged in Illegal surveillance of US citizens. Both polls registered more support for impeaching President Bush, than for the GOP led impeachment of President Clinton in 1998.
“Flawed Intelligence” and The Iraq War
In December 2004, President Bush, second from right, gave former CIA Director George Tenet, left; former head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Tommy Franks; and Iraq Ambassador Paul Bremer, right, the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest U.S. award to civilians for their service. (ABC News)
The Bush administration's repeated assertion that Saddam Hussein possessed dangerous weapons of mass destruction served as the pretext for their 2003 war against Iraq. But after the invasion and an exhaustive search, the alleged arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons were never found. In the midst of a heated election campaign, the White House established a presidential commission to conduct a limited investigation into the intelligence failures leading up to the war.
The commission led by Judge Laurence Silberman and former Sen. Charles Robb, predictably found serious flaws in the operation of the nation's intelligence agencies, but made no judgments on how the president and his Cabinet used or misused the information it received about Iraq's weapons programs. Critics contend that the administration had a longstanding plan for launching an invasion of Iraq regardless of what the intelligence agencies produced. The panel made recommendations for the reorganization of the nation's 15 intelligence agencies, but offered no view on holding accountable those responsible for what many view as the most serious intelligence failure in U.S. history.
The Bush administration's honoring and promotion of key officials answerable for the flawed intelligence, provides insight into the priorities of a White House seemingly uninterested in accountability. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with former CIA analyst David MacMichael, who assesses the findings of the presidential commission and the importance of learning the truth about why our nation went to war.
Read David MacMichael's article about the presidential credibility gap online, “Credibility Gap? More Like an Abyss,” The Foreign Policy in Focus, March 21, 2005
Related links:
- “Bush Threw Us a 'Curveball': Report Shines a Light on 'Crazy' Iraqi Informant,” by Robert Scheer, the Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2005
- “WMD Commission -- Yet Another Intelligence Failure,” by Rahul Mahajan, CommonDreams.org, April 1, 2005
- “Bush, Cheney, Get Their Whitewash,” by Matthew Rothschild, by The Progressive, April 2, 2005
- “Honest Intelligence Needed,” by Ray McGovern, the Miami Herald, April 1, 2005
- “WMD Commission Continues the Stonewall for Bush,” by David Corn, www.Davidcorn.com April 1, 2005
- “The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket,” The agency is withholding a damning report that points at senior officials, by Robert Scheer, the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 19, 2004
- “The New Pentagon Papers,” A high-ranking military officer reveals how defense department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war, Salon.com, March 10, 2004
- “Cracks in the Empire: Compilation of Washington insiders speaking out on Bush administration policies and actions,” by Anna Manzo and Scott Harris, Toward Freedom, Summer 2004
- “Clarke's Take on Terror,” 60 Minutes, March 21, 2004
- “A White House 'Adept at Revenge,'” The Associated Press, March 27, 2004
- Project for the New American Century's Letter to President Clinton on Iraq, Jan. 26, 1998 Urges President Clinton to remove the threat that Iraq poses by stating a strategy to do so in his “upcoming State of the Union Address.”
The National Security Agency Wiretapping Scandal
RIGHT: U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, with President Bush, defend warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens.
In a hearing conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 6, Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez defended the legality of the president's authorization of the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic surveillance program. The program, which the White House says is intended to prevent future terrorist attacks, has monitored international electronic communications involving individuals living in the U.S. since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.
Gonzalez repeated the justifications offered by the president for bypassing existing laws restricting government surveillance. The attorney general said the administration viewed the post-9/11 congressional authorization to use force in Afghanistan as providing the legal basis to bypass the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that requires the executive branch to obtain court orders for all domestic wiretaps from a special FISA court. Other arguments made by Gonzales for the program's legality included surveillance conducted by previous presidents before the FISA Act was signed into law. Democrats and some key Republicans on the committee were vocally skeptical of the White House rationale.
Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Shayana Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which along with the ACLU, have filed lawsuits against President Bush and other top officials challenging the legality of the NSA spy program. Kadidal explains why he believes that the Bush administration has broken the law and what's at stake for the U.S. constitution and the nation's system of checks and balances.
Contact the Center for Constitutional Rights by calling (212) 614-6464 or visit the group's website at www.ccr-ny.org
Related links:
- "An impeachable offense? Bush admits authorizing NSA to eavesdrop on Americans without court approvals" Interviews with Martin Garbus, noted trial attorney, Christopher Pyle, professor of politics at Mt. Holyoke College, and James Bamford, expert on NSA and author of several books on intelligence agencies, Democracy Now, Dec. 19, 2005
- "Exclusive: National Security Agency Whistleblower warns domestic spying program is sign U.S. is decaying into a 'police state.' --- Interview with former NSA officer Russell Tice, who was fired in May 2005 for reporting irregularities, Democracy Now, Jan. 3, 2006.
- Special hearing of House Judiciary Committee chaired by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. on the NSA spying program, January, 2006. Former Reagan administration Justice Dept. attorney Bruce Fein and Georgetown University Law Prof. Jonathan Turley both testified as to the illegality of the program and Bush's unconstitutional conduct. Fein also listed dates and locations where Bush had lied in speeches about government surveillance, giving public assurances that no wiretaps were being conducted without warrants. For information on transcript, call Conyer's office, 202-225-5126.
- "AG Gonzales' defense of U.S. domestic spying program draws protest from law professors and students," Interview with Georgetown Law Prof. David Cole on Gonzales' remarks, and specific references to the statutes that were broken by administration with warrantless wiretaps on American citizens.
- "The Impeachment of George W. Bush," The Nation magazine, Jan. 30, 2006, by attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, former member of the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment proceedings. Holtzman discusses illegal spy program and other acts of misconduct that are grounds of impeachment.
- " NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls," USA Today, May 11, 2006. Page one story about major telecom companies collecting phone call records of millions of Americans at behest of NSA. This article indicated the NSA spying was much more widespread than Bush originally claimed. The president had said the phone monitoring was limited to people believed in contact with al-Qaeda.
- "Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush," book published by Center for Constitutional Rights. To obtain book, see "John Dean blasts warrantless eavesdropping," by Laurie Kellman, Associated Press, March 31, 2006. Former legal advisor to President Nixon speaks out on illegal spying and says Bush's conduct tops anything Nixon did in Watergate.
- American Civil Liberties Union at www.ACLU.org
- "Momentum Builds for Congressional Investigation of Bush's Warrantless Surveillance," interview with The Progressive Editor Matthew Rothschild, conducted by Scott Harris, Between The Lines week ending 1/6/06
- "Critics Say Bush Authorization of Domestic Spying Without Court Warrants Constitutes an Impeachable Offense," Interview with First Amendment Foundation Director Kit Gage, conducted by Scott Harris; Between The Lines week ending 12/30/05
Other questionable acts
- Election of 2000, 2004 - dubious election results
- Non probe of 9/11 - suppression of whistleblowers: translators, missing air traffic control tape
- Hurricane Katrina - levee breaking
- Valerie Plame CIA Leak - Lewis Libby, Cheney authorization
"What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA," by David Corn, The Nation, September 6, 2006 (web only) - Enron failure, California energy crisis that led to the recall effort of Gray Davis
- Torture/secret prisons - Alberto Gonzalez should be tried for war crimes
"Senate Vote Advances President's Effort to Kill War Crimes Act,"Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith, The Nation, Sept. 22, 2006 (web only) - War profiteering
"The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers," by Charlie Cray, AlterNet, Sept. 5, 2006.
"Western Oil Companies a Step Away from Iraq's 'Prize'," by Andrew Murray-Watson and Danny Fortson and Tim Webb, The Independent UK., Jan. 7, 2007. - Cover up on altered climate change reports
- U.S.-sponsored coup against Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
- U.S.-sponsored coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez