We, The People Demand The Impeachment Of George W. Bush
By Ramsey Clark, 11-11-4
"Bush can run, but he cannot hide from the Constitution" "The
election does not pardon the President for past, or future "high
Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Impeachment is not a partisan political issue. The House of
Representatives, possessed of the "sole power of impeachment," is
required to consider a bill of impeachment on the facts even if every
Member were of the same party, or political persuasion, as the
President. The seven specific provisions of the Constitution setting
forth the powers and duties of the Congress in considering
impeachment intend that any President or other civil officer of the
United States who has committed a high Crime or Misdemeanor "...shall
be removed from Office."
The power of impeachment assures the people against criminal acts and
despotic ambitions by government officials.
We, the People have the power to require the House of Representatives
to do its duty and act on a bill of impeachment after full
investigation and consideration. If it fails to do so those House
members who failed to perform this Constitutional duty can and should
be voted from office. Remember that President Nixon resigned under
threat of impeachment for Watergate less than two years after his
landslide reelection in 1972.
Impeachment Is Imperative
For the American people who support and defend the Constitution of
the United States, who want to prevent further crimes by a lawless
administration, who believe we can redeem our country in the eyes of
those we have assaulted and those who have witnessed this brutality
and who dare to demand of future government leadership, NEVER AGAIN,
Impeachment is Imperative. A decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that we Americans should declare the causes which
impel us to impeach.
President George W. Bush chose to wage a war of aggression against
Iraq, which had not attacked the United States and presented no
imminent threat to our people, or legitimate interests. A small
cabal, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Feith, Libby and Rove
wrested decision making processes from established institutions of
government to reinforce President Bush,s desire to seize Iraq,
defying international institutions, the opinions of humankind and the
rule of law to commence a disastrous criminal military adventure.
A Campaign of Deceit And False Propaganda
War of aggression is the first offense listed in the Nuremberg
Charter as a Crime against Peace. The Nuremberg Tribunal after
hearing evidence of Nazi crimes in World War II convicted the leaders
of waging wars of aggression, which it called "the supreme
international crime."
At Nuremberg, the Chief U.S. Prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, promised
posterity that in the future all nations, including our own, would be
held accountable for such crimes.
President Bush and key administration officials engaged in a lengthy
campaign of deceit, concealment and false propaganda to create
support for, and acceptance of, its war of aggression by claiming
Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, harbored terrorists, had
close ties with and supported Al Qaeda and intended to attack the
U.S., U.S. citizens and U.S. interests. A free society, democratic
institutions and constitutional government cannot survive such deceit
by its own government.
The U.S. has made civilians and civilian facilities its direct object
of attack. It has pursued assassination and summary executions as
official policy. President Bush boasted of summary executions in his
State of the Union message in 2003. Excessive and indiscriminate
force and illegal weapons have been used. Many thousands of Iraqi
citizens, whole families, women, children, elderly Iraqis have been
killed as a result.
U.S. military casualties exceed 10,000 including more than 1,100
deaths with many additional thousands returned to the United States
for physical and mental illnesses.
The U.S. has employed torture, including torture to death, rape and
sexual assault and humiliation, as approved and ordered policy from
Afghanistan and Guantanamo to Iraq, inflicted on thousands of
prisoners, many, if not most, without any evidence of wrongful
conduct. An admitted 37 human beings have been murdered while being
held in captivity by the United States under these conditions. We
know not how many more. All the mounting evidence makes clear that
this program of torture and death is not aberrational conduct of
rogue or undisciplined soldiers but is rather the policy adopted at
the highest levels of the Bush/Rumsfeld chain of command. All this in
violation of the Geneva Conventions, the International Convention
Against Torture, the laws of all nations and common human decency.
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States
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.
More Than 100,000 Dead Based On A Lie
We learn from the prominent medical journal Lancet of the report by
researchers at John Hopkins University, Columbia University and the
Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad that the U.S. war of aggression
against Iraq and military occupation has cost "at least" 100,000
Iraqi lives already must civilian, women and children. Already
President Bush has launched a massive aerial and ground assault on
Falluja which may kill thousands of defenseless civilians.
Haiti, where President Bush forced the elected President Jean
Bertrand Aristide from office, is in chaos with many thousands killed
by widespread daily violence committed by U.S. supported
paramilitaries against Aristide supporters.
Nearly 500,000 have voted to impeach. Help us increase that number
into millions the Congress cannot ignore.
Every American should choose whether to vote for impeachment entirely
on the facts, straight up, or down, without political, or partisan
fear, or favor. We owe this to the country, its future, the
Constitution and our common heritage. Impeachment is Required Now.
Impeachment now is the only way we, the American people, can promise
ourselves and the world that we will not tolerate crimes against
peace and humanity by our government. Knowing what we know, to wait
longer is to condone what has been done and risk more.
Sincerely, Ramsey Clark
bellaciao.org...
votetoimpeach.org...