[Sosfbay-discuss] Nat'l Lawyers Guild Passes Impeach Resolution; Launches Campaign

[Drew Johnson]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28354
National Lawyers Guild Passes Impeachment Resolution; Launches National
Impeachment Committee & Campaign

Resolution on Impeachment of Bush and Cheney
Submitted By James Marc Leas

The National Lawyers Guild on Friday unanimously and enthusiastically
passed a resolution supporting the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

Resolution on Impeachment of Bush and Cheney

Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney:

1. deliberately misled the nation and doctored intelligence, as described
in the Downing Street minutes, http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html
about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war of aggression and an
occupation of Iraq, as further described in House resolution H.Res. 333:
http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/int3.pdf
and as listed in House Resolution H. Res. 635:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr109-635

2. committed crimes against peace by initiating war against Iraq in
violation of the UN Charter
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/iraq/ ;

3. committed crimes against humanity in their conduct of the occupation of
Iraq in which they killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and
created millions of refugees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1892888,00.html and
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/13/iraq.main/index.html ;

4. killed over 3700 American soldiers and severely wounded nearly 30,000
more in the pursuit of an illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of Iraq.
While Bush and Cheney have stated no truthful noble cause for the war, one
of the central purposes appears to be to take control of Iraq's immense
oil reserves to financially benefit private corporate interests. See
Bush's benchmark listing fact sheet released the same day Bush announced
the "surge" that expressly called on the Iraq parliament to "enact
hydrocarbons law to promote investment . . . "
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-3.html

and http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/56672/ ;

5. committed further crimes against peace by threatening Iran in violation
of the UN Charter, as described in House resolution H. Res. 333
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgibin/query/z?c110:H.RES.333: and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6649053.stm ;

6. detained thousands of prisoners without charges and without providing
the ability to confront their accusers at a fair trial
http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of-America
;

7. condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva
Conventions, the US anti-torture statute of 1994, the US War Crimes Act of
1996, and the oath of office

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/usint8614.htm and

http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of-America
and

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/
.

Bush's refusal to faithfully execute the laws prohibiting torture and his
declaration on February 7, 2002 that the Geneva Conventions did not apply
to prisoners in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo set the stage for torture
there

http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa0604/2.htm . The Rumsfeld approved
Guantanamo torture techniques were then imported to Iraq in August 2003,
where the International Committee of the Red Cross found "systemic"
mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in several facilities and where the
Schlesinger Report confirmed in August 2004 that abuses were "widespread"
and "serious both in number and in effect," and that there is both
"institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels" ;

8. approved at least two different illegal electronic surveillance
programs of American citizens without a warrant in violation of the fourth
amendment and in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of
1978, and repeatedly lied to the American people by stating that
no surveillance was taking place without a court order. The first program
includes intercepting phone and email conversations without warrants and
was exposed by the NY Times on December 16, 2005
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/CPC/NYT_15cnd-program.html . After that
program was exposed Bush said the program was carefully targeted to just
include international calls and suspected members of Al Qaeda. Then, the
second program was exposed by USA Today on May 11, 2006. It provides a
wholesale attack on the fourth amendment by recording call identification
information of tens of millions of purely domestic calls as well as
international calls
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm ;

9. attacked basic human rights protections in the constitution including
habeas corpus, fifth amendment freedom from loss of life, liberty and
property without due process of law, eighth amendment freedom from cruel
and unusual punishment, and fourth amendment freedom from
unreasonable search and seizure ;

10. attacked the separation of powers in an effort to consolidate power in
the executive;

11. attacked the messenger who revealed that Bush "twisted" intelligence
"to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." Just as Nixon retaliated against former
Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg , according to papers filed
in court by special
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in April 2006, there was "concerted action"
by "multiple people in the White House" to "discredit, punish or seek
revenge against" former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for his July 6, 2003 NY
Times op ed piece
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/06WILS.html?ex=1372824000&en=6c6aeb1ce960
dec0&ei=5007
that ripped the cover off of Bush's false assertions in his 2003 state of
the union address that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa for
building a nuclear bomb. In retaliation, and to silence other would-be
critics, the White House collected information about Wilson and disclosed
to reporters that his wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert agent in the CIA
counterinsurgency division, putting her life, and the lives of her
contacts, at risk in violation of a US law protecting intelligence
personnel (The Impeachment of George W. Bush, by Elizabeth
Holtzman) ;

12. as the sole person under the Federal Stafford Act with responsibility
and authority to issue emergency orders to mobilize the military and any
federal resources needed to aid and assist in a disaster (see Failure of
Initiative, February 2006 report of the House Select Bipartisan Committee
to investigate the Preparations for and the Response to Hurricane Katrina
http://katrina.house.gov/ ), Bush failed to take care that the laws be
faithfully executed, violated the public trust, and demonstrated reckless
and inexcusable indifference to human life before, during and after
Hurricane Katrina. Bush knew but did not act until too late, and then he
lied about it on national TV. Footage and transcripts from briefings Aug.
25-31 demonstrate that Bush was personally told well in advance of the
"unprecedented strength" of the hurricane, the "devastating damage
expected," and that "water shortages will make human suffering
incredible," according to highly accurate predictions by the National
Weather Service. The Associated Press reported that "in dramatic and
sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster
officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before
Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at
risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to
confidential video footage,"
http://www.truthout.org/cgibin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/18079 . Yet Bush
failed to muster resources to evacuate residents in advance and failed to
assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina hit. Then three days
later Bush told Good Morning America, "I don't think that anybody
anticipated a breach of the levees."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030202130.html
In years before the storm Bush demonstrated inexcusable criminal
negligence and violated the public trust by cutting the budget for
hurricane defense, though the high probability of the breaching of the
levees and the enormous risk to human life from a major hurricane hitting
New Orleans were predicted and well known for years before the hurricane
hit http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html ;

13. failed to take care that the laws be faithfully executed by issuing
signing statements that claim the authority to disobey laws based on the
president's own interpretation of their constitutionality, and then by
taking action in violation of these laws, including the US law making
torture a crime, laws regarding Congressional oversight that require
providing information to Congress, laws regarding domestic spying, laws
regarding civil liberties, and laws strengthening whistle blower
protection, thereby expanding the president's own power by stepping into
the legislative and judicial functions at the expense of Congress and the
courts, upsetting the balance among the three Branches of government, and
moving us away from the rule of law toward vastly increased executive
power;
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/
and
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/
;

14. converted the Justice Department into an arm of the Republican Party
by firing meritorious federal prosecutors who refused to base decisions on
whom to prosecute on political considerations--to help Republicans win
election, an offense James Madison discussed in a
speech to the Senate on June 17, 1789, in which Madison said, "The danger
then consists merely in this, the president can displace from office a man
whose merits require that he should be continued in it. What will be the
motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the
restraints that operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be
impeachable by this house, before the senate, for such an act of
mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious
officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own high
trust." http://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=fc11904 and
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/27/113/print/ ;

15. condoned criminal conduct and obstructed justice by commuting the
sentence of convicted perjurer Scooter Libby to keep him silent and to
demonstrate that Bush and Cheney will not allow high officials in the
administration to be held accountable for their criminal acts;

16. obstructed congressional investigations of these and other acts by the
administration by defying subpoenas from Senate and House committees
seeking documents and testimony under oath by administration officials and
former administration officials; and

Whereas the constitution requires the president to take the following oath
of office: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office
of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability,
preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States;"

and

Whereas the constitution provides that the president "shall take Care that
the Laws be faithfully
executed;" and

Whereas the constitution mandates that "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;" and

Whereas impeachment was so important to our founding fathers that it is
mentioned six times in five different sections of the constitution; and

Whereas George Mason, a primary author of the Constitution, said that
impeachment was the single most important part of the entire document.
"Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it who
can commit the most extensive injustice?"
http://gunstonhall.org/georgemason/constitution.html July 20, 1787; and

Whereas "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" is a term of art that means a
serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers
our constitutional system of government, or an abuse of public trust. (See
Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment: Report of the House
Judiciary Committee, 1974,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/politics/special/clinton/stories/watergatedoc_3.htm
, articles by Elizabeth Holzman who served on the House Judiciary
Committee during the impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon in 1974
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/holtzman ; and
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070212&s=holtzman , and the
book, The Impeachment of George W. Bush, by Elizabeth Holtzman)

Whereas each of the above listed acts meets or exceeds that standard; and

Whereas impeachment is the only constitutional method to protect Americans
from a president intent on abusing power, violating the constitution,
violating the laws, and breaching public trust;

and

Whereas Bush and Cheney threaten further crimes, including launching a war
of aggression against Iran, and whereas sufficient time remains in their
term of office for them to commit those crimes so allowing either or both
of them to remain in office for that remaining time will facilitate these
crimes, and whereas pretexts for attacking Iran have been issued, as
described by a former CIA Middle East field officer and current Time
Magazine columnist
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1654188,00.html ; and

Whereas failing to hold Bush and Cheney accountable not only condones
their crimes but facilitates a future president committing similar or
greater crimes; and

Whereas members of Congress swear an oath to "support and defend the
constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic," and no part of this oath permits exception for partisan
advantage, the next election, political expediency, whether it is
distracting from other issues, or how much time they have left in office;
and

Whereas failure by Congress to initiate the one
remedy--impeachment--provided by our founding fathers to protect the
constitution from such serious abuses has put that constitution, the rule
of law, civil liberties, our democratic form of government, the separation
of powers, the lives of our men and women in uniform, and the lives of
countless civilians at severe risk; and

Whereas citizen pressure led the Vermont State Senate and 87 cities and
towns around the nation to pass impeachment resolutions; and

Whereas a poll conducted by http://www.americanresearchgroup.com on July
5, 2007 found that 54% of American adults want the US House of
Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Vice President
Dick Cheney while only 40% oppose, and

whereas the poll also found that 45% are in favor of the same thing for
President George W. Bush while 46% oppose; and

Whereas in view Congress' ongoing complicity with the war, the torture,
the lies, the warrantless wiretapping, and the imprisonment without trial,
and its failure to protect rights and civil liberties, it is up to the
people themselves to defend the constitution and our civil liberties by
building larger grassroots movements, including a movement for
impeachment;

Therefore be it resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls upon the
U.S. House of Representatives to immediately initiate impeachment
proceedings, to investigate the charges, and if the investigation supports
the charges, to vote to impeach George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney as
provided in the Constitution of the United States of America; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild will establish an
NLG Impeachment Committee open to all members to coordinate action by the
NLG in support of impeachment, to work with national and grassroots
impeachment organizations, and to provide legal assistance for those
efforts to strengthen the national campaign for impeachment; and

Be it further resolved that the NLG Impeachment Committee will help
organize and coordinate events at the local, state, and national level to
build public participation in the campaign to initiate impeachment
investigation, impeachment, and removal of Bush and Cheney from office
without further delay; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls on NLG
members to ask their respective member of Congress to support H. Res. 333
to impeach Cheney and to introduce or support other impeachment
resolutions; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls on all other
state and national bar associations, state and local government bodies,
community organizations, labor unions, and all other citizen associations
to adopt similar resolutions and to use all their resources to build the
campaign demanding that Congress initiate impeachment investigation,
impeach, and remove Bush and Cheney from office without further delay; and

Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild will forward a copy
of this resolution to the Speaker and the Clerk of the US House of
Representatives, to Representative John Conyers, Chair of the House
Judiciary Committee, to the various state and federal bar associations, to
other peace and justice organizations, and to the news media.

Implementation: By the NLG Impeachment Committee established by this
resolution, by interested local chapters, and by national officers.

Submitted by: James Marc Leas, jolly39 at juno.com

The resolution cosponsors are:

Audrey Bomse, Marjorie Cohn, Laura Safer Espinoza, John Wheat Gibson,
Eileen Hansen, Larry Hildes, Jim Klimaski, Jordan Kushner, Jim Lafferty,
James Marc Leas, Kerry McLean, Bill Monning, Dorinda Moreno, Michael
Ratner, Susan Scott, Jennifer Van Bergen, Aaron Varhola, Karen Weill