Kucinich reads Bush Articles of Impeachment on the House floor

I flipped on my television at approximately ten-thirty Eastern time on Monday night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) speaking on C-Span. Kucinich was talking about President Bush and his various crimes against the United States, and I soon became aware that the Representative was introducing Articles of Impeachment against President Bush (also known as House Resolution 1258).

Dennis Kucinich had begun his long trudge through the Articles two hours earlier, and he would continue his reading, to an almost empty House chamber, for nearly another three hours. There were 35 Articles in total, each one detailing a crime that Bush had committed that warranted impeachment. I congratulate Kucinich for having the courage and conviction to undertake this task.

A summary of each offense for each Article, as provided by the index of the Articles of Impeachment, reads as follows:
(1) Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq;
(2) Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression;
(3) Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War;
(4) Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States;
(5) Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression;
(6) Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of H. J. Res114, also known as the “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002″;
(7) Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War;
(8) Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter;
(9) Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor;
(10) Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes;
(11) Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq;
(12) Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources;
(13) Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries;
(14) Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency;
(15) Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq;
(16) Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors;
(17) Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives;
(18) Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy;
(19) Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture;
(20) Imprisoning Children;
(21) Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government;
(22) Creating Secret Laws;
(23) Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (which was designed to prevent the military from becoming a national police force);
(24) Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment;
(25) Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens;
(26) Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements;
(27) Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply;
(28) Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice;
(29) Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965;
(30) Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare;
(31) Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency;
(32) Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change;
(33) Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 9/11;
(34) Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001; and, finally,
(35) Endangering the Health of 9/11 First Responders.

The full text for the Articles of Impeachment against President Bush can be found here, at the Official Website for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Although Kucinich’s website was shut down last night under “circumstances that can best be described as suspicious”, it is up and running now. Democratic Representative from Florida and a top aide in the Barack Obama campaign, Robert Wexler, has fully signed on to the Articles, saying that Congress has a “sworn duty” to act in this matter. House members are expected to vote on June 11th (that is today) on sending the Articles of Impeachment against President Bush to the Judiciary Committee for review (the chairman of which is Representative John Conyers).

All aspects of the Articles are interesting, but I find Article 21 to be particularly so. Part of the text reads, “In March 2007, [Seymour] Hersh reported in the New Yorker Magazine that the Bush administration was attempting to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni organizations, without any Congressional authorization or oversight. Hersh said funds had been given to ‘three Sunni jihadist groups … connected to al Qaeda’ that ‘want to take on Hezbollah.’”

Article 21 also noted that the United States Central Intelligence Agency has been sending the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and some of our allies, into Iran to carry out remote bombings. Article 21 also stated that, “On September 30, 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of overturning the regime in Iran, as well as those in Iraq, Syria, and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted in then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith’s book, ‘War and Decision’.” General Wesley Clark, in his book “Winning Modern Wars”, sheds light on which other countries the United States has been considering intervening in and overthrowing the government of: in addition to Iraq, Iran, and Syria; Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon were also topics of discussion.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich also introduced Articles of Impeachment for Vice President Richard Cheney last year, but he failed to gain any traction and support for the Articles from Congressional Leaders. Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer remain adamantly opposed to Impeachment for either President Bush or Vice President Cheney and have taken it off the table. It seems to me that, by not punishing Bush for violation of his Oath of Office, they are, in turn, violating their own Oaths of Office. And, because of this reluctance on the part of these Democratic leaders to act (since it is an election year, and we wouldn’t want to do anything controversial, would we?), Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment against Bush are not likely to be successful. Though, I can always hope, can’t I?

Youtube video: The first five minutes of the nearly five hour speech

Dennis Kucinich introduces Articles of Impeachment against President Bush