R
Richard43
Guest
Three Charges in H Res 333 (WHICH IS NOT - WE REPEAT: NOT!!! - H R
333, BUT H RES 333. GOT IT? H RES 333)
First Charge:
Cheney has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive
the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat
of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United
States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to
our national security interests, to wit:
(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice President actively
and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and Congress of the
United States about an alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction:
(A) ''We know they have biological and chemical weapons.'' March 17,
2002, Press Conference by Vice President Dick Cheney and His Highness
Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain at Shaikh Hamad
Palace.
(B) ''...and we know they are pursuing nuclear weapons.'' March 19,
2002, Press Briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem.
(C) ''And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time...''
March 24, 2002, CNN Late Edition interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ''We know he's got chemicals and biological and we know he's
working on nuclear.'' May 19, 2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with
Vice President Cheney.
(E) ''But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire
nuclear weapons... Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam
Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he
is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and
against us.'' August 26, 2002, Speech 22 of Vice President Cheney at
VFW 103rd National Convention.
(F) ''Based on intelligence that's becoming available, some of it has
been made public, more of it hopefully will be, that he has indeed
stepped up his capacity to produce and deliver biological weapons,
that he has reconstituted his nuclear program to develop a nuclear
weapon, that there are efforts under way inside Iraq to significantly
expand his capability.'' September 8, 2002 NBC Meet the Press
interview with Vice President Cheney.
(G) ''He is, in fact, actively and aggressively seeking to acquire
nuclear weapons.'' September 8, 2002 NBC Meet the Press interview with
Vice President Cheney.
(H) ''And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.''
March 16, 2003, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President
Cheney.
(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice President was
fully informed that no legitimate evidence existed of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq. The Vice President pressured the intelligence
community to change their findings to enable the deception of the
citizens and Congress of the United States.
(A) Vice President Cheney and his Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby, made
multiple trips to the CIA in 2002 to question analysts studying Iraq's
weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an
environment in which analysts felt they were being pressured to make
their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives
accounts.
(B) Vice President Cheney sought out unverified and ultimately
inaccurate raw intelligence to prove his preconceived beliefs. This
strategy of cherry picking was employed to influence the
interpretation of the intelligence.
(3) The Vice President's actions corrupted or attempted to corrupt the
2002 National Intelligence Estimate, an intelligence document issued
on October 1, 2002 and carefully considered by Congress prior to the
October 10, 2002 vote to authorize the use of force. The Vice
President's actions prevented the necessary reconciliation of facts
for the National Intelligence Estimate which resulted in a high number
of dissenting opinions from technical experts in two Federal agencies.
(A) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
stated ''Lacking persuasive evidence that Baghdad has launched a
coherent effort to reconstitute it's nuclear weapons program INR is
unwilling to speculate that such an effort began soon after the
departure of UN inspectors or to project a timeline for the completion
of activities it does not now see happening. As a result INR is unable
to predict that Iraq could acquire a nuclear device or weapon.''
(B) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
also stated that ''Finally, the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural
uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment, highly dubious.''
(C) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
references a Department of Energy opinion by stating that ''INR
accepts the judgment of technical experts at the US Department of
Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire
are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium
enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to
make the case that they are intended for that purpose.''
H Res 333 does not mention, but it is also relevant, that post-
invasion Cheney clung to the idea that Iraq had WMDs. The above also
does not include much explanation of how we know that Cheney knew he
was lying. Congressman Henry Waxman has posted a searchable database
of lies. It includes Cheney WMD lies not included above (with
citations) and Cheney lies about al Qaeda not included below, a total
of 51 Cheney lies. And it explains how we know in each case that he
was lying.
Further documentation would begin with this:
CHENEY (August 26, 2002): "But we now know that Saddam has resumed his
efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Among other sources, we've gotten
this from the firsthand testimony of defectors -- including Saddam's
own son-in-law, who was subsequently murdered at Saddam's
direction...During the spring of 1995, the inspectors were actually on
the verge of declaring that Saddam's programs to develop chemical
weapons and longer-range ballistic missiles had been fully accounted
for and shut down. Then Saddam's son-in-law suddenly defected and
began sharing information...That should serve as a reminder to all
that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned
from the inspection regime itself."
Here's Kamel on CNN on September 21, 1995:
CNN: Can you state, here and now, does Iraq have any weapons of mass
destruction left?
KAMEL: No. Iraq does not possess any weapons of mass destruction.
In the notes from Kamel's 1995 debriefing by the UN, he's asked:
PROF. ZIFFERERO: were there any continuation of , or present nuclear
activities, for example, EMIS, centrifuge?
KAMEL: No...
And here's a declassified CIA document from their interrogation of
Kamel:
SOURCE HAS STATED SPECIFICALLY THAT THE CENTRIFUGES HAVE BEEN
DESTROYED, AND NONE ARE LEFT HIDDEN
Finally, we know someone at the White House was asking the CIA about
Kamel at the beginning of 2002, because the WMD Commission refers to
this document:
Senior Executive Memorandum (Jan. 12, 2002) (discussing the value of
Kamil's information)
Senior Executive Memoranda are produced by the CIA in response to high-
level questions from the executive branch. But what this specifically
said is unknown, because the CIA has turned down FOIA requests for it
from the National Security Archive.
Second Charge:
Cheney purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the
citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged
relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in order to justify the use of
the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner
damaging to our national security interests, to wit:
(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice President actively
and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and the Congress of
the United States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al
Qaeda:
(A) ''His regime has had high-level contacts with Al Qaeda going back
a decade and has provided training to Al Qaeda terrorists.'' December
2, 2002, Speech of Vice President Cheney at the Air National Guard
Senior Leadership Conference.
(B) ''His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al
Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction
to terrorists for use against us.'' January 30, 2003, Speech of Vice
President Cheney to 30th Political Action Conference in Arlington,
Virginia.
(C) ''We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons
and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various
terrorist groups, including the Al Qaeda organization.'' March 16,
2003, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ''We learned more and more that there was a relationship between
Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of
the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on biological
weapons and chemical weapons...'' September 14, 2003, NBC Meet the
Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(E) ''Al Qaeda had a base of operation there up in Northeastern Iraq
where they ran a large poisons factory for attacks against Europeans
and U.S. forces.'' October 3, 2003, Speech of Vice President Cheney at
Bush-Cheney '04 Fundraiser in Iowa.
(F) ''He also had an established relationship with Al Qaeda providing
training to Al Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases, and
conventional bombs.'' October 10, 2003, Speech of Vice President
Cheney to the Heritage Foundation.
(G) ''Al Qaeda and the Iraqi intelligence services have worked
together on a number of occasions.'' January 9, 2004, Rocky Mountain
News interview with Vice President Cheney.
(H) ''I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a
connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government'' January 22,
2004, NPR: Morning Edition interview with Vice President Cheney.
(I) ''First of all, on the question of--of whether or not there was any
kind of relationship, there clearly was a relationship. It's been
testified to; the evidence is overwhelming.'' June 17, 2004, CNBC:
Capital Report interview with Vice President Cheney.
(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice President was
fully informed that no credible evidence existed of a working
relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, a fact articulated in several
official documents, including:
(A) A classified Presidential Daily Briefing ten days after the
September 11, 2001 attacks indicating that the United States
intelligence community had no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the
September 11th attacks and that there was ''scant credible evidence
that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda'.'
(B) Defense Intelligence Terrorism Summary No. 044-02, issued in
February 2002 by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency, which
challenged the credibility of information gleaned from captured al
Qaeda leader al-Libi. The DIA report also cast significant doubt on
the possibility of a Saddam Hussein-al-Qaeda conspiracy: ''Saddam's
regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary
movements. Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a
group it cannot control.''
(C) A January 2003 British intelligence classified report on Iraq that
concluded that ''there are no current links between the Iraqi regime
and the al-Qaeda network''
Cheney has maintained in televised statements right up through the
spring of 2007 that Iraq and al Qaeda worked together.
Bill Moyers' recent program on the media's role in "Buying the War"
has Bob Simon of 60 Minutes saying that when the White House claimed a
9-11 hijacker had met with a representative of the Iraqi government in
Prague, 60 Minutes was easily able to make a few calls and find out
that there was no evidence for the claim. "If we had combed Prague,"
he says, "and found out that there was absolutely no evidence for a
meeting between Mohammad Atta and the Iraqi intelligence figure. If we
knew that, you had to figure the administration knew it. And yet they
were selling the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam."
Third Charge:
Cheney has openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran
absent any real threat to the United States, and done so with the
United States proven capability to carry out such threats, thus
undermining the national security of the United States, to wit:
(1) Despite no evidence that Iran has the intention or the capability
of attacking the United States and despite the turmoil created by
United States invasion of Iraq, the Vice President has openly
threatened aggression against Iran as evidenced by the following:
(A) ''For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the
table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime. And we
join other nations in sending that regime a clear message: We will not
allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.'' March 7, 2006, Speech of Vice
President Cheney to American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2006
Policy Conference.
(B) ''But we've also made it clear that all options are on the
table.'' January 24, 2007, CNN Situation Room interview with Vice
President Cheney.
(C) ''When we--as the President did, for example, recently--deploy
another aircraft carrier task force to the Gulf, that sends a very
strong signal to everybody in the region that the United States is
here to stay, that we clearly have significant capabilities, and that
we are working with friends and allies as well as the international
organizations to deal with the Iranian threat.'' January 29, 2007,
Newsweek interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ''But I've also made the point and the President has made the
point that all options are still on the table.'' February 24, 2007,
Vice President Cheney at Press Briefing with Australian Prime Minister
in Sydney, Australia.
(2) The Vice President, who repeatedly and falsely claimed to have had
specific, detailed knowledge of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction capabilities, is no doubt fully aware of evidence that
demonstrates Iran poses no real threat to the United States as
evidenced by the following:
(A) ''I know that what we see in Iran right now is not the industrial
capacity you can [use to develop a] bomb.'' Mohamed ElBaradei,
Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, February 19,
2007.
(B) Iran indicated its ''full readiness and willingness to negotiate
on the modality for the resolution of the outstanding issues with the
IAEA, subject to the assurances for dealing with the issues in the
framework of the Agency, without the interference of the United
Nations Security Council''. IAEA Board Report, Feb- 4
ruary 22, 2007.
(C) ''...so whatever they have, what we have seen today, is not the
kind of capacity that would enable them to make bombs.'' Mohamed El
Baradei, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency,
February 19, 2007.
(3) The Vice President is fully aware of the actions taken by the
United States towards Iran that are further destabilizing the world as
evidenced by the following:
(A) The United States has refused to engage in meaningful diplomatic
relations with Iran since 2002, rebuffing both bilateral and
multilateral offers to dialogue.
(B) The United States is currently engaged in a military buildup in
the Middle East that includes the increased presence of the United
States Navy in the waters near Iran, significant United States Armed
Forces in two nations neighboring to Iran, and the installation of
anti-missile technology in the region.
(C) News accounts have indicated that military planners have
considered the B61-11, a tactical nuclear weapon, as one of the
options to strike underground bunkers in Iran.
(D) The United States has been linked to anti-Iranian organizations
that are attempting to destabilize the Iranian government, in
particular the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), even though the state
department has branded it a terrorist organization.
(E) News accounts indicate that United States troops have been ordered
into Iran to collect data and establish contact with anti-government
groups.
(4) In the last three years the Vice President has repeatedly
threatened Iran. However, the Vice President is legally bound by the
U.S Constitution's adherence to international law that prohibits
threats of use of force.
(A) Article VI of the United States Constitution states, ''This
Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made,
under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of
the Land.'' Any provision of an international treaty ratified by the
United States becomes the law of the United States.
(B) The United States is a signatory to the United Nations Charter, a
treaty among the nations of the world. Article II, Section 4 of the
United Nations Charter states, ''All Members shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in
any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United
Nations.'' The threat of force is illegal.
(C) Article 51 lays out the only exception, ''Nothing in the present
Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective
self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United
Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to
maintain international peace and security.'' Iran has not attacked the
United States; therefore any threat against Iran by the United States
is illegal.
The Vice President's deception upon the citizens and Congress of the
United States that enabled the failed United States invasion of Iraq
forcibly altered the rules of diplomacy such that the Vice President's
recent belligerent actions towards Iran are destabilizing and counter-
productive to the national security of the United States.
There are more recent clips not cited here, including on an aircraft
carrier in the Gulf.
Bridge to a 22nd Century:
Additional Charges Not Contained in H Res 333
Fourth Charge:
Cheney led a campaign of retribution against whistleblower Joseph
Wilson, including the outing of a covert CIA operative.
The trial of Scooter Libby has produced overwhelming evidence that
Vice President Cheney personally led the campaign to attack Joe Wilson
through the media. This "get Wilson" campaign included telling
numerous reporters that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife Valerie
Plame, a CIA operative. Cheney was told by the CIA that Valerie Plame
worked as a covert agent in the CIA's Nonproliferation Division, which
is the critical division of the CIA responsible for stopping the
spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Cheney's efforts
to expose Plame actually exposed her entire covert network, at
tremendous cost to the CIA's secret war against terrorism. If Plame's
work had been exposed by a double-agent in our government like Aldrich
Ames or Robert Hanssen, that person would face prosecution for
espionage and treason. The evidence of Cheney's role is more than
enough to start an impeachment investigation.
Just Another Obstruction of Justice
The Two Redacted Pages
Indictment of Cheney for Plame Leak
Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney
Fitzgerald: "There Is a Cloud Over the Vice President"
Libby Testimony Raises More Questions about Cheney's Role In The CIA
Leak Case
Libby Trial Sheds Light on White House
Did Bush and Cheney Lie to Fitzgerald?
Libby Told Grand Jury He Was Ordered to Leak Intelligence
Court Hears Libby Describe Cheney as 'Upset' at Critic
Libby Trial: Russert Ruins the Cover Story
Addington Points to Cheney
Cheney's Notes
Fifth Charge:
Cheney led efforts to torture.
Washington Post's Series on Cheney
Sixth Charge:
Cheney played a key role in setting up illegal spying programs.
NY Times: "Dick Cheney sent Mr. Gonzales and another official to Mr.
Ashcroft's hospital room to get him to approve the wiretapping."
Unimpeachably Impeachable
Cheney Urged Illegal Wiretaps
Ashcroft's ex-no. 2 says Gonzales, Cheney tried to take advantage of
sick Attorney General.
Cheney has refused to comply with a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary
Committee: http://www.democrats.com/subpoenas
Seventh Charge:
Cheney led manipulation of pre-war intelligence.
The Scooter Libby trial also exposed the lead role of Vice President
Cheney's office in manipulating pre-war intelligence to defraud
Congress into authorizing the invasion of Iraq. Sworn testimony
revealed that Cheney's office managed the evidence of Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction, all of which proved to be lies. Cheney personally
visited the CIA several times before the invasion to pressure the CIA
to distort pre-war intelligence. And Cheney exerted "constant"
pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use
of flawed intelligence on Iraq, according to the new chairman, Senator
Jay Rockefeller.
On July 14, 2003, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity laid
out the case for asking Bush to request Cheney's resignation: PDF.
Tenet Blames Cheney.
Eighth Charge:
Cheney created the secret Energy Task Force which operated in defiance
of open-government laws.
Ninth Charge:
Cheney's lawyer, David Addington, advocated the "Unitary Executive
Theory" which is used by the White House to defy laws duly enacted by
Congress and thereby justify dictatorial action.
Cheney Exempts His Office from Requirement to Protect Classified
Information
Cheney Destroys Visitor Logs
A New Dick Cheney-Alberto Gonzales Mystery
Tenth Charge:
Cheney directed massive no-bid contracts to his company, Halliburton,
and profitted from the same illegal war he defrauded the American
public to launch.
Give It Back, Dick.
Eleventh Charge:
Cheney increased the danger of climate change.
Cheney Bypassed Environmentally 'Clueless' Bush To Craft
Administration's Climate Change Agenda
Twelfth Charge:
Cheney Suppressed Evidence in California Energy Crisis
Report.
Thirteenth Charge:
Cheney has been manipulating and misleading about evidence of Iranian
nuclear weapons and other justifications for an attack on Iran.
Fourteenth Charge:
Cheney has refused to comply with a subpoena.
More Reading Materials
Cheney Country
Dick Cheney Really Is That Bad
Answering to No One
Cheney's Long-Lost Twin
Cheney Made Bush Commute Libby
Why the Perjury?
Lost Liberties
Absolute Power Corrupts...Cheney
Doak: Restore Constitution as law of the land - Impeach Cheney
Nation needs intervention to get Cheney out of office
Did Dick Cheney kill 70,000 salmon? Committee to probe
Rep. McDermott: The Vice President Should Resign or Face Impeachment
Dick Cheney's Dangerous Influence
The Misunderestimated Mr. Cheney: The Vice President's Record of
Willfully Violating the Law, And Wrongly Claiming Authority
Impeach Cheney: The vice president has run utterly amok and must be
stopped: By Bruce Fein
Dick Cheney's Dangerous Son-In-Law
Subpoena Dick
The People vs. Richard Cheney
Dick Cheney Rules
Dick Cheney and Jim Wright Saved Reagan: What Can Cheney and Nancy
Pelosi Do for Bush?
The Spoiler: How Cheney ensures diplomatic failure with Iran
Cheney's New Front in War on Reality
Cheney Hints at Iran Strike
Stink of Blood Money
Cheney's the One
Cheney Promises to Veto Employee Free Choice Act
Impeach the Two of Them
Dick Cheney and the Dog that Didn't Bark
Mr. Cheney, Tear Down This Wall
ISOO Asks Attorney General to Rule on Cheney's Role
Impeach Cheney Part 1.
Impeach Cheney Part 2.
Impeach Cheney Part 3.
Cheney Pursuing Nuclear Ambitions of His Own.
Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE
Cheney's Own Logic for Impeachment
MORE EVIDENCE
STRATEGY
Congress is on politically safe, as well as morally necessary, ground
impeaching Dick Cheney.
George Bush's approval ratings are among the lowest ever recorded by a
President, and Cheney's are much lower.
If we impeach Cheney first, no one need fear a President Cheney.
A lot of people are understandably, if misguidedly, afraid that
impeaching George W. Bush would somehow make Cheney president. Because
Cheney is already running the White House, this change would not be as
serious as people fear. But we can impeach Cheney FIRST and make all
the fears go away.
This is about far more than selecting the next president.
It would benefit political opponents of the Bush-Cheney agenda for
Cheney to be President, as he would shatter Truman's record for
unpopularity and help boost a Democratic landslide in 2008. The
Republicans know this and will never allow Cheney to be president.
He'll resign before Bush is removed from office, and we'll have a new
Gerald Ford (a President Pelosi is no more likely than a President
Cheney). We'll have the same result if we impeach Cheney first and
remove him from office. And we may get there faster this way.
Removal from office follows impeachment, which follows an
investigation. A serious investigation of either Cheney or Bush will
inevitably incriminate the other. In fact, the Libby trial has already
shown this. Such an investigation would benefit our democracy whether
or not it finally arrived at impeachment, and impeachment of both Bush
and Cheney is richly merited, as is removal from office. But removal
from office is an additional and difficult step. Merely impeaching
Bush leaves us with President... Bush. Whichever of these two we
impeach first, it is possible we will impeach them both before
removing either from office.
We must impeach Cheney and Bush to establish standards for all future
presidents, not to pick one. And ultimately we must stop fearing
possible results of this in order to see it through. A President
Cheney afraid of being held accountable by us is far preferable to a
President Bush taking orders from a Vice President Cheney who believes
he's above the law.
Impeachment is not a way to pick a president, and if all you're
worried about is picking a president, you have no business monkeying
around with something as profoundly significant as impeachment.
Impeachment is a tool for removing a criminal president from office,
thus establishing limitations on power for subsequent presidents. If
we do not impeach Cheney and Bush, we will have established that it is
acceptable for presidents to lie us into wars, to spy without
warrants, to detain without charge, to torture, to reverse laws with
signing statements, etc. These reasons go to the survival of our
democracy, a matter of far greater significance than the person who
next sits in the office of the presidency - or the office of the king
if that is what it is to become.
It is not politically dangerous to impeach. It is politically
dangerous not to impeach when the case is clear. The Democrats
calculated that by letting the Iran-Contra gang off the hook, they
could win the next elections. They then lost those elections. The
Republicans tried to impeach Truman, won what they wanted from the
Supreme Court, and then won the next elections. A dozen examples
through history tell the same story. The only near-exception is
Clinton. But that was an impeachment the public opposed. So, it ought
to have had a reverse result from the other cases. Even so, the
Republicans lost fewer seats than is the norm at that point in a
majority tenure, and they lost seats mostly in the Senate which
acquitted, not the House which impeached. The handful of fanatical
Congress Members who imposed the Clinton impeachment on the rest of
the Congress and the country won big in their next elections. Would
that we had a few fanatics for serious justice in the House today.
333, BUT H RES 333. GOT IT? H RES 333)
First Charge:
Cheney has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive
the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat
of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United
States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to
our national security interests, to wit:
(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice President actively
and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and Congress of the
United States about an alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction:
(A) ''We know they have biological and chemical weapons.'' March 17,
2002, Press Conference by Vice President Dick Cheney and His Highness
Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain at Shaikh Hamad
Palace.
(B) ''...and we know they are pursuing nuclear weapons.'' March 19,
2002, Press Briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem.
(C) ''And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time...''
March 24, 2002, CNN Late Edition interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ''We know he's got chemicals and biological and we know he's
working on nuclear.'' May 19, 2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with
Vice President Cheney.
(E) ''But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire
nuclear weapons... Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam
Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he
is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and
against us.'' August 26, 2002, Speech 22 of Vice President Cheney at
VFW 103rd National Convention.
(F) ''Based on intelligence that's becoming available, some of it has
been made public, more of it hopefully will be, that he has indeed
stepped up his capacity to produce and deliver biological weapons,
that he has reconstituted his nuclear program to develop a nuclear
weapon, that there are efforts under way inside Iraq to significantly
expand his capability.'' September 8, 2002 NBC Meet the Press
interview with Vice President Cheney.
(G) ''He is, in fact, actively and aggressively seeking to acquire
nuclear weapons.'' September 8, 2002 NBC Meet the Press interview with
Vice President Cheney.
(H) ''And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.''
March 16, 2003, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President
Cheney.
(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice President was
fully informed that no legitimate evidence existed of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq. The Vice President pressured the intelligence
community to change their findings to enable the deception of the
citizens and Congress of the United States.
(A) Vice President Cheney and his Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby, made
multiple trips to the CIA in 2002 to question analysts studying Iraq's
weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an
environment in which analysts felt they were being pressured to make
their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives
accounts.
(B) Vice President Cheney sought out unverified and ultimately
inaccurate raw intelligence to prove his preconceived beliefs. This
strategy of cherry picking was employed to influence the
interpretation of the intelligence.
(3) The Vice President's actions corrupted or attempted to corrupt the
2002 National Intelligence Estimate, an intelligence document issued
on October 1, 2002 and carefully considered by Congress prior to the
October 10, 2002 vote to authorize the use of force. The Vice
President's actions prevented the necessary reconciliation of facts
for the National Intelligence Estimate which resulted in a high number
of dissenting opinions from technical experts in two Federal agencies.
(A) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
stated ''Lacking persuasive evidence that Baghdad has launched a
coherent effort to reconstitute it's nuclear weapons program INR is
unwilling to speculate that such an effort began soon after the
departure of UN inspectors or to project a timeline for the completion
of activities it does not now see happening. As a result INR is unable
to predict that Iraq could acquire a nuclear device or weapon.''
(B) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
also stated that ''Finally, the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural
uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment, highly dubious.''
(C) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
dissenting view in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
references a Department of Energy opinion by stating that ''INR
accepts the judgment of technical experts at the US Department of
Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire
are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium
enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to
make the case that they are intended for that purpose.''
H Res 333 does not mention, but it is also relevant, that post-
invasion Cheney clung to the idea that Iraq had WMDs. The above also
does not include much explanation of how we know that Cheney knew he
was lying. Congressman Henry Waxman has posted a searchable database
of lies. It includes Cheney WMD lies not included above (with
citations) and Cheney lies about al Qaeda not included below, a total
of 51 Cheney lies. And it explains how we know in each case that he
was lying.
Further documentation would begin with this:
CHENEY (August 26, 2002): "But we now know that Saddam has resumed his
efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Among other sources, we've gotten
this from the firsthand testimony of defectors -- including Saddam's
own son-in-law, who was subsequently murdered at Saddam's
direction...During the spring of 1995, the inspectors were actually on
the verge of declaring that Saddam's programs to develop chemical
weapons and longer-range ballistic missiles had been fully accounted
for and shut down. Then Saddam's son-in-law suddenly defected and
began sharing information...That should serve as a reminder to all
that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned
from the inspection regime itself."
Here's Kamel on CNN on September 21, 1995:
CNN: Can you state, here and now, does Iraq have any weapons of mass
destruction left?
KAMEL: No. Iraq does not possess any weapons of mass destruction.
In the notes from Kamel's 1995 debriefing by the UN, he's asked:
PROF. ZIFFERERO: were there any continuation of , or present nuclear
activities, for example, EMIS, centrifuge?
KAMEL: No...
And here's a declassified CIA document from their interrogation of
Kamel:
SOURCE HAS STATED SPECIFICALLY THAT THE CENTRIFUGES HAVE BEEN
DESTROYED, AND NONE ARE LEFT HIDDEN
Finally, we know someone at the White House was asking the CIA about
Kamel at the beginning of 2002, because the WMD Commission refers to
this document:
Senior Executive Memorandum (Jan. 12, 2002) (discussing the value of
Kamil's information)
Senior Executive Memoranda are produced by the CIA in response to high-
level questions from the executive branch. But what this specifically
said is unknown, because the CIA has turned down FOIA requests for it
from the National Security Archive.
Second Charge:
Cheney purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the
citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged
relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in order to justify the use of
the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner
damaging to our national security interests, to wit:
(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice President actively
and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and the Congress of
the United States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al
Qaeda:
(A) ''His regime has had high-level contacts with Al Qaeda going back
a decade and has provided training to Al Qaeda terrorists.'' December
2, 2002, Speech of Vice President Cheney at the Air National Guard
Senior Leadership Conference.
(B) ''His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al
Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction
to terrorists for use against us.'' January 30, 2003, Speech of Vice
President Cheney to 30th Political Action Conference in Arlington,
Virginia.
(C) ''We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons
and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various
terrorist groups, including the Al Qaeda organization.'' March 16,
2003, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ''We learned more and more that there was a relationship between
Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of
the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on biological
weapons and chemical weapons...'' September 14, 2003, NBC Meet the
Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(E) ''Al Qaeda had a base of operation there up in Northeastern Iraq
where they ran a large poisons factory for attacks against Europeans
and U.S. forces.'' October 3, 2003, Speech of Vice President Cheney at
Bush-Cheney '04 Fundraiser in Iowa.
(F) ''He also had an established relationship with Al Qaeda providing
training to Al Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases, and
conventional bombs.'' October 10, 2003, Speech of Vice President
Cheney to the Heritage Foundation.
(G) ''Al Qaeda and the Iraqi intelligence services have worked
together on a number of occasions.'' January 9, 2004, Rocky Mountain
News interview with Vice President Cheney.
(H) ''I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a
connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government'' January 22,
2004, NPR: Morning Edition interview with Vice President Cheney.
(I) ''First of all, on the question of--of whether or not there was any
kind of relationship, there clearly was a relationship. It's been
testified to; the evidence is overwhelming.'' June 17, 2004, CNBC:
Capital Report interview with Vice President Cheney.
(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice President was
fully informed that no credible evidence existed of a working
relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, a fact articulated in several
official documents, including:
(A) A classified Presidential Daily Briefing ten days after the
September 11, 2001 attacks indicating that the United States
intelligence community had no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the
September 11th attacks and that there was ''scant credible evidence
that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda'.'
(B) Defense Intelligence Terrorism Summary No. 044-02, issued in
February 2002 by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency, which
challenged the credibility of information gleaned from captured al
Qaeda leader al-Libi. The DIA report also cast significant doubt on
the possibility of a Saddam Hussein-al-Qaeda conspiracy: ''Saddam's
regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary
movements. Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a
group it cannot control.''
(C) A January 2003 British intelligence classified report on Iraq that
concluded that ''there are no current links between the Iraqi regime
and the al-Qaeda network''
Cheney has maintained in televised statements right up through the
spring of 2007 that Iraq and al Qaeda worked together.
Bill Moyers' recent program on the media's role in "Buying the War"
has Bob Simon of 60 Minutes saying that when the White House claimed a
9-11 hijacker had met with a representative of the Iraqi government in
Prague, 60 Minutes was easily able to make a few calls and find out
that there was no evidence for the claim. "If we had combed Prague,"
he says, "and found out that there was absolutely no evidence for a
meeting between Mohammad Atta and the Iraqi intelligence figure. If we
knew that, you had to figure the administration knew it. And yet they
were selling the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam."
Third Charge:
Cheney has openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran
absent any real threat to the United States, and done so with the
United States proven capability to carry out such threats, thus
undermining the national security of the United States, to wit:
(1) Despite no evidence that Iran has the intention or the capability
of attacking the United States and despite the turmoil created by
United States invasion of Iraq, the Vice President has openly
threatened aggression against Iran as evidenced by the following:
(A) ''For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the
table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime. And we
join other nations in sending that regime a clear message: We will not
allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.'' March 7, 2006, Speech of Vice
President Cheney to American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2006
Policy Conference.
(B) ''But we've also made it clear that all options are on the
table.'' January 24, 2007, CNN Situation Room interview with Vice
President Cheney.
(C) ''When we--as the President did, for example, recently--deploy
another aircraft carrier task force to the Gulf, that sends a very
strong signal to everybody in the region that the United States is
here to stay, that we clearly have significant capabilities, and that
we are working with friends and allies as well as the international
organizations to deal with the Iranian threat.'' January 29, 2007,
Newsweek interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ''But I've also made the point and the President has made the
point that all options are still on the table.'' February 24, 2007,
Vice President Cheney at Press Briefing with Australian Prime Minister
in Sydney, Australia.
(2) The Vice President, who repeatedly and falsely claimed to have had
specific, detailed knowledge of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction capabilities, is no doubt fully aware of evidence that
demonstrates Iran poses no real threat to the United States as
evidenced by the following:
(A) ''I know that what we see in Iran right now is not the industrial
capacity you can [use to develop a] bomb.'' Mohamed ElBaradei,
Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, February 19,
2007.
(B) Iran indicated its ''full readiness and willingness to negotiate
on the modality for the resolution of the outstanding issues with the
IAEA, subject to the assurances for dealing with the issues in the
framework of the Agency, without the interference of the United
Nations Security Council''. IAEA Board Report, Feb- 4
ruary 22, 2007.
(C) ''...so whatever they have, what we have seen today, is not the
kind of capacity that would enable them to make bombs.'' Mohamed El
Baradei, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency,
February 19, 2007.
(3) The Vice President is fully aware of the actions taken by the
United States towards Iran that are further destabilizing the world as
evidenced by the following:
(A) The United States has refused to engage in meaningful diplomatic
relations with Iran since 2002, rebuffing both bilateral and
multilateral offers to dialogue.
(B) The United States is currently engaged in a military buildup in
the Middle East that includes the increased presence of the United
States Navy in the waters near Iran, significant United States Armed
Forces in two nations neighboring to Iran, and the installation of
anti-missile technology in the region.
(C) News accounts have indicated that military planners have
considered the B61-11, a tactical nuclear weapon, as one of the
options to strike underground bunkers in Iran.
(D) The United States has been linked to anti-Iranian organizations
that are attempting to destabilize the Iranian government, in
particular the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), even though the state
department has branded it a terrorist organization.
(E) News accounts indicate that United States troops have been ordered
into Iran to collect data and establish contact with anti-government
groups.
(4) In the last three years the Vice President has repeatedly
threatened Iran. However, the Vice President is legally bound by the
U.S Constitution's adherence to international law that prohibits
threats of use of force.
(A) Article VI of the United States Constitution states, ''This
Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made,
under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of
the Land.'' Any provision of an international treaty ratified by the
United States becomes the law of the United States.
(B) The United States is a signatory to the United Nations Charter, a
treaty among the nations of the world. Article II, Section 4 of the
United Nations Charter states, ''All Members shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in
any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United
Nations.'' The threat of force is illegal.
(C) Article 51 lays out the only exception, ''Nothing in the present
Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective
self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United
Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to
maintain international peace and security.'' Iran has not attacked the
United States; therefore any threat against Iran by the United States
is illegal.
The Vice President's deception upon the citizens and Congress of the
United States that enabled the failed United States invasion of Iraq
forcibly altered the rules of diplomacy such that the Vice President's
recent belligerent actions towards Iran are destabilizing and counter-
productive to the national security of the United States.
There are more recent clips not cited here, including on an aircraft
carrier in the Gulf.
Bridge to a 22nd Century:
Additional Charges Not Contained in H Res 333
Fourth Charge:
Cheney led a campaign of retribution against whistleblower Joseph
Wilson, including the outing of a covert CIA operative.
The trial of Scooter Libby has produced overwhelming evidence that
Vice President Cheney personally led the campaign to attack Joe Wilson
through the media. This "get Wilson" campaign included telling
numerous reporters that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife Valerie
Plame, a CIA operative. Cheney was told by the CIA that Valerie Plame
worked as a covert agent in the CIA's Nonproliferation Division, which
is the critical division of the CIA responsible for stopping the
spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Cheney's efforts
to expose Plame actually exposed her entire covert network, at
tremendous cost to the CIA's secret war against terrorism. If Plame's
work had been exposed by a double-agent in our government like Aldrich
Ames or Robert Hanssen, that person would face prosecution for
espionage and treason. The evidence of Cheney's role is more than
enough to start an impeachment investigation.
Just Another Obstruction of Justice
The Two Redacted Pages
Indictment of Cheney for Plame Leak
Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney
Fitzgerald: "There Is a Cloud Over the Vice President"
Libby Testimony Raises More Questions about Cheney's Role In The CIA
Leak Case
Libby Trial Sheds Light on White House
Did Bush and Cheney Lie to Fitzgerald?
Libby Told Grand Jury He Was Ordered to Leak Intelligence
Court Hears Libby Describe Cheney as 'Upset' at Critic
Libby Trial: Russert Ruins the Cover Story
Addington Points to Cheney
Cheney's Notes
Fifth Charge:
Cheney led efforts to torture.
Washington Post's Series on Cheney
Sixth Charge:
Cheney played a key role in setting up illegal spying programs.
NY Times: "Dick Cheney sent Mr. Gonzales and another official to Mr.
Ashcroft's hospital room to get him to approve the wiretapping."
Unimpeachably Impeachable
Cheney Urged Illegal Wiretaps
Ashcroft's ex-no. 2 says Gonzales, Cheney tried to take advantage of
sick Attorney General.
Cheney has refused to comply with a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary
Committee: http://www.democrats.com/subpoenas
Seventh Charge:
Cheney led manipulation of pre-war intelligence.
The Scooter Libby trial also exposed the lead role of Vice President
Cheney's office in manipulating pre-war intelligence to defraud
Congress into authorizing the invasion of Iraq. Sworn testimony
revealed that Cheney's office managed the evidence of Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction, all of which proved to be lies. Cheney personally
visited the CIA several times before the invasion to pressure the CIA
to distort pre-war intelligence. And Cheney exerted "constant"
pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use
of flawed intelligence on Iraq, according to the new chairman, Senator
Jay Rockefeller.
On July 14, 2003, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity laid
out the case for asking Bush to request Cheney's resignation: PDF.
Tenet Blames Cheney.
Eighth Charge:
Cheney created the secret Energy Task Force which operated in defiance
of open-government laws.
Ninth Charge:
Cheney's lawyer, David Addington, advocated the "Unitary Executive
Theory" which is used by the White House to defy laws duly enacted by
Congress and thereby justify dictatorial action.
Cheney Exempts His Office from Requirement to Protect Classified
Information
Cheney Destroys Visitor Logs
A New Dick Cheney-Alberto Gonzales Mystery
Tenth Charge:
Cheney directed massive no-bid contracts to his company, Halliburton,
and profitted from the same illegal war he defrauded the American
public to launch.
Give It Back, Dick.
Eleventh Charge:
Cheney increased the danger of climate change.
Cheney Bypassed Environmentally 'Clueless' Bush To Craft
Administration's Climate Change Agenda
Twelfth Charge:
Cheney Suppressed Evidence in California Energy Crisis
Report.
Thirteenth Charge:
Cheney has been manipulating and misleading about evidence of Iranian
nuclear weapons and other justifications for an attack on Iran.
Fourteenth Charge:
Cheney has refused to comply with a subpoena.
More Reading Materials
Cheney Country
Dick Cheney Really Is That Bad
Answering to No One
Cheney's Long-Lost Twin
Cheney Made Bush Commute Libby
Why the Perjury?
Lost Liberties
Absolute Power Corrupts...Cheney
Doak: Restore Constitution as law of the land - Impeach Cheney
Nation needs intervention to get Cheney out of office
Did Dick Cheney kill 70,000 salmon? Committee to probe
Rep. McDermott: The Vice President Should Resign or Face Impeachment
Dick Cheney's Dangerous Influence
The Misunderestimated Mr. Cheney: The Vice President's Record of
Willfully Violating the Law, And Wrongly Claiming Authority
Impeach Cheney: The vice president has run utterly amok and must be
stopped: By Bruce Fein
Dick Cheney's Dangerous Son-In-Law
Subpoena Dick
The People vs. Richard Cheney
Dick Cheney Rules
Dick Cheney and Jim Wright Saved Reagan: What Can Cheney and Nancy
Pelosi Do for Bush?
The Spoiler: How Cheney ensures diplomatic failure with Iran
Cheney's New Front in War on Reality
Cheney Hints at Iran Strike
Stink of Blood Money
Cheney's the One
Cheney Promises to Veto Employee Free Choice Act
Impeach the Two of Them
Dick Cheney and the Dog that Didn't Bark
Mr. Cheney, Tear Down This Wall
ISOO Asks Attorney General to Rule on Cheney's Role
Impeach Cheney Part 1.
Impeach Cheney Part 2.
Impeach Cheney Part 3.
Cheney Pursuing Nuclear Ambitions of His Own.
Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE
Cheney's Own Logic for Impeachment
MORE EVIDENCE
STRATEGY
Congress is on politically safe, as well as morally necessary, ground
impeaching Dick Cheney.
George Bush's approval ratings are among the lowest ever recorded by a
President, and Cheney's are much lower.
If we impeach Cheney first, no one need fear a President Cheney.
A lot of people are understandably, if misguidedly, afraid that
impeaching George W. Bush would somehow make Cheney president. Because
Cheney is already running the White House, this change would not be as
serious as people fear. But we can impeach Cheney FIRST and make all
the fears go away.
This is about far more than selecting the next president.
It would benefit political opponents of the Bush-Cheney agenda for
Cheney to be President, as he would shatter Truman's record for
unpopularity and help boost a Democratic landslide in 2008. The
Republicans know this and will never allow Cheney to be president.
He'll resign before Bush is removed from office, and we'll have a new
Gerald Ford (a President Pelosi is no more likely than a President
Cheney). We'll have the same result if we impeach Cheney first and
remove him from office. And we may get there faster this way.
Removal from office follows impeachment, which follows an
investigation. A serious investigation of either Cheney or Bush will
inevitably incriminate the other. In fact, the Libby trial has already
shown this. Such an investigation would benefit our democracy whether
or not it finally arrived at impeachment, and impeachment of both Bush
and Cheney is richly merited, as is removal from office. But removal
from office is an additional and difficult step. Merely impeaching
Bush leaves us with President... Bush. Whichever of these two we
impeach first, it is possible we will impeach them both before
removing either from office.
We must impeach Cheney and Bush to establish standards for all future
presidents, not to pick one. And ultimately we must stop fearing
possible results of this in order to see it through. A President
Cheney afraid of being held accountable by us is far preferable to a
President Bush taking orders from a Vice President Cheney who believes
he's above the law.
Impeachment is not a way to pick a president, and if all you're
worried about is picking a president, you have no business monkeying
around with something as profoundly significant as impeachment.
Impeachment is a tool for removing a criminal president from office,
thus establishing limitations on power for subsequent presidents. If
we do not impeach Cheney and Bush, we will have established that it is
acceptable for presidents to lie us into wars, to spy without
warrants, to detain without charge, to torture, to reverse laws with
signing statements, etc. These reasons go to the survival of our
democracy, a matter of far greater significance than the person who
next sits in the office of the presidency - or the office of the king
if that is what it is to become.
It is not politically dangerous to impeach. It is politically
dangerous not to impeach when the case is clear. The Democrats
calculated that by letting the Iran-Contra gang off the hook, they
could win the next elections. They then lost those elections. The
Republicans tried to impeach Truman, won what they wanted from the
Supreme Court, and then won the next elections. A dozen examples
through history tell the same story. The only near-exception is
Clinton. But that was an impeachment the public opposed. So, it ought
to have had a reverse result from the other cases. Even so, the
Republicans lost fewer seats than is the norm at that point in a
majority tenure, and they lost seats mostly in the Senate which
acquitted, not the House which impeached. The handful of fanatical
Congress Members who imposed the Clinton impeachment on the rest of
the Congress and the country won big in their next elections. Would
that we had a few fanatics for serious justice in the House today.