7 June 2003

GW Bush Lies About WMD an Impeachable Offense?

John Dean, former Nixon counsel, has penned an article asking the question and draws parallels to the Nixon impeachment:

To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.

Nixon claimed that his misuses of the federal agencies for his political purposes were in the interest of national security. The same kind of thinking might lead a President to manipulate and misuse national security agencies or their intelligence to create a phony reason to lead the nation into a politically desirable war. Let us hope that is not the case.



Comments

This is of course an impeachable offense against the people of the US. Over 500 American lives have been lost over this lie. Thousands of Iraqi people have been lost over this lie. Billions of dollars of taxpayers money has been wasted on this lie. Bush needs to be impeached and drummed out of office. Every serviceperson and taxpayer should get to kick him where it counts before he leaves.