IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

Oust top two

"It is time to hold impeachment hearings. How much more should we endure? The top two, Bush and Cheney, need to go."
"First, intelligence was manipulated to win approval to go to war in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction. No link to al-Qaida was confirmed. Uranium sales to Iraq from Africa did not occur. Why? Because it was fabricated by the top two and their associates."
"And now the most egregious act of all is occurring, spying on U.S. citizens without authorization from the court. This is the ultimate of crimes the top two have committed."
"They are certainly setting a bad example to the rest of the world in terms of manifesting ethical democratic principles. Instead, they are exemplifying dictator-like behavior."
Olivia Chavez, El Paso Times, December 28, 2005


Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.

The 11-judge court that authorizes FISA wiretaps modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation.

But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history.



"The precedent for Alberto Gonzales' declaration that Bush is the law was Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner, who agreed in a cabinet meeting on 3 July 1934 that "Hitler was the law." Bush's claim that extraordinary powers are necessary for him to be able to defend our country under extraordinary circumstances is identical to Hitler's claim that he was entitled to ignore the rule of law because he was "responsible for the fate of the German nation and thereby the supreme judge of the German people." What is the difference between HItler's claim and the US Department of Defense's claim that President Bush has the right to violate domestic and international laws?"
"America's Moral Crisis, a History of Hitler's Secret Prisons and a Brief on the Illegality of Bush's War", Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, December 28, 2005


"With ruthless logic Higgs (Resurgence of the Warfare State) shreds every claim of the Bush administration and its apologists. Reading Higgs leaves no doubt that the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq was an illegal act based in deception. Under the Nuremberg standard established by the US itself, Bush's invasion is a war crime. Widespread slaughter of the civilian Iraqi population and torture of detainees are also war crimes. In one of his best chapters Higgs destroys the claim that US "smart weapons" are expressions of our morality in warfare because they target only enemy combatants."

"Higgs explains that the accuracy within a few yards of smart weapons is meaningless. The blast, heat, and pressures from the weapons destroys everything within 120 yards of the hit. No one within 365 yards can expect to remain unharmed. Injuries can extend to persons 1000 yards away from the blast. The odds are zero, Higgs writes, that the use of such weapons on towns and cities will not kill and maim large numbers of civilians."

"And they have done so. American forces in Iraq have killed far more Iraqi civilians than they have insurgents. It is safe to say that Iraqis never experienced such terror from Saddam Hussein as they have experienced from the American invasion and occupation."

"Bush claims that his war crimes are justified because they are committed in the name of "freedom and democracy." The entire world rejects this excuse. Sooner or later even Bush's remaining Republican supporters will turn away in shame from the dishonor Bush has brought to America."
"America's Moral Crisis, a History of Hitler's Secret Prisons and A Brief on the Illegality of Bush's War", Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, December 28, 2005



"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $685 million loan for Iraq on December 24."
" Iraq will not be sovereign or independent in the near future, even if President Bush says so. The country's financial future will instead be dictated by a new colossal economic occupation, complete with ground forces, tanks, foreign military bases and the like-all thanks to the United States, Britain and the IMF."
And of course democracy will never be truly attainable or even really wished for by the IMF and their wealthy investors-the country will just become another playing ground for imperial endeavors and capitalist greed. So much for independence, for no country is truly free and democratic when placed under the boot of the industrialized world. Markets consistently undermine democracy when motivated by self-interests, and Iraqi citizens are not likely to benefit in any real terms under the IMF's new loan package, which will be divvied out over the next 15 months."
"Don't believe for a minute that Iraq will be able to shake off globalism's ravenous greed anytime soon-even if US troops are redeployed. Capitalism's tentacles are now fully attached to Babylon, as if they weren't already, and the oil will be flowing shortly. Even if US troops are redeployed, or god forbid, brought home, the occupation of Iraq will nonetheless continue."
"Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan", Joshua Frank, CounterPunch, December 28, 2005