Showing posts with label H. Res 333. Show all posts
Showing posts with label H. Res 333. Show all posts

March 26, 2008

Special Prosecutor information, please circulate

I have posted a WAR CRIMES and IMPEACHMENT swicki, please feel free to put in your additions. You can install it and add to it on your site.

I refer you to this item as well:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_ladybroa_080326_water_is_not_a_basic.htm

Many of the basic international law is contained in Jordan Paust's paper as regards crimes against humanity.

And please honor us and all future generations by signing these petitions:

www.wexlerwantshearings.com


Global people for the impeachment of Richard Cheney 


Now that George Bush and Michael Hayden have publicly confessed to government waterboarding in a press conference on February 6, 2008, and in testimony before Congress on February 5, 2008, you may find the following information useful:

The law review article referenced below (available at no cost at: http://www.law.utah.edu/_webfiles/ULRarticles/150/150.pdf ) makes clear that waterboarding is torture and is a crime and a war crime punishable under a number of treaties to which the United States is a party and several U.S. statutes.

The article also explains that there is no defense available due to either (1) prior legal advice, or (2) circumstances (including, without limitation, terrorist acts – see citations in Footnotes 21 and 25 in the article), contrary to the claims of Bush and Hayden.

The law review article (see pages 359 to 374) also establishes that under a number of treaties to which the United States is a party, the U.S. has an obligation to initiate an official investigation regarding confessed acts of torture. For example, the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture, (1465 UNTS 85), Article 12 reads as follows:

“Each State Party shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.” (NOTE: The article also explains why “territory under its jurisdiction” includes GITMO and all DOD and CIA secret detention sites for the United States.)

The following case, among others, has held that waterboarding is torture:

In re Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights Litigation, 910 F. Supp. 1460, 1463 (District of Hawaii, 1995)

Waterboarding is torture regardless of the surrounding circumstances – there is no circumstantial or necessity defense to torture claims.

It is time for the appointment of a special prosecutor – General Mukasey must recuse himself because of his refusal to publicly state that waterboarding is criminal torture. As explained in the law review article and elsewhere, the following individuals played primary roles in the authorization of waterboarding and should be immediately identified as the primary subjects of the investigation:

George W. Bush
Richard “Dick” Cheney
John Ashcroft
Alberto Gonzales
Donald Rumsfeld
George J. Tenet
John E. McLaughlin
Porter Goss
David Addington
Jay S. Bybee
John Yoo
Jack Goldsmith
General Ricardo Sanchez
General Geoffrey Miller
General Janis Karpinski

Bush/Cheney Pardon Calendar

Under the circumstances – a public confession of criminal acts by George W. Bush -- you should expect that immediately after the November elections George W. Bush will pardon all of the people listed above, then resign. At that point, Richard “Dick” Cheney would become President, and you should expect that in that capacity Cheney will immediately pardon George W. Bush.

Immediate Appointment of Special Prosecutor

As a result of the expected pardons, a special prosecutor should be appointed immediately

Commencement of Impeachment Proceedings

As a result of the expected pardons, on the day after the November elections, the House of Representatives should impeach George W. Bush and Richard “Dick” Cheney for high crimes -- torture -- violating the following statutes, among others:

18 USC 3231
18 USC Sections 2340-2340A
18 USC 2441

Please note the strategic importance of simply presenting the impeachment to members of the House with no hearings and an immediate vote on the day after the November elections. There is no reason for hearings or delay, since George W. Bush has admitted the criminal act that is the basis of the impeachment.

International Crimes Not Subject to Pardon Power

It is worth pointing out that torture violations of the Law of War and international treaties are not subject to the Presidential pardon power. We will see these individuals on trial in the Hague for their publicly confessed war crimes.

Above the Law: Unlawful Executive Authorizations Regarding Detainee Treatment, Secret Renditions, Domestic Spying and Claims to Unchecked Executive Power,” Jordan J. Paust, Utah Law Review, 2007, Number 2, Pages 345 to 419

Article available free at: http://www.law.utah.edu/_webfiles/ULRarticles/150/150.pdf

January 02, 2008

Why DOES Nadler oppose impeachment hearings????

Why Does Nadler Oppose Impeachment Hearings?

Today activists are staging a sit-in at Rep. Jerrold Nadler's office in Brooklyn to demand impeachment hearings, and Nadler's office is being inundated with calls. (Please add to the deluge by calling 202-225-5635.) Nadler's staffers are telling callers that Nadler opposes impeachment, but they won't say why.

I asked Nadler directly about impeachment in November and blogged it here. Mostly he gave the usual excuses, but his bottom line was quite shocking to me:

"Impeachment can never work, it wasn't designed for a two-party system, that's why we've never removed a President" he said. "So then we should tear up the Constitution?" I asked. "No we need a new Special Prosecutor law that would focus on truly impeachable offenses like abuse of power." "But we just got rid of the Special Prosecutor law because of Ken Starr," I said. "We can write a better law," he said. Yeah sure in 5 or 10 years, I thought to myself as someone else grabbed him.

I'm not precisely sure what his "two-party system" objection is, but I think he believes members of the President's party will always defend their President, regardless of the merits of the impeachment case, so it will never be possible to get a 2/3 majority in the Senate for conviction and removal.

That's the point Nadler made on 12/28/07 to Jay DeDapper of WNBC:

On the merits he should've been impeached, but I oppose impeachment because it would just divert everybody's attention and you'd never get the votes... impeachment for all practical purposes is unworkable. It's only been--really worked once in our history. It can't work because of political parties. You're not going to get two-thirds of the Republicans to vote for it.

The most obvious rebuttal is the impeachment of Richard Nixon. (I assume that's the "once in our history" Nadler briefly mentioned.) If it had come to a vote in the Senate, Nixon might have been acquitted by Republicans who put their party before the Constitution, and he also might have been convicted by Republicans who did the opposite - there's just no way to know.

But it doesn't matter whether Nixon would have been acquitted or convicted, because the mere passage of Articles of Impeachment by solid majorities of the House Judiciary Committee - not even the full House - was enough to convince two senior Republican Senators to visit Nixon in the Oval Office and persuade him to resign. And despite his absolute certainty that he had done nothing wrong, Nixon realized he had lost too much support and credibility to function effectively as President, and resigned.

Why did those Republican Senators make the trip? Because months of impeachment hearings convinced a majority of Americans that Nixon had committed impeachable offenses. Faced with overwhelming evidence, several Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee broke ranks with their President and voted for the Articles of Impeachment. Congressional Republicans who continued to defend Nixon came under increasing pressure from their constituents and local media.

How would Nadler answer this rebuttal? He'd probably say Congress was less divided in the 1970's, and there were more moderate Republicans like Senator Howard Baker and Rep. Robert Michel.

On the margin, there's probably some truth to this argument. Since the Gingrich Revolution of 1994, moderate Republicans have mostly vanished.

But that's not the end of the political analysis. We're just 11 months from an election in which every Republican in the House plus 22 Republican Senators will have to face the voters.

That means there's plenty of time for the House Judiciary Committee to hold impeachment hearings and build a solid case for impeachment. As public support for impeachment builds, this will put tremendous pressure on Republicans. If they defy their constituents, they could lose their seats.

That's exactly how the Founding Fathers designed our democracy. It means there are practical limits to partisanship - if a Representative puts the interests of his party flagrantly ahead of the interests his voters, he will lose his job.

For Richard Nixon, public outrage trumped raw partisanship. I have no doubt that George Bush would face the identical fate - if only Jerrold Nadler would hold impeachment hearings as his constituents want - and as the Constitution demands.

BTW. Nadler's office numbers once again,
202-225-5635
212-367-7350
718-373-3198

Call him! Be a nuisance! This is what the Constitution's legal remedy IS. Don't let the next adminstration think it can get away with murder, corruption, lieing, torture, bankrupting the US ... think seven generations ahead!! This is our DUTY, notwithstanding people's PERSONAL agendas.

December 26, 2007

IMPEACHMENT TOOLKIT: Rose Parade!!



Cindy Sheehan & White Rose Coalition: Jan 1,2008 Rose Parade

Cindy Sheehan & White Rose Coalition: Jan 1,2008 Rose Parade
By Pligg Beta 9 / Published News / LOSANGELES
Bush and Dick Cheney for high crimes and misdemeanors, and to end US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Rep. Dennis Kucinich [OH] has sponsored two resolutions in Congress to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney: H. Res. 333 and H. Res. ...
LOSANGELES VIDEOCASTS - http://www.losangelesvideocasts.com/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

Press Contacts : Cynthia Mather
Los Angeles National Impeachment Center
8124 West 3rd Street, #216
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Tele: 310.497.7255
WHITE ROSE COALITION ACTION

For more details : see www.BCImpeach.com - Tab #10



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


CINDY SHEEHAN JOINS ACTIVISTS PLANNING CITIZENS' PRO-IMPEACHMENT & PRO-PEACE PROTEST AT NEW YEAR'S ROSE PARADE




Los Angeles - California (December 18, 2007) Local and national pro-Impeachment and pro-Peace American citizens will stage non-violent protests and demonstrations throughout the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday, January 1, 2008 beginning at 7:30 a.m. with support from Cindy Sheehan and the Camp Casey Peace Institute. The convergence of activists is called the White Rose Coalition, in honor of the resistance movement in Munich in 1942. The White Rose Coalition includes members of the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center (LANIC), CODEPINK, Troops Out Now Coalition, World Can't Wait, ANSWER, Progressive Democrats of America, the Green Party, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, and others.


The groups are calling for impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for high crimes and misdemeanors, and to end U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Rep. Dennis Kucinich [OH] has sponsored two resolutions in Congress to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney: H. Res. 333 and H. Res. 799. He is drafting an extended version relating to President Bush. The patriots gathered on January 1, 2008 will be sending a strong pro-Impeachment and pro-Peace message to this Administration in opposition to the continuing occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and the growing pressure by Cheney and others to bomb Iran.


"This administration has shredded Constitutional protections and is now apparently planning another illegal military strike, this time to bomb Iran,"
says Cynthia Mather , a spokesperson for LANIC.
"The consequences of such an assault on global well-being and security would be catastrophic,"
she said.
"Congress is obligated to act before it is too late. But the Democrats are not making any move to stop it, so impeachment is our only recourse."

"Numbers of protestors and demonstrators from the various groups could be in the hundreds or in the thousands"
said Peter Thottam, Executive Director of LANIC .
"We expect this to be a national day of impeachment visibility, with folks joining from all parts of the country. It is hard to gauge how many will show up, but according to the latest MSNBC poll, of 584,000 people asked if they thought Bush had committed impeachable offenses, 89 per cent said yes! There is a tremendous level of anger and frustration out there. I doubt if our politicians in Washington D.C. have any idea just how much."


For more information about the Pasadena Rose Parade action, the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center see www.BCImpeach.com

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