Sunday January 11, 2009, 4:56 am
In April 2007, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) filed an impeachment resolution (H.Res. 333) against Vice President Dick Cheney seeking his trial in the Senate on three charges. After months of inaction, Kucinich re-introduced the exact content of H. Res 333 as a new resolution numbered H.Res. 799 in November 2007. Both resolutions were referred to the Judiciary Committee immediately after their introduction; the Committee did not consider either resolution. Both resolutions will expire upon the termination of the 110th United States Congress on 3 January 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9-jhkaQCfI

Sunday January 11, 2009, 6:44 am
In one of the first acts of the 111th Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers proposed legislation to create a blue-ribbon panel of outside experts to probe the “broad range” of policies pursued by the Bush administration “under claims of unreviewable war powers,” including torture of detainees and warrantless wiretaps.

Conyers’s proposal for a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties also signals that Congress will devote significant time this year to investigating the Bush administration’s most controversial actions with an eye to rolling back its expansion of executive power.

Many civil liberties and human rights groups feared that the Democratic-controlled Congress and Barack Obama’s administration would duck any sustained inquiry into wrongdoing by George W. Bush and his subordinates, to avoid angering Republicans.

While Conyers’s plan falls short of the criminal probe that civil rights groups have sought, neither would it prevent a criminal investigation by Obama’s Justice Department if the new administration moves in that direction, said two aides on Obama’s transition team who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Obama has been ambivalent about how to proceed regarding wrongdoing by the Bush administration. He said during the campaign that willful criminality should be punished because “nobody is above the law,” but also expressed concern that an investigation might get bogged down in recriminations and could be viewed by Republicans as “a partisan witch hunt.”

Obama also has suggested he might support some form of truth commission as a way of ascertaining the facts, which would be in line with Conyers’s plan.

The proposed blue-ribbon panel would consist of nine members, with no more than five from the same political party. Appointed by the President and congressional leaders, the panel would have a budget of about $3 million and subpoena power to compel testimony from high-level members of the Bush administration.

The panel would file an initial report to the President and Congress within one year and a final report six months later. The report would include “any recommendations the Commission considers appropriate.” lt is unclear if criminal prosecution could be one of the recommendations of the panel.

Mukasey's Stand

Last year, amid disclosures about White House approval of brutal interrogation tactics used against “war on terror” detainees, Conyers called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether these actions constituted war crimes. But Mukasey didn’t act.

In a roundtable discussion with reporters on Dec. 3, Mukasey revealed his thinking, arguing that there is no legal basis to prosecute current and former administration officials for authorizing torture and warrantless domestic surveillance because those decisions were made in the context of a presidential interest in protecting national security.

"There is absolutely no evidence that anybody who rendered a legal opinion, either with respect to surveillance or with respect to interrogation policies, did so for any reason other than to protect the security in the country and in the belief that he or she was doing something lawful,” Mukasey said.

Regarding Justice Department legal opinions sanctioning these actions, Mukasey said he feared that second-guessing of those opinions would send “the message … that if you come up with an answer that is not considered desirable in the future you might face prosecution, and that creates an incentive not to give an honest answer but to give an answer that may be acceptable in the future.”

The war-crimes issue surfaced again when Vice President Dick Cheney gave media interviews last month in which he talked unapologetically about his role in approving harsh interrogation tactics, including the simulated drowning of waterboarding which is widely regarded as torture.

Conyers’s proposed legislation was introduced on the same day that the Senate Judiciary Committee gave reporters three previously unreleased Justice Department legal opinions pertaining to Bush’s authority to declare war with Iraq.

The legal opinions were written by Jay Bybee and John Yoo, former Justice Department attorneys who also drafted the infamous August 2002 “Torture Memo” that authorized CIA interrogators to waterboard high-level prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has spent the past four years investigating the genesis of that memo, specifically whether Bybee and Yoo provided the White House with poor legal advice.

In Bybee’s newly released Oct. 23, 2002, 47-page opinion, he stakes out broad war-making powers for Bush, claiming the President "possesses constitutional authority for ordering the use of force against Iraq to protect our national interests.”

The memo was drafted about two weeks after Congress approved a resolution authorizing Bush to "use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.”

In the memo, Bybee reaffirmed an earlier opinion that Bush possessed the necessary war-making powers regardless of what Congress did.

"This memorandum confirms our prior advice to you regarding the scope of the President's authority. We conclude that the President possesses constitutional authority for ordering the use of force against Iraq to protect our national interests," Bybee's memo said.

“This independent authority is supplemented by congressional authorization in the form of the [1991] Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution ..., which supports the use of force to secure lraq' s compliance with its international obligations following the liberation of Kuwait, and the [2001] Authorization for Use of Military Force ..., which supports military action against Iraq if the President determines Iraq provided assistance to the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"In addition, using force against Iraq would be consistent with international law, because it would be authorized by the United Nations Security Council, or would be justified as anticipatory self-defense."

As it turned out, the UN Security Council did not approve military action against Iraq, forcing Bush to assemble an ad hoc multinational force that he called the "coalition of the willing." UN Secretary General Kofi Annan later acknowledged that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a violation of international law.

There also has been no credible evidence indicating that Iraq provided any assistance to the 9/11 hijackers.

Another newly released legal opinion, written by Bybee’s successor, Jack Goldsmith, authorized Iraqi prisoners be moved to other countries to be interrogated — a practice known as rendition.

The existence of the three new legal opinions were first reported Tuesday by McClatchy Newspapers, which added that “Yoo supplements those arguments [on presidential powers] in two other memos dated Nov. 8, 2002 and Dec. 7, 2002.”

Conyers’s legislation for the blue-ribbon commission was co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Jerrold Nadler, Linda Sanchez, Bill Delahunt, Luis Gutierrez, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Steve Cohen.

Jason Leopold has launched his own Web site, The Public Record, at www.pubrecord.org.

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Sunday January 11, 2009, 8:21 am
Oh, please, please, may these criminals be made accountable for their lies, profiteering and violations of international law and human rights !

Sunday January 11, 2009, 6:03 pm
Letters and petitions need to fly to senators and representatives. A long time ago, it was stated that "we the people" are the government. Our elected officials need to be held accountable for what they do, or fail to do. Mr. Bush needs to be held accountable for his misuse of power.

Sunday January 11, 2009, 6:25 pm
Did any of you read the article?
Concerned that the 35 articles of impeachment he introduced a month ago might be too much for members of the House Judiciary Committee to handle all at once, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) simplified things Thursday.

The former Democratic presidential candidate introduced a single article to impeach President Bush, accusing him of deceiving Congress to convince lawmakers to authorize his invasion of Iraq more than five years ago.

"Yesterday in the House, we had a moment of silence for the troops," Kucinich said during a Capitol Hill press conference. "Today it is time to speak out on behalf of those troops who will be in Iraq for at least another year, courageously representing our nation while their Commander-in-Chief sent them on a mission that was based on falsehoods about the threat of WMDs from Iraq."

Kucinich spoke outside a House office building with the Capitol dome gleaming behind him as he distributed to news organizations, including RAW STORY, the text of his impeachment article. Its title: "Deceiving Congress with Fabricated Threats of Iraq WMDs to Fraudulently Obtain Support for an Authorization of the Use of Military Force Against Iraq."

Surrounded by reporters as well as supporters from activist group Code Pink, Kucinich said he was "grateful" for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that the Judiciary Committee may soon hold hearings on his measure.

"Like everything else in Washington, never say never," Kucinich said of the possibility for action on an impeachment measure Pelosi long said was "off the table."

Watch it:

Sunday January 11, 2009, 6:52 pm
What is the point of posting a six month old article about a now non-issue as the guy is leaving the White House with a full self-given pardon for his crimes? It's history now, not news.

Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:25 pm
Very good Point BMutiny.

Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:25 pm
Hitler's cronies were tried after WWII was OVER. We didn't just say, the war is over, forget it. Don't you know, that in U.S. law, there is NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR MURDER???? You can still be tried, for a murder you committed 25, 50 years ago. You can't just "wait it out", saying it's "ancient history" and people's lives have "moved on". THE MURDER VICTIMS' FAMILIES WOULDN'T STAND FOR THAT. If YOUR child or your loved one was MURDERED, would you FORGET IT after a year or 8 years? I hope NOT!!!

WAR CRIMES are MULTIPLE MURDERS. KATRINA resulted in deaths because THE FEDERAL GOVT DID NOT TAKE THE ACTION IT COULD HAVE. That is MURDER OR MANSLAUGHTER. How many deaths from ILLEGALLY GOING INTO IRAQ UNDER FALSE PRETENCES WHEN BUSHCO KNEW THERE WERE NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION??? Deaths of U.S. soldiers, deaths of Iraqis, deaths of our "allies"??? DO YOU THINK THE FAMILIES OF ALL THESE VICTIMS, SHOULD JUST SHRUG THEIR SHOULDERS ABOUT THIS, THROW UP THEIR HANDS AND SAY, 'WHATEVER'???

Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:35 pm
Bush SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED; but he and his cronies, Cheney, Rice, etc., can and SHOULD BE STILL TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES. FOR TORTURE. FOR BREAKING U.S. LAWS ACCORDING TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION. FOR VIOLATING THE GENEVA CONVENTION. And on and on and on.
How ARROGANT AND STUPID, to think he can PARDON HIMSELF!
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et all can NEVER SET FOOT OUTSIDE THE U.S. {except maybe when they all flee to Bush's ranch he bought in the dictatorship of Paraguay, where they UNDERSTAND guys like him}. They can, and WILL, like Chile's brutal dictator Pinochet, be GRABBED OFF THE STREET ANYWHERE THEY GO; and HAULED BEFORE AN INTERNATIONAL COURT. Kicking and screaming, no doubt. CITIZENS OF MANY COUNTRIES HAVE BEEN KILLED BY BUSHCO'S WAR CRIMINALS. Therefore, these countries have EVERY RIGHT TO GRAB THE BUSHCO GANG AND TRY THEM IN THEIR OWN COURTS.

Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:40 pm
Funny, Suzybell, that your comment comes BEFORE my posting, not AFTER it, as it logically would.
Care2 has been doing this odd sort of re-arranging, all day! DIS-CONCERTING. WEIRD! Funny glitch.

Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:48 pm
Ditto, B Mutiny! Actually, we need to try him in this country to really re-gain respect.... Thank goodness we got him out of office before some country from across the world came here, to 'get rid of the evil dictator' (killing a bunch of us in the process and destroying our country) like 'they' did in Iraq. oops, like 'we' did in Iraq.
Connie Jean

Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:48 pm
I Have noted that one myself. All one can do is Grin :) and bare it.

Sunday January 11, 2009, 9:20 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K27oIJlAlA

Sunday January 11, 2009, 9:52 pm
Dennis Kucinich is my hero! Really.

Monday January 12, 2009, 12:35 pm
It is very sad to see this past adminstration get away with murder... Watching Bush this morning still double talking his past 8 years is sickening...All he says is that history will be the judge.....He and his cronies should be judged now....They shouldn't get away with all the harm that they caused this country....

Monday January 12, 2009, 2:42 pm
Could it really be - AT LAST??? Now we must write, call and send emails. DEMAND AND DEMAND THAT BUSH AND THE REST BE PUNISHED!!!
PLEASE DON'T LET THIS BE JUST A STORY - WRITE TO YOUR REPRESENTIVES DAILY - IT TAKES ONLY A COUPLE OF MINUTES.

Monday January 26, 2009, 11:01 am
Time to do YOUR PART:

Easy New Lookup Page: Contact Your State District Attorneys To Prosecute Bush and Cheney

The Best Way To Light A Fire For Federal Prosecutions of Bush And
Cheney Is To Get Collateral State Actions Going

After weeks and weeks of unbelievable work, we have completed
compiling a database of the current contact information for every
state district attorney, for EVERY county in the country. And we have
put it all together into an easy one click lookup function to help
organize contacting your nearest state prosecutor, to call on THEM to
step up to the plate, to stand up for justice and accountability, by
prosecuting George Bush and Dick Cheney for their crimes.

In particular, renowned former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has laid
out a compelling case for charging both Bush and Cheney with the
premediated murder of American service men and women, for starting a
war with Iraq on patently false pretenses. By using this new lookup
page you can instantly get the mailing address, phone, fax, and in
many cases also the email of your local prosecutor. This action is SO
critical we have dedicated our entire main site homepage to it.

Local Prosecutor Lookup: http://www.peaceteam.net


IMPORTANT NOTE: We are not asking anyone to file a "formal" criminal
complaint yourself. Common sense tells us that a state prosecutor
will only act, in the exercise of their OWN discretion, if they
believe there is a non-frivolous case to bring. But by speaking out,
we can let them know there is community support for them to do so.

There are nearly 3,000 county level state prosecutors in the country.
And these are often VERY politically sensitive elected positions,
where citizen pressure can have huge impact. Indeed, if you look at
current members of Congress, a large number of them started out as
district attorneys. Who among these 3,000 has the courage to take on
the urgency of pressing these historic charges, and perhaps then
replace some of the partially inflated punching bags that many
members of Congress have allowed themselves to become?

To hear the Sunday morning Washington chucklehead pundits talk about
it, whether to prosecute war crimes or not (as if it were optional)
is an inside the beltway political decision. Oh really? Well maybe
our United States of America is a little bit bigger than their little
beltway.

Attorney General Holder is already coming under enormous pressure
from rabidly lawless Republicans, for just simply declaring what any
first year law student would have to say to keep from getting
flunked, that torture is a CRIME. And if Bush and Cheney ordered
torture, as they have recently brazenly admitted on TV, they MUST be
prosecuted. End of story.

But we cannot ONLY rely on getting an honest attorney general who
will do his duty (though we must have that too), nor can we rely much
on the mostly whiny weenies in Congress to finally put together an
investigation with teeth. NO!! The critical move NOW is to drum up
collateral actions at the state level, as counselled by Bugliosi, and
that will help force the hands of everyone else.

Imagine what it would be like if we found just ONE crusading state
prosecutor to respond to the call of destiny. Imagine what it would
be like if a DOZEN or more suddenly sprang into action, because of
our many letters, and phone calls, and faxes and emails. We can open
up an whole new third front, and keep it open.

We were still packing up more "Convict Dick & W" caps as we were
listening to the presidential inauguration last Tuesday. Then we got
out the first large shipment last Wednesday. And with that we
officially inaugurate the Bush and Cheney conviction movement.

Thank you for your patience. Researching thousands and thousands of
websites (where many counties have none at all), cross-checking the
best available lists, many incomplete and out of date, against hard
to find local election results, took a massive amount of energy to
create the new local prosecutor lookup function. But we had to make
it the number one priority, and now it's done, and it works like a
dream.

Local Prosecutor Lookup: http://www.peaceteam.net

So after you use the local prosecutor lookup at the page below, you
can also request one of the new "Convict Dick & W" caps from the same
page, complete with a little embroidered cowboy hat on the "W". Yes,
a tiny cowboy hat for a very small man, the Cowboy from Connecticut,
our first presidential felon to be, George Bush. It's perfect.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.