IMPEACH BUSH

"Dedicated to exposing the lies and impeachable offenses of George W. Bush"

Impeachable Offenses Page 1

Senate Bars Detainees From Filing Lawsuits

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from filing lawsuits in American courts to challenge their detentions, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted such access.

IRS Going After All Saints Episcopal Church Because it's Anti War

The IRS threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena because of an antiwar sermon there during the 2004 presidential election is part of a larger, controversial federal investigation of political activity at churches and nonprofit groups.

Cheney Fights for Torture

Just last week, Cheney showed up at a Republican senatorial luncheon to lobby lawmakers for a CIA exemption to an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would ban torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. The exemption would cover the CIA's covert "black sites" in several Eastern European democracies and other countries where key al Qaeda captives are being kept

Experts: U.S. is spending its way to financial ruin

The real problem is that the government's unfunded liabilities — items that include everything from public debt to promised Medicare and Social Security benefits — are growing at staggering rates.
Those liabilities totaled $20.4 trillion in 2000. They reached $43.3 trillion by 2004, after President Bush and Congress increased spending and cut taxes.

Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions

DITSUM No. 044-02: "It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers," the February 2002 report said. "Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest."

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

The Pro Torture President

"I think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing John McCain's amendment on detainees and torture," Hagel, R-Neb., said on "This Week" on ABC. "Why in the world they're doing that, I don't know."
McCain, citing the Senate vote as well as support from the public and from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and others with government service, said he will push the issue with the White House "as far as necessary."

Smoking Gun on Manipulation of Iraq Intelligence?

It shows that an al-Qaeda official held by the Americans was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the basis for its claims that Iraq trained al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to this Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002.

Red Cross Demands Access to CIA Secret Prison

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it wants access to all foreign terror suspects held by the US. Chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said it was concerned about the fate of an unknown number of people captured as part of the Bush administration's war on terror and allegedly held at undisclosed places of detention

White House Debates Torture

Since President Bush's decision in February 2002 to set aside the Geneva Conventions in fighting terrorists, government lawyers have debated what legal framework should apply to combatants in a struggle that the administration argues does not fit into the categories of international violence contemplated by the 1949 conventions.

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

Rumsfeld says no U.N. access to Guantanamo inmates

Human rights activists have criticized the United States for the indefinite detention of the roughly 505 detainees held at Guantanamo. Former prisoners have stated they were tortured there, and the ICRC last year accused the U.S. military of using tactics "tantamount to torture" on Guantanamo prisoners. The military has denied torture has occurred. (note: who cares what the military says?)

Bush campaign fund-raiser indicted

It said Noe disguised $45,400 in personal contributions by recruiting and providing money to 24 friends and associates who made the contributions in their names so he could avoid the individual campaign contribution limit of $2,000. The Bush campaign returned $4,000.

Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel

The new information that Cheney and Libby blocked information to the Senate Intelligence Committee further underscores the central role played by the vice president's office in trying to blunt criticism that the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence data to make the case to go to war.

FBI broke the Law

In other cases, agents obtained e-mails after a warrant expired, seized bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search," according to the documents.

U.S., Afghans Probe Alleged Desecration of POW's

KABUL, Afghanistan Oct 20, 2005 — The U.S. military and the Afghan government said Thursday they will investigate a TV report that claimed U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and taunted other Islamic militants. The U.S. military said it found the report "repugnant."

White House Iraq Group Fought to Squelch War Critics

So determined was the ring of top officials to win its argument that it morphed into a virtual hit squad that took aim at critics who questioned its claims, sources told the Daily News.

Firms that Donate to the GOP Get Katrina Contracts

It is a story of government ties that is repeated time and again for the winners of the 10 largest Katrina contracts, according to an Associated Press review. At least four of those contracts are now being reviewed for possible waste and abuse.

KEEPING THE UNIFORMED UNINFORMED

In the battle for the hearts and minds of the American military, AFR has become a playground for conservative political commentary. So, the entrance of Ed Schultz into that playground was considered the utmost in fair play. The right got their hour of airtime and now the left would have an hour. "Fair and balanced' comes to mind--except I think somebody already uses that.

Senators Blast Military/Rusmfeld for Violating Military Regulations.

AFN Radio carries the shows of a wide range of conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, and James Dobson, to the near total exclusion of progressive talk radio hosts. This is in violation of DoD's own guidelines on political programming on the American Forces Network, specifically, DoD Directive 5120.20R, which calls for political programming on American Forces Network that is "characterized by its fairness and balance," as well as news programming guided by a "principle of fairness" that requires "reasonable opportunities for the presentation of conflicting views on important controversial public issues."

Pentagon has reneged on $15,000 Enlistment Bonus

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).

Secret Service can Trace Your Printer

San Francisco - A secret code embedded in many colour laser jet printers allows the US government and any other organisation capable of reading the cipher to identify when the copies were made and on which particular machine, according to research conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Barber Cancels Ed Schultz's Debut on Armed Forces Radio

But this morning at 6AM, the producer of the Ed Schultz show, James Holm, received a call from Pentagon communications aide Allison Barber. She told Holm that she was calling so early to let Schultz know his show would not begin airing on AFR today. You'll remember Barber as the aide caught coaching troops before a photo-op with President Bush last week.

Senator: Charges possible over Williams contract

Congressional auditors last month found that the $240,000 contract violated a ban on "covert propaganda" and said the Education Department should ask for some of the money back. Higgins, while criticizing the deal as "bad management" of tax dollars, found no ethical breaches during his investigation. He issued that report on April 15.

Political Appointees Re-Write Commerce Department Report On Offshore Outsourcing; Original Analysis Is Missing From Final Version

But the 12-page document represented by the agency as its final report is not what was written by its analysts. Rather, it was crafted by political appointees at Commerce and at the White House.

13 political downturns for the administration, followed by 13 'terror events'

Keith Olbermann MSNBC:I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a "terror event" - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning.

U.S. accused of making up al-Qaida letter

"We in al-Qaida declare that there is no truth to these claims, and they are baseless, except in the imagination of the politicians of the Black (White) House," according to the statement on a Web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaida material.

21 CIA, 1 diplomat Arrest Warrants in Italy

An Italian court issued the latest arrest warrants Tuesday, bringing to 22 the number of Americans sought by Italian authorities in connection with the abduction. The case has provoked a furor in Italy and strained relations between Washington and Rome, regarded as one of America's closest allies in the war against terror.

Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.

Troops Wait for Body Armor Reimbursements

Soldiers and their parents are still spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for armor they say the military won't provide. One U.S. senator said Wednesday he will try again to force the Pentagon to obey the reimbursement law it opposed from the outset and has so far not implemented.

Prosecutor Demoted in Abramoff Scandal

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 - The Justice Department's inspector general and the F.B.I. are looking into the demotion of a veteran federal prosecutor whose reassignment nearly three years ago shut down a criminal investigation of the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, current and former department officials report.

Undeclared Civil War In Iraq

At a news conference with a U.S. ambassador, a prominent Sunni politician shouted that the mostly Shiite police force was behind many of the killings — a charge the police deny.

Leader of the F.D.A. Steps Down After a Short, Turbulent Tenure

On Thursday, a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine titled "A Sad Day for Science at the F.D.A." said that "recent actions of the F.D.A. leadership have made a mockery of the process of evaluating scientific evidence," disillusioned many scientists, "squandered the public trust and tarnished the agency's image."

Bush Nominees Are Not Qualified

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - Faced with accusations that the Bush administration is stocking the government with unqualified cronies, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is holding up the nomination of a lawyer with little background in immigration or customs to head the law enforcement agency in charge of those issues.

CIA rebukes Bush: intelligence predicted war would split Iraq

WASHINGTON — A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq.

Officials: NYC Terror Plot Uncorroborated

"The intelligence community has been able to determine that there are very serious doubts about the credibility of this specific threat," Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said. "This is after ongoing review and analysis.

Immigration Services "rubber-stamping" applications

He said he knew of several customer-service centers where adjudicators feel they are "rubber-stamping" applications in order to make performance quotas.

Espionage Case Breaches the White House

Oct. 5, 2005 — Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history.

Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Navy contracted US torture Flights

Italian judges have issued arrest warrants for 19 purported CIA operatives who allegedly snatched a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003 and flew him to Cairo, according to FAA records cited by the Chicago Tribune, aboard Richmor's Gulfstream IV. The jet belongs to a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox, who told The Boston Globe that the team's logo was covered when the CIA leased the plane. Another case involves two men taken from Sweden to Egypt in 2001 aboard Premier's Gulfstream V.

Immigration Service Faces 2,500 Misconduct Charges

Two sources familiar with the briefing said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) employees face 2,500 misconduct charges, including bribery and exchanging immigration benefits for sex. There are also charges that some employees are being influenced by foreign governments.

Federal Pension Guarantee is Bankrupt

Harry Reid, senate minority leader, said: "Congress has an immediate opportunity to pass legislation enabling both companies to keep pension plans for workers in place. We must not sit by and do nothing while thousands of hard-working Americans' retirement security is at risk." The call was echoed by Johnny Isakson, a senator from Georgia, where Delta is based. In the wake of the largest ever termination of pension plans by United Airlines in April, he jointly introduced the Employee Pension Preservation Act of 2005.

Government Seeking to Blame Environmental Groups

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Bush: most fiscally irresponsible chief executive in US history

"The Grand Old Spending Party," which explains that "throughout the past 40 years, most presidents have cut or restrained lower-priority spending to make room for higher-priority spending. What is driving George W. Bush's budget bloat is a reversal of that trend." To govern is to choose. And Bush has decided not to choose. He wants guns and butter and tax cuts.

Guantanamo Bay Hunger Strike

About a quarter of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay are engaged in a hunger strike, and 18 prisoners are being force-fed through tubes or intravenously after about a month of not eating. The prisoners are protesting the frightening reality that detainees have gone three years without trials.

9/11 Commissioners Blast Congress and Bush for Katrina Inaction

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Members of the former 9/11 commission blasted Congress and the Bush administration Wednesday for inaction on some of its recommendations, which the former chairman said could have saved lives in Hurricane Katrina.

Chertoff Delayed Federal Katrina Response

NEW YORK In a major scoop, three reporters with Knight Ridder's Washington bureau report that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown, was the "federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina."

Brooks: "from Day One," White House Decided to Lie

On the September 11 edition of NBC's syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, New York Times columnist David Brooks revealed that he has learned from private conversations with Bush officials who "represent" what "Bush believes" that from its earliest days, the Bush administration adopted a policy of shielding itself from political damage by never publicly admitting any mistake -- even if it meant lying to the media and the American public.

Military to reporters: 'no photos, no stories'

Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photographer standing nearby and told them that if they took pictures or wrote a story about the body recovery process, he would take away their press credentials and kick them out of the state.

Neigh to Cronies

W. trusted Brownie simply because he was a friend of a friend. He was a college buddy of Joe Allbaugh, who worked as W.'s chief of staff when he was Texas governor and as his 2000 presidential campaign manager.

CNN asks court for access to recovery of bodies

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - CNN filed suit in U.S. District Court in Houston late Friday to stop government efforts to exclude the media from covering the recovery of bodies from flood-ravaged New Orleans.

FEMA bans Katrina Photos

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are Reprimanded

PENSACOLA, Fla., Sept. 6 - Two Navy helicopter pilots and their crews returned from New Orleans on Aug. 30 expecting to be greeted as lifesavers after ferrying more than 100 hurricane victims to safety.

The order to halt civilian relief efforts angered some helicopter crews. Lieutenant Udkow, who associates say was especially vocal about voicing his disagreement to superiors, was taken out of the squadron's flying rotation temporarily and assigned to oversee a temporary kennel established at Pensacola to hold pets of service members evacuated from the hurricane-damaged areas, two members of the unit said. Lieutenant Udkow denied that he had complained and said he did not view the kennel assignment as punishment.

Navy ship nearby underused

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore.

But now the Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.

U.S.S. Bataan was off the Gulf Coast without patients

Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.

The President and His Top Advisers Chose Vacation Over Action

Bush is trying to undo what many Republicans described as considerable damage to the White House inflicted by Bush's crisis management. "Almost every Republican I have spoken with is disappointed" in Bush's performance, said William Kristol, a conservative columnist with close White House ties. "He is a strong president . . . but he has never really focused on the importance of good execution. I think that is true in many parts of his presidency."

GOP, Bush gutted FEMA budget

The agency's core budget, which includes disaster preparedness and mitigation, has been cut each year since it was absorbed by the Homeland Security Department in 2003.

"They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers," complained Morrie Goodman, who was FEMA's chief spokesman during the Clinton administration. "These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing."

The United States of Shame

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports.

Pentagon Inspector Blocked Investigations of Senior Bush Officials.

The resignation comes after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sent Schmitz several letters this summer informing him that he was the focus of a congressional inquiry into whether he had blocked two criminal investigations last year.

FDA Chief Resign Because Contraceptive Pill Decision was Politcal

The top Food and Drug Administration official in charge of women's health issues resigned yesterday in protest against the agency's decision to further delay a final ruling on whether the "morning-after pill" should be made more easily accessible.

Flood control money diverted to tax cuts and war in Iraq

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain.

Republicans Accused of Witch-hunt Against Climate Change Scientists

The demands in letters sent to the scientists have been compared by some US media commentators to the anti-communist "witch-hunts" pursued by Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.

The three US climate scientists - Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Centre at Pennsylvania State University; Raymond Bradley, the director of the Climate System Research Centre at the University of Massachusetts; and Malcolm Hughes, the former director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona - have been told to send large volumes of material.

Army Contract Official Critical of Halliburton Pact Is Demoted

A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

Recusal Questions for Roberts

One of the judges was John Roberts, who in April heard arguments about the Bush administration's policy as he was discussing a Supreme Court appointment in private conversations with the White House. On July 15, when Judge Roberts met with President Bush for the job-clinching interview, he joined a ruling in favor of the defendants, who included Mr. Bush.

Lawrence A. Greenfeld: Demoted for doing his job

The demotion of the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, whom President Bush named in 2001 to lead the Bureau of Justice Statistics, caps more than three years of simmering tensions over charges of political interference at the agency. And it has stirred anger and tumult among many Justice Department statisticians, who say their independence in analyzing important law enforcement data has been compromised.

GOP Pays Legal Bills in Vote-Thwart Case

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican Party says it still has a zero-tolerance policy for tampering with voters even as it pays the legal bills for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to thwart Democrats from voting in New Hampshire

CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away

Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK.

Halliburton Whistleblower Demoted

Last October 6, she was summoned to the office of her boss. Major Gen. Robert Griffin, the Corps' deputy commander, was demoting her, he told her, taking away her Senior Executive Service status and sending her to midlevel management. Not unlike being cast out of the office of bank president into the cubicle of branch manager. Griffin declined to be interviewed by the AP.

Later, she would tell Democratic members of Congress: "The abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have ever witnessed during the course of my professional career."

Documents Tell of Brutal Torture, Murder by GIs

It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.

Two Prosecutors Say Terror Trials are Rigged

In his electronic message, Captain Carr said the prosecution team had falsely stated to superiors that it had no evidence of torture of Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul of Yemen. In addition, Captain Carr said the prosecution team had lost an F.B.I. document detailing an interview in which the detainee claimed he had been tortured and abused.

Major Preston, in his e-mail message of March 11, 2004, said that pressing ahead with the trials would be "a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people."

National Security Council, White House and State Department discussed Ms. Wilson

Military Lawyers Opposed Bush's Torture Orders

State Dept. Now Says Bolton Lied

Military caught making up quotes Gonzales gave White House 12 hours to destroy documents

Former Plame Colleague Criticizes President Bush and His Aides

Feith: Administration Overdid WMD Claims 25,000 civilians' killed in Iraq

Bush Approved Plan to Subvert Iraq Elections

Abu Ghraib Tactics Were First Used at Guantanamo

CNN video censored at Guantanamo prison

Bremer's Slush Fund Auditors: Halliburton Overcharged Taxpayers $1 Billion

Diego Garcia--Home of CIA's 'newly disappeared'

The war before the war