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Key Section of Executive Summary of
Conyers' Report
Afterdowningstreet.org
David Swanson
December 20, 2005
There is a prima facie case that these actions by the President,
Vice-President and other members of the Bush Administration violated a number
of federal laws, including (1) Committing a Fraud against the United States;
(2) Making False Statements to Congress; (3) The War Powers Resolution; (4)
Misuse of Government Funds; (5) federal laws and international treaties
prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; (6) federal
laws concerning retaliating against witnesses and other individuals; and (7)
federal laws and regulations concerning leaking and other misuse of
intelligence.
While these charges clearly rise to the level of impeachable misconduct,
because the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have
blocked the ability of Members to obtain information directly from the
Administration concerning these matters, more investigatory authority is needed
before recommendations can be made regarding specific Articles of Impeachment.
As a result, we recommend that Congress establish a select committee with
subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration
with regard to the Iraq war detailed in this Report and report to the Committee
on the Judiciary on possible impeachable offenses.
In addition, we believe the failure of the President, Vice President and
others in the Bush Administration to respond to myriad requests for information
concerning these charges, or to otherwise account for explain a number of
specific misstatements they have made in the run up to War and other actions
warrants, at minimum, the introduction and Congress= approval of Resolutions of
Censure against Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. Further, we recommend that Ranking
Member Conyers and others consider referring the potential violations of
federal criminal law detailed in this Report to the Department of Justice for
investigation; Congress should pass legislation to limit government secrecy,
enhance oversight of the Executive Branch, request notification and
justification of presidential pardons of Administration officials, ban abusive
treatment of detainees, ban the use of chemical weapons, and ban the practice
of paying foreign media outlets to publish news stories prepared by or for the
Pentagon; and the House should amend its Rules to permit Ranking Members of
Committees to schedule official Committee hearings and call witnesses to
investigate Executive Branch misconduct.
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