(3) At the same time, despite overwhelming skepticism
within the government of a link between Iraq and Al
Qaeda—resulting in the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission
that “no credible evidence” for such a link existed, and
the CIA’s determination that Hussein “did not have a
relationship” with Al Qaeda—the vice president continued
to insist that the relationship had been confirmed,
including:
(a) December 2, 2002: “His regime has had high-level
contacts with Al Qaeda going back a decade and has
provided training to Al Qaeda terrorists.”
(b) January 30, 2003: “His regime aids and protects
terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda. He could
decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction
to terrorists for use against us.”
(c) March 16, 2003: “We know that he has a long-standing
relationship with various terrorist groups, including
the Al Qaeda organization.”
(d) September 14, 2003: “We learned more and more that
there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that
stretched back through most of the decade of the ’90s,
that it involved training, for example, on biological
weapons and chemical weapons.”
(e) October 10, 2003: “He also had an established
relationship with Al Qaeda—providing training to Al
Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases, and
conventional bombs.”
(f) January 9, 2004: “Al Qaeda and the Iraqi
intelligence services…have worked together on a number
of occasions.”
(g) January 22, 2004: “There’s overwhelming evidence
that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the
Iraqi government”
(h) June 18, 2004: “There clearly was a relationship.
It’s been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming.”
(4) Through all of these misrepresentations, the vice
president knowingly skewed the public’s perception of
reality, clouded the nation’s ability to weigh evidence,
and willfully disrupted the function of American
democracy.
In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner
contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of
justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such
conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting
removal from office.
ARTICLE III
In his conduct of the office of the vice president of
the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his
oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president
of the United States and, to the best of his ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in
violation of his constitutional duty to take care that
the laws of this nation be upheld, has deliberately
embraced and sheltered a known criminal, to the great
detriment of American policy, in that:
(1) During the months preceding the March 2003 invasion
of Iraq, the vice president, acting personally and
through his subordinates, granted special access to the
Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, relying on Chalabi for
intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of
mass destruction, despite an outstanding warrant for
Chalabi’s arrest on charges of bank fraud in the nation
of Jordan, grave concerns from the CIA about Chalabi’s
credibility, and a 2002 British assessment that Chalabi
was “a convicted fraudster.”
(2) As the initial stage of the war concluded and
Chalabi’s claims proved false, the vice president
nevertheless continued privately to champion Chalabi as
a leader for the new Iraqi government, ignoring a litany
of troubling accusations and events, including:
(a) May 19, 2004: The Department of Defense discontinues
monthly payments to Chalabi, pending charges of fraud.
(b) May 20, 2004: U.S. troops, along with Iraqi forces,
storm Chalabi’s home, seizing documents and computers
for a criminal probe.
(c) June 2004: The New York Times reports that Chalabi
has disclosed U.S. secrets to Iranian president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad
(3) When an employee of the Coalition Provisional
Authority named Thomas Warrick voiced concerns about
Chalabi to his superiors, the vice president intervened
to demand that Warrick be fired, causing Warrick’s
unique contributions to the occupation—including a
series of prescient written warnings about the rise of
insurgency—to be lost, and the nation’s ability to
function at war compromised.
(4) As late as November 2005, the vice president
continued to offer public support and safe harbor to
Chalabi, inviting him to visit the White House and
providing personal welcome to a known criminal.
In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner
contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of
justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such
conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting
removal from office.
ARTICLE IV
In his conduct of the office of the vice president of
the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his
oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president
of the United States and, to the best of his ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in
violation of his constitutional duty to take care that
the laws of this nation be upheld, has maintained an
improper and unethical relationship with his former
employers at Halliburton and has promoted its agenda and
interests over those of the American people, in that:
(1) In September 2003, the vice president claimed to
have “severed all my ties with the company” and to have
“no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind,”
where in truth he did, at that time, continue to earn
more than $150,000 per year in delayed compensation from
Halliburton, as well as a portfolio in excess of 230,000
stock options of the company, worth more than $10
million.
(2) Bolstered by this economic incentive to promote the
interests of Halliburton, the vice president did choose
to remain silent as the company was exposed in a series
of financial scandals at the expense of the American
people, including:
(a) February 2002: Halliburton is forced to pay $2
million after being charged by the Justice Department
for fraud committed against the Pentagon during the vice
president’s tenure as CEO.
(b) May 2002: The company is investigated by the SEC for
fraudulent accounting practices and inflation of its
stock price during the vice president’s tenure as CEO.
(c) March 2003: The company is investigated by a
congressional committee for receiving favorable
contracts from the Pentagon, outside normal review
processes.
(d) May 2003: The company admits to having bribed a
Nigerian official with millions of dollars in exchange
for tax exemptions.
e) December 2003: The company is found by the Defense
Contract Audit Agency, a unit of the Pentagon, to have
overcharged and defrauded the government of more than
$100 million.
(f) January 2004: The company admits that its employees
have accepted $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti
company in exchange for a portion of U.S. government
contracts.
(3) Through his silence on these and other scandals
involving his former employer and source of several
million dollars in assets, the vice president exhibited
not only a failure of leadership but a lack of integrity
that has tarnished the office of the vice president.
In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner
contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of
justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such
conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting
removal from office.
ARTICLE V
Using the powers of the office of the vice president of
the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his
oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president
of the United States and, to the best of his ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in
violation of his constitutional duty to take care that
the laws of this nation be upheld, has granted improper
and unlawful influence over national policy to an
anonymous cabal of corporate lobbyists, in that:
(1) In January 2001, the vice president did oversee a
secret task force composed of corporate lobbyists and
executives from the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear-energy
sector, known collectively as the National Energy Policy
Development Group, instructing them to meet regularly
and develop the nation’s energy policy.
(2) By conducting these meetings in secret, the vice
president did endeavor to impart influence to corporate
interests without public knowledge, eclipsing not only
the oversight function of Congress generally but the
specific role of the energy committees in both the House
of Representatives and the Senate.
(3) During the course of these secret meetings, the vice
president allowed lobbyists representing the oil, coal,
gas, and nuclear-energy industries to compose,
word-for-word, the national energy policy adopted by the
Department of Energy, in gross violation of the public
trust and all ethical norms.
In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner
contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of
justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such
conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting
removal from office.
ARTICLE VI
In his conduct of the office of the vice president of
the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his
oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president
of the United States and, to the best of his ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in
violation of his constitutional duty to take care that
the laws of this nation be upheld, has prevented,
obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice,
in that:(1) On March 25, 2002, and thereafter, the vice
president did willfully disobey court orders to identify
the members of the National Energy Policy Development
Group.
(2) In September 2002, and prior thereto, the vice
president did also refuse requests by Representatives
Henry Waxman and John Dingell, as well as the Government
Accountability Office, to release transcripts and papers
produced by the aforementioned group.
(3) In both of these cases, the requested names and
documenting papers were deemed necessary to resolve by
direct evidence fundamental, factual questions relating
to the vice president’s reliance on special interests
and corporate lobbyists in the formation of national
policy, and the release of said papers was ordered by
the United States District Court and upheld by the
United States Court of Appeals.
(4) In refusing to produce said names, transcripts, and
papers, and by continuing to keep the deliberations of
the National Energy Policy Development Group secret, the
vice president, substituting his judgment for the
authority of the federal courts and ignoring the
doctrine of congressional oversight, did assume to the
office of the vice president authority, functions, and
judgments forbidden by the United States Constitution.
In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner
contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive
of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of
justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such
conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting
removal from office.
Wil S. Hylton is a GQ correspondent/
http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_5402&pageNum=8
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CNN Video:Lou Dobbs Slams CFR & North American Union
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