Bush under fire

The Democrats are keeping the pressure on president Bush over the justification for the war in Iraq with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) Investigative Status Report of the House Judiciay Committee Democratic Staff.

The executive summary is damning, as you might expect.

"In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration.

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... more investigatory authority is needed before recommendations can be made regarding specific Articles of Impeachment."

It goes on to say that Bush and Cheney should be censured and that the Justice Department should investigate the legality of their behaviour. So a big part of the Democrats' efforts to regain the White House in 2008 looks likely to be a racking up of the pressure to get Mr Bush impeached. After all, President Clinton was impeached for lying about having extra-marital sex in the Oval Office and the charges they are laying against the president are a fair bit more serious than that. Mr Bush and his allies will be even more focussed, therefore, on retaining control of Congress after the mid term elections because if the Democrats do get a majority, there will almost certainly be an impeachment.

The whole report runs to over 200 pages but the executive summary is well worth a read.