Talking Points on Downing Street Minutes

davidswanson, AfterDowningStreet.org
July 1, 2005

The Downing Street Minutes and related documents (all available at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org ) provide new and compelling evidence that President Bush, by the summer of 2002:

1. secretly decided to go to war;
2. decided to deceive and mislead the Congress and the American people with false claims about both weapons of mass destruction and ties between Saddam Hussein and 9-11;
3. secretly diverted $700 million from the War in Afghanistan and started bombing Iraq to provoke a war;
4. agreed to go to the UN only to "legalize" an illegal invasion - and then walked out of the U.N. when inspections worked.

Items 2 and 3 are both impeachable offenses. The Bush Administration's conspiracy to deceive Congress culminated in a fraudulent letter to Congress on March 18, 2003, claiming continued U.N. inspections would endanger the national security of the United States.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/611

This fraud violated the federal anti-conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, which makes it a felony "to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose..."; and The False Statements Accountability Act of 1996, 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which makes it a felony to issue knowingly and willfully false statements to the United States Congress.

President Bush did not declare war until March 2003. Congress did not authorize military action until October 11, 2002. But Bush began an air war six weeks before that authorization and increased "spikes of activity" five months before. This means that additional communications to Congress from the President, claiming that he had not yet begun the war, may be felonious, and that Bush violated the Constitutional requirement that Congress authorize any war.

These criminal actions constitute High Crimes under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution: "The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

A June 23-26, 2005, ABC/Washington Post poll found 52 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately misled the public before the war," a nine-point increase in three months. And 57 percent say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons." http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/549 A June 27-29, 2005, Zogby poll found 42 percent of Americans say that "if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment." According to Zogby, in Eastern and Western states supporters of impeachment outnumber opponents. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/592 The 42 percent above is significantly higher than the 27 percent of Americans who favored impeachment of President Clinton before impeachment proceedings began in 1998. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/610

FOR CONGRESS MEMBERS:

Please introduce or support a Resolution of Inquiry into possible grounds for impeachment of the President for lying to Congress to start the war in Iraq.
Please co-sponsor the Resolution of Inquiry by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, which calls on the Bush administration to provide information about to the Downing Street memo and other discussions related to intelligence and pre-war planning.
Please contact Congressman John Conyers' office and support his work on this issue.
Please hold a town hall event in your district on July 23rd: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/526

FOR SENATORS:

Please urge the House of Representatives to pass a Resolution of Inquiry into possible grounds for impeachment of the President for lying to Congress to start the war in Iraq.
Please support the 10 Senators who on June 22 wrote to the Intelligence Committee asking it to examine White House misuse ofpre-war intelligence.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/515
Please hold a town hall event in your district on July 23rd: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/526