Preemptive
impeachment
Law
professor stands ready to draft articles for any member of
the House
By
Kéllia Ramares
Online
Journal Contributing Editor
(Reprinted with permission)
While
the United States will constantly strive to enlist
the support of the international community, we will
not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise
our right of self defense by acting preemptively against
such terrorists, to prevent them from doing harm against
our people and our country . . .
—The
National Security Strategy of the United States of America
January
4, 2002—"We sentenced Nazi leaders to death for waging
a war of aggression," says International Law Professor
Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
By contrast, Prof. Boyle wants merely to impeach George
W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft
for their plans to invade Iraq and create a police state
in America.
Boyle
is offering his services as counsel, free of charge,
to any member of the House of Representatives willing
to sponsor articles of impeachment. He is experienced
in this work, having undertaken it in 1991 for the late
Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-TX), in an effort to stop the
first Persian Gulf War. It takes only one member to introduce
articles of impeachment. Of course, it will take many
more than that to vote for impeachment, which will culminate
in a trial in the Senate. Boyle is confident that, once
the articles are introduced, others, including Republicans,
will co-sponsor them. But we have to convince
our Representatives that impeachment is necessary for
the country and politically safe for them. This non-violent,
constitutional process may be our best way of stopping
World War III and saving our civil rights.
Grounds
for Impeachment
Article
II Sec. 4 of the Constitution states that: "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." Boyle
says that waging a war of aggression is a crime under
the Nuremberg
Charter, Judgment and Principles. "It's
very clear," he adds, "if you read all the press reports,
they are going to devastate Baghdad, a metropolitan area
of 5 million people. The Nuremberg Charter clearly says
the wanton devastation of a city is a Nuremberg war crime."
The
United States is a party to the Nuremberg Charter,
Judgment and Principles, and thus is constitutionally
bound to obey them. "The Constitution, in Article 6,
says that international treaties are the supreme law
of the land here in the United States of America. So
all we would be doing here, in this impeachment campaign," Boyle
says, "is impeaching them for violating international
treaties, as incorporated into the United States Constitution,
as well as the Constitution itself."
Bush
Cabal Repudiates Nuremberg Principles
We
don't have to wait for the devastation of Baghdad to
impeach the Bush cabal because they have already repudiated
the Nuremberg Charter via the so-called Bush Doctrine
of preventive war and pre-emptive attack. "This doctrine
of pre-emptive warfare or pre-emptive attack was rejected soundly
in the Nuremberg Judgment, " Boyle says. "The Nuremberg
Judgment . . . rejected this Nazi doctrine of international
law of alleged self-defense." The Bush Doctrine, embodied
in the National
Security Strategy document,
published on the White House web site, is appalling,
Boyle says. "It reads like a Nazi planning document prior
to the Second World War."
The
Fruit Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree
As
Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez explained on the floor of the
House in 1991, his articles charged the elder Bush with:
1)
Violating the Equal Protection Clause by having minorities
and poor whites, who were the majority of the soldiers
in the Middle East, "fight a war for oil to preserve
the lifestyles of the wealthy."
2)
Violating "the Constitution, Federal law, and the UN
Charter by bribing, intimidating, and threatening others,
including the members of the UN Security Council, to
support belligerent acts against Iraq."
3)
Violating the Nuremberg principles by conspiring to engage
in a massive war against Iraq that would cause tens of
thousands of civilian deaths.
4)
Committing "the United States to acts of war without
congressional consent and contrary to the UN Charter
and international law." (This refers to the lack of a
formal declaration of war, as required by the Constitution).
5)
Committing crimes against the peace by leading the United
States into aggressive war against Iraq, in violation
of Article 24 of the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Charter,
other international instruments and treaties, and the
Constitution of the United States.
Boyle
believes that the articles he drafted for Gonzalez' effort
to impeach George H. W. Bush, the father, could still
serve as a basis for impeaching George W. Bush, the son.
Are
the People Ready for Another Impeachment?
Impeachment
has the advantage of bypassing the U.S. Supreme Court,
which illegally installed Bush in the Oval Office. The
same "Justices" would have the final word on legal challenges
to constitutional abominations, such as the USA PATRIOT
Act and the Homeland Security Act, both of which the
White House rammed through a Congress frightened by the
September 11th attacks and the as yet unsolved
anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill.
But
no matter how blatant the violations of constitutional,
statutory and international law are, impeachment is still
a political process. Republicans control the Congress
and many Democrats, fearful of being labeled "soft on
terrorism" might be unwilling to challenge the Bush cabal.
It would take tremendous public pressure to get a reluctant
Congress to impeach. Still, Boyle thinks he can garner
public support by adding an article of impeachment against
John Ashcroft.
"We
know for a fact that there are Republicans and Democrats
and Independents and Greens, even very conservative Republicans,
such as Dick Armey and [Bob] Barr, who are very worried
about a police state." Boyle says that an article against
Ashcroft would make clear "that we don't want a police
state in the name of an oil empire."
It's
Up to Us
Unfortunately
for the impeachment campaign, Armey has retired and Barr,
who spoke out against some of the most draconian proposals
for what eventually became the USA PATRIOT Act, was defeated
in the Republican primary. Boyle is still waiting for
the one member of Congress willing to introduce articles
of impeachment when the 108th Congress convenes
on January 7.
Since
Bush has indicated that he is not likely to go to war
before the end of January or early February, Boyle thinks
we have a month to stop the war by impeaching the chain
of command: Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, along with police
state enforcer Ashcroft. Time and the Internet are advantages
Rep. Gonzalez did not have in 1991, when the Persian
Gulf War was launched the day after he introduced his
articles.
Boyle
is asking the public to push for impeachment in two ways.
First, contact
your own member of Congress to
urge him or her to introduce articles of impeachment,
and tell the member that he or she may contact
Prof. Boyle for
assistance in drafting the articles. Second, demand impeachment
by engaging in non-violent direct action, in exercise
of your First Amendment rights to free speech, peaceable
assembly and petition for redress of grievances. Boyle
was pleased that 100,000 people marched around the White
House last October 26 to protest the impending war on
Iraq. But he says one million people need to peaceably
take to the streets with signs, banners and voices shouting, "Impeach
Bush!"
"The
bottom line: it's really up to you and to me to enforce
the law and the Constitution against our own government," he
says. "We are citizens of the United States of America.
We have to act to preserve the republic that we have,
to preserve our Constitution, to preserve a rule of law.
This is our responsibility as citizens. We simply can't
pass the buck and say 'Oh, some judge is going to do
it somewhere.' It's up to us to keep this republic."
Copyright © 2003
Kéllia Ramares. For fair use only.
(Reprinted with permission)
Listen
to Kéllia Ramares' full interview of Prof. Francis
Boyle at R.I.S.E.
- Radio Internet Story Exchange.
Also, shop
the R.I.S.E. online store for
impeachment paraphernalia.
|