| A Moment of Truth |
By David Swanson
A recent poll found that a full 7 percent
of Americans want to attack Iran: http://dontattackiran.org But 93 percent agreement and a dollar won’t
even get you a Metro ride in Washington, D.C. The Congressional Progressive
Caucus held a press event on Tuesday and publicly urged the Bush Administration
to engage in diplomacy, which is sort of like asking a mule to dance
in the ballet. We’ve seen bills, resolutions, letters, requests, demands,
and downright whining and begging from Congress on this issue. What
we hadn’t seen until Monday night was a serious effort by Congress to
actually prevent an attack on Iran by impeaching President Bush.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich read 35 articles
of impeachment into the record for five hours. Many of them dealt with
the illegal attack on Iraq. One of them (Article XXI) addressed the
build up to a possible attack on Iran. This article is worth reading.
People can ask their representatives to cosponsor all 35 articles as
a single resolution. A vote is expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
Article XXI
MISLEADING CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE ABOUT THREATS FROM IRAN, AND SUPPORTING TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
WITHIN IRAN, WITH THE GOAL OF OVERTHROWING THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT
In his conduct while President of the
United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath
to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and,
to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to
take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has both personally
and acting through his agents and subordinates misled the Congress and
the citizens of the United States about a threat of nuclear attack from
the nation of Iran.
The National Intelligence Estimate released
to Congress and the public on December 4, 2007, which confirmed that
the government of the nation of Iran had ceased any efforts to develop
nuclear weapons, was completed in 2006. Yet , the president and his
aides continued to suggest during 2007 that such a nuclear threat was
developing and might already exist. National Security Adviser Stephen
Hadley stated at the time the National Intelligence Estimate regarding
Iran was released that the president had been briefed on its findings
“in the last few months.” Hadley’s statement establishes a
timeline that shows the president knowingly sought to deceive Congress
and the American people about a nuclear threat that did not exist.
Hadley has stated that the president
“was basically told: stand down” and, yet, the president and
his aides continued to make false claims about the prospect that Iran
was trying to “build a nuclear weapon” that could lead to
“World War III.”
This evidence establishes that the president
actively engaged in and had full knowledge of a campaign by his administration
to make a false “case” for an attack on Iran, thus warping
the national security debate at a critical juncture and creating the
prospect of an illegal and unnecessary attack on a sovereign nation.
Even after the National Intelligence
Estimate was released to Congress and the American people, the president
stated that he did not believe anything had changed and suggested that
he and members of his administration would continue to argue that Iran
should be seen as posing a threat to the United States. He did this
despite the fact that United States intelligence agencies had clearly
and officially stated that this was not the case.
Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration’s
attempts to portray Iran as a threat are part of a broader U.S. policy
toward Iran. On September 30, 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld established an official military objective of overturning the
regime in Iran, as well as those in Iraq, Syria, and four other countries
in the Middle East, according to a document quoted in then-Undersecretary
of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith’s book, “War and Decision.”
General Wesley Clark, reports in his
book “Winning Modern Wars” being told by a friend in the Pentagon
in November 2001 that the list of governments that Rumsfeld and Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz planned to overthrow included Iraq,
Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia. Clark writes that the list also
included Lebanon.
Journalist Gareth Porter reported in
May 2008 asking Feith at a public event which of the six regimes on
the Clark list were included in the Rumsfeld paper, to which Feith replied
“All of them.”
Rumsfeld’s aides also drafted a second
version of the paper, as instructions to all military commanders in
the development of “campaign plans against terrorism”. The
paper called for military commanders to assist other government agencies
“as directed” to “encourage populations dominated by
terrorist organizations or their supporters to overthrow that domination”.
In January 2005, Seymour Hersh reported
in the New Yorker Magazine that the Bush Administration had been conducting
secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since the summer
of 2004.
In June 2005 former United Nations weapons
inspector Scott Ritter reported that United States security forces had
been sending members of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) into Iranian territory.
The MEK has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States,
the European Union, Canada, Iraq, and Iran. Ritter reported that the
United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had used the MEK to
carry out remote bombings in Iran.
In April 2006, Hersh reported in the
New Yorker Magazine that U.S. combat troops had entered and were operating
in Iran, where they were working with minority groups including the
Azeris, Baluchis, and Kurds.
Also in April 2006, Larisa Alexandrovna
reported on Raw Story that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) was
working with and training the MEK, or former members of the MEK, sending
them to commit acts of violence in southern Iran in areas where recent
attacks had left many dead. Raw Story reported that the Pentagon had
adopted the policy of supporting MEK shortly after the 2003 invasion
of Iraq, and in response to the influence of Vice President Richard
B. Cheney’s office. Raw Story subsequently reported that no Presidential
finding, and no Congressional oversight, existed on MEK operations.
In March 2007, Hersh reported in the
New Yorker Magazine that the Bush administration was attempting to stem
the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the
Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni
organizations, without any Congressional authorization or oversight.
Hersh said funds had been given to “three Sunni jihadist groups
… connected to al Qaeda” that “want to take on Hezbollah.”
In April 2008, the Los Angeles Times
reported that conflicts with insurgent groups along Iran’s borders were
understood by the Iranian government as a proxy war with the United
States. Among the groups the U.S. DOD is supporting, according to this
report, is the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, known by its Kurdish
acronym, PEJAK. The United States has provided “foodstuffs, economic
assistance, medical supplies and Russian military equipment, some of
it funneled through nonprofit groups.”
In May 2008, Andrew Cockburn reported
on Counter Punch that President Bush, six weeks earlier had signed a
secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime.
President Bush’s secret directive covers actions across an area stretching
from Lebanon to Afghanistan, and purports to sanction actions up to
and including the funding of organizations like the MEK and the assassination
of public officials.
All of these actions by the president
and his agents and subordinates exhibit a disregard for the truth and
a recklessness with regard to national security, nuclear proliferation
and the global role of the United States military that is not merely
unacceptable but dangerous in a commander-in-chief.
In all of these actions and decisions,
President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust
as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional
government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to
the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President
George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense
warranting removal from office.