Yesterday, Congressperson John Conyers of Michigan released a report examining the Bush administration’s actions in the lead-up to the Iraq War. The findings of that report led Conyers to introduce a resolution in the House of Representatives censuring President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as a separate resolution seeking the creation of an investigative Select Committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct with regard to the war and possible impeachable offenses. According to a report released yesterday by Conyers , there is substantial evidence that the President, Vice President, and other high-ranking members of the Bush administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war, misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification of the war, countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and other legal violation in Iraq, and permitted inappropriate action against critics of the administration. Moreover, Conyers’ report argues that there is “at least a prima facie case” that the actions of the Bush administration violated a number of federal laws including:
- Committing a Fraud against the United States
- Making False Statements to Congress
- The War Powers Resolution
- Misuse of Government Funds
- federal laws and international treaties prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment
- federal laws concerning retaliating against witnesses and other individuals
- federal laws and regulations concerning leaking and other misuse of intelligence
Some liberal commentators have already started calling for the impeachment of Bush, but according to Conyers’ report, while the charges “clearly rise to the level of impeachable misconduct,” more investigative authority is needed in order to obtain evidence that will allow specific articles of impeachment to be made. Moreover, the report points out that while the Bush administration believes that their pre-war conduct has been thoroughly reviewed, there has been no investigation into intelligence manipulation, no independent inquiry into torture and other violations of law in Iraq, and no examination of the pattern of retribution towards critics of the Bush administration.
