Reid, Rockefeller, Leahy letter to President Bush:

Reid, Rockefeller, Leahy letter to President Bush:

Dear Mr. President:

Your recent acknowledgement of the existence of a highly-classified program to conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. citizens and permanent residents without obtaining a court order as required by law has raised a number of troubling issues in the minds of the American people. That is why Democrats and Republicans have called for prompt and thorough congressional investigation of this program. We write to ask that you immediately provide Congress with additional details on the extent and scope of this program, your legal justification for your actions, and your efforts to inform Congress about this program.

The relevant law governing surveillances, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (“FISA”), could not be clearer on the need to obtain a court order for such surveillance. It also provides for emergency procedures and for authorization of electronic surveillance during a time of war, with reasonable time limits beyond which a court order must be obtained. We are deeply troubled by your assertions that the Constitution and the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by Congress following the 9/11 attacks provide you justification for contravening a statute’s clear language. In your public statements to date, you have not made a convincing legal argument for the authority to do so.

In addition, public statements by several of the handful of Members of Congress who were provided a briefing on this program indicate that insufficient information was provided to them under ground rules that did not enable Congress to conduct satisfactory oversight. There are questions whether your Administration has properly complied with the National Security Act of 1947 requirement to keep the appropriate committees of jurisdiction “fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States.”

It is important for Congress to review these matters. We respectfully ask that you cooperate fully to provide all necessary information on all relevant aspects of this program, including presidential orders, supporting legal opinions, complete descriptions of actions taken under the program, and other information, to the appropriate oversight committees.

As Congress begins to examine this program in greater detail, it is clear Congress and the American people need immediately to understand at least four issues:

* Under what specific legal authorities did you authorize warrantless electronic surveillance of American citizens and permanent residents inside the United States?


* Given your assertion that the FISA is insufficient in providing appropriate authority and procedures to protect Americans from terrorism, what specific powers or authorities are insufficient and why, in the four years since the 9/11 attacks, has your Administration not proposed correcting modifications?


* You have stated that you authorized the NSA to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Have you ever authorized the interception, without a warrant, of purely domestic communications, or communications of people without known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations?


* Could you please provide additional information on the legal and other justifications for limiting briefings on these matters to a handful of Members of Congress, as well as information on the dates, attendance, and issues discussed at these briefings, so it can be determined whether you complied with the letter and spirit of the National Security Act of 1947?

Sincerely, ...


http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003328.html

He'll simply ignore this letter, of course.

Everyone:

Please send the below to your Congressmen and Senators (and newspapers) and ask them if they could please take the time to fill in the blanks.

Write your Congressman here:
http://www.house.gov/writerep /

Look up and write your Senators here:
http://www.senate.gov /

It is surprising how little editing was required to go from the original Richard Nixon Articles of Impeachment to the below. It only took about 10 minutes.

http://watergate.info/impeachment/impeachment-articles ....

Doug De Clue
Orlando, FL

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Articles of Impeachment Adopted by the Committee on the Judiciary

Date:______________

Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours, and that the following articles of impeachment to be exhibited to the Senate:

ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT EXHIBITED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE NAME OF ITSELF AND OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT OF ITS IMPEACHMENT AGAINST HIM FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS.

Article 1

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to 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 consitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice, in that:

On or about December 17, 2005, and prior thereto, agents of the National Security Agency on orders of George W. Bush committed unlawful warrentless wiretaps against thousands of American citizens inside the United States in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (USC Title 50 Chapter 36 Subchapter 1), and in engaged in a conspiracy with him to commit an offense against the United States in violation of USC TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 19 § 371. Prior thereto, George W. Bush, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation of such illegal activities; to cover up, conceal and protect those responsible; and to conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities in violation of USC TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 73 § 1512 paragraph (b).

The means used to implement this course of conduct or plan included one or more of the following: issuing Executive Orders contrary to United States Code, making false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States; withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States; approving, condoning, acquiescing in, and counselling witnesses with respect to the giving of false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States and false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings; interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Congressional Committees; endeavouring to misuse the National Security Agency, an agency of the United States; and making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements.

In all of this, George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore George W. Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Adopted ____ to ____ by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, at __________________________________, in Room ______ of the _____________ Office Building, Washington D.C.

Article 2

Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to 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 disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.

This conduct has included one or more of the following:

He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the National Security Agency, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, the contents of private phone calls for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, criminal investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes not authorized by law, or any lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency of electronic surveillance.

He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the offices of the Department of Defense, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the government, and engaged in covert and unlawful activities to unlawfully gather intelligence in violation of domestic prohibitions.

He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavoured to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive, judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful naming of a covert operative of the Central Intelligence Agency, and the cover-up thereof.

In disregard of the rule of law, he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

In all of this, George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore George W. Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.


Adopted ____ to ____ by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.


Article 3

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, George W. Bush, contrary to his oath faithfully to 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 through the use of often-secret Justice Department findings, substituted his own judgment for that of the courts assuming to himself functions and judgments necessary to the proper exercise of the judicial power vested by the Article III of the Constitution in the Supreme Court and the lower Courts established by Congress.

In all of this, George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, George W. Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Adopted ____ to ____ by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

of a sinking administration


thank you gents

:kick:

stamp the letter return to sender and go about "protectin' amurka."

He is caught dead to rights on this one. Hopefully the dems can persevere and keep this issue in his face for as long as it takes.

he always does! Man, I hope they go after him with everything they have available.

Don't whine about spineless Dems 2 weeks from now when you didn't get behind this effort today.

No squirming out of this Mr. President. At least some people in authority are making an attempt to avert disaster.

First to tell him that the people in this part of West Virginia - at least every one I talk to - know the incredibly difficult position the Vice President put him in. To have to break the law to warn of the breaking of the law and then to have to safeguard either his integrity or possibly even his self by secreting away documents to point to the original crime is simply unthinkable.

We know what he has been forced into and we understand. We support him completely. That is what I had to say and if you agree and happen to have free long distance on your cell its 202 224-6472. I can tell you this, its clear they really do appreciate the call.

It only takes a minute.

,...unrelated to terrorist activities.

If they fail to respond, will that be evidence of a conspiracy to obstruct?

We really need to remove this administration, right NOW!!!

Let them come forth with the

"Well look here we found a semiclever way to get around the Law, really, trusssst us, Gonzalez says so"

supposed legal grounds!

Byrd can start wetting his Constitutional knives I think.

:kick: